Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Bildungsroman)

              The novel “Mockingjay” is the third part book of the three part series of the book “The Hunger Games” written by Suzanne Collins. This book picked up from where it left off in the second book “Catching Fire” where she, Finnick and Beetee (former tributes of the hungers games who were sent back into the arena for another fight to the death) escape to District 13 and Peeta, (one of her love interest) Johonna, Enobaria and Annie (also former tributes) were were captured and taken into imprisonment in the Capitol by her enemy, President Snow. When she got back her best friend, Gale (her other love interest), had told her that the Capitol destroyed District 12, her district, after the escaped and only a few people made from District 12 to District 13, which included her mother, her sister, Gale’s family and a couple others. The book starts off with her in the ashes of District 12 with the ruins of her old home and the only thing that remains is the Victory Village. When she went back to the 13 she had to accept the duty of the “Mockingjay” which she has been known as since the first games when she took out the berries to save her and Peeta’s life. But she would only accept the duties of the “Mockingjay” they will protect Peeta and the other tributes that were captured in the Capitol. The president of District 13, Coin didn’t really like Katniss but she knows the only way to keep the rebellions going was to keep her alive so she agreed. They started to do these propos that would show that Katniss was alive because rumors were going around that she had died. They brought her to District 8 where see went to the hospital to shoot for the propos. When they were about to leave, hovercrafts from the Capitol started bombing District 8, they tried to shield Katniss but she and Gale ran away to a roof top to help bring the crafts down. Katniss and Gale’s handy weapons were bow and arrow but they were not just any simply bow and arrow, they were custom made by Beetee, some that explodes, some that cast fire and etc. They took down that hovercrafts but they had already succeeded in bringing down the target, the hospital, there were no survivors. The Capitol had come to bomb District 13 but Peeta had already warned them in a live broadcast where he was then tortured. Katniss was worried that Snow would kill Peeta but her sister Prim and Finnick told her that he wouldn’t because that was  the only way he could torture her. After the booming they went to continue the propos just outside District 13 to show that the Capitol had caused no harm to the “Mockingjay” but when they were shooting them see broke down crying and everyone when they started talking about Peeta and they all knew the only thing to do was to rescue him. After they went to the Capitol and came back Katniss was excited to see Peeta so she went straight to the hospital to see as she was about to hug him, he started to strangle her. She was admitted to the hospital and they hand cuffed Peeta to the hospital bed. She was confused to why he strangled her but Haymitch (mentor) and Pultarch (head gamemaker) told her that the Capitol hijacked him by putting venom in his body so that every memory of her seemed bad. Katniss started training to go to the capitol to fight and she was then assigned to the team she would be working with in the Capitol, The Star team, which included Gale, Finnick, Boggs (her bodyguard) and a couple others from 13. They were sent to the Capitol were the rebels had taken over a section of. In every section of there were pods (traps) that would kill them all. One of the girls from 13 died first so they sent in Peeta after he was recovering for a bit. Trying to get further into the Capitol a lot of them died (8 in 24 hours). When they got to the President Masion the other rebels had already made it in so the war began. Then there was a lot of bombing and her sister who came to rescue to help with the people who were hurt got killed and Katniss went unconscious when she a woke the war was over and they had Captured Snow.  They had assigned her to execute him because she had made a agreement with Coin that she would get to kill Snow because he had taken so much away from her already. She end up talking to Snow and he convinced her that Coin was the one who had set the bombs off that killed her sister. So on the execution day she end up killing Coin instead then she tried to kill herself but Peeta stopped her. They then locked her away in a room where she couldn’t hurt herself and they didn’t need to kill Snow because they had found him dead. Then in a few weeks they appointed the mayor of District 8 to presidency and they sent her back to District 12 with Haymitch to watch over her where they were making repairs. They didn’t punish her because they convinced the people that she was mentally disable. Her mom went off to District 4 to work for a hospital and Gale went to District 2 because he got a good job there. Prim’s cat, buttercup, found his way back to 12 and they started to get along for comfort now that Prim is gone. Peeta came back to District 12 and they all watch out. 15 years later she had 2 kids a girl and a boy with Peeta, even though she didn’t want to have kids, Peeta convinced her into having kids. Over the three books it has shown how Katniss’s responsibilities have grown from having to take care of her family from a young age, to leading a rebellion for their fight for a better life and it has shown how she has grown over the years.

Quotation:  “She’s dead, you stupid cat. She’s dead.” (Collins 386)

Reaction: This was when Prim’s cat, Buttercup, had returned to District 12 and she was yelling at the cat that he has no place there because Prim is not there and this is when she finally admits to the fact that she was dead. I found this part very sad because when Prim died everything went happened so fast, the first bombs went off Prim goes to the rescue and then the second bombs go off killing Prim and knocking Katniss unconscious, there was no time to be sad so when she yelled at the cat she accepted the fact Prim was gone. I also like the fact that Katniss and the cat turned to each other for comfort even though over the years they had hated each other.

Everything Sucks: Losing My Mind and Finding Myself in High School Quest for Cool By Hannah Friendman (biography)

      In the book "Everything Sucks" written by Hannah Friedman starts off talking about her family and the only sibling she had was a monkey named Amelia. Hannah was the firstborn human but Amelia was the firstborn. “You see, I am the firstborn human, but Amelia was the first born."(Page1) Her mom had adopted Amelia when she was working for a program that trained monkeys to assist quadriplegics. Amelia was kidnapped from South Africa by poachers, and then sold to Egyptian merchants who took her teeth out and thought her how to steal. She was then taken to California where she was near death when Hannah's mom adopted her. Her dad was on a music tour and agreed to let her mom keep Amelia for a few weeks but no one knew that she would have lived that long which was twenty-nine years ago. Hannah was a bit annoyed by Amelia at times. She then goes on to talk about her life as a kid: Going through puberty, trying to fit in, in Private school and trying to find friends. She also talks about how she was bullied. She started facing insecurity in High school and became anorexic because she was trying to fit in in this popular group call "The Great Eight." That didn't work out so well for her so she got involved with this guy named Julian and she started smoking. Then she started living another life with this group called the “train gangs” which she then got involve in alcohol. She got a job at a newly opened restaurant as a waitress. Hannah started dating this boy named Adam and decided to have sexual intercourse which brought on some complication which she later regret after the whole school found out about it. She then applied for which she didn’t get into and it broke her heart because she had put in a lot of hard work applying and writing essays. Hannah gets more involve involved in drugs and starts doing cocaine. Her boyfriend caught her doing it and didn’t like the idea at first but was later influenced by her to do it. She was later caught by her parents with a pipe and she lied and said that it was Julian’s. When her mom confronted Julian about it, he said that it wasn’t his and her mom then new that she was the one who stole the money from her dad, which he denied that she would ever do. Her dad was disappointed that she had lied to them about it. Hannah learned that the best way to survive in high school is to be herself. She then wrote an article on her friends in the school newspaper without putting their names in it, which she thought they would appreciate her for but they hated it and started to taunt her. The principal tried to get her expelled by saying that she had sexual intercourse with Julian in the school but her mom got everything fixed. Her boyfriend, Adam, got arrested and she started to cut herself. One day when she was cutting herself she called Julian to help her stop and he kissed her and told her that he was in love with her which came as an surprise to her.

Quotation:“I am the worst daughter in the world.”

Reaction: This was when she had lied to her parents about the pipe and the money stealing and they had found out about it and her dad looked at her in disappointment and she then said that she was the worst daughter. I don’t think that she is the worst daughter in the world because many have done worst, but she is a bad daughter for lying to her parents, having sexual intercourse and doing drugs behind their back. This quote shows that she felt guilty of doing it so maybe in the future she wouldn’t do it again.