Mockingjay

Now that I have some spare moments in my life, I think it is high time I get to that "Mockingjay" review. :)

I was really sad to put this book down, as I had really enjoyed this series so much. Things have gotten intense in Panem and there seems to be more back history that we learn from Katniss about the origins of the Hunger Games and the war that led to its creation.

The story picks up after the events at the Quarter Quell that has led to full scale rebellion from most of the citizens of the District. Katniss's actions in both the Hunger Games and the Quarter Quell have made the Capitol pretty angry. According to their point of view, she has defied them and made them look stupid. The whole purpose of the Hunger Games was for the Capitol to control the citizens and prevent them from trying to gang up and overthrow them. And in this book, we see exactly why the Capitol fears this.

As Katniss recovers from the Quarter Quell in the underground section of District 13, she is asked by some of the leaders of 13 to become the "Mockingjay" and the symbol of the rebellion. The bird that she represents is an example of the Capitol's attempt to keep an eye on the citizens.

A cross between female mockingbirds and "jabberjays", a bird engineered during the Dark Days to spy on the rebels by repeating human words back to the Capitol. The rebels discovered this and would feed the birds lies, therefore rendering the birds useless. The Capitol scrapped this idea and let the birds roam free, where they mated with the mockingbirds and created a hybrid that could replicate songs and not words.

Getting back to the story, Katniss agrees and they begin to plan an assault on the Capitol, by systematically taking over the districts and rendering the Capitol weak. As they prepare for the Capitol's demise, Katniss learns that Peeta is being held prisoner in the Capitol and is being used as leverage by President Snow in order to bend Katniss to his will. When Peeta is rescued, she sees that he has been poisoned with tracker jacker venom and brainwashed to kill her. With some rehabilitation, he returns to his normal self and Katniss realizes how much she cares for him. One by one, the districts begin to rebel and join Katniss and her movement, which leads to Katniss's ultimate plan of getting to the Capitol and killing Snow.

I can't spoil this book any further than I have gotten to so far. It was such a fun read and I felt like I was right in the midst of everything. I kept wondering what was going to happen next, and coming up for ways to get into the Capitol or which of the districts would be a critical loss for the Capitol. I really enjoyed it and I was sad to read the last chapter. The epilogue was nice, as it provided some glimpse in the future after the war and the discontinuation of the Hunger Games altogether.

Definitely pick this one up. You won't be disappointed.

Happy Reading!

-Alexandra

Answering the "Why" in "Why do you write?"

A few months back I subscribed to a newsletter called "Funds For Writers" which provides amateur writers with ways to make some money off of their work. It is run by author Hope Clark, and she pays writers to write articles for the newsletter about becoming a writer. I thought I could write something  for her newsletter so I put this together and sent it off to her. She passed on it because it was "lightweight" and she was looking for more "how-to, reference, and tangible guidance pieces". I  figure since it never got published in a newsletter, I could share it with all of my readers.

Answering the “Why” in “Why do you write?”

By Alexandra Stockton

I’ve been writing since I learned my alphabet as a young child. I would just find a blank paper and make up a story that appealed to me and put it down. I never gave it the slightest bit of thought, and looking back at those stories, I’m glad I didn’t. Those stories seemed to capture my imagination it its purest form right there on the paper.

It wasn’t until I hit my teenage years that I started writing again, this time a little more self-conscious about what I was writing and more private. I never let anyone read what I wrote, mostly because I thought that other people wouldn’t really enjoy it. I remember distinctly bringing my composition book with me to a Girl Scout sleepover, so I could write before bed, and one girl, Katie asked to read what I was writing. I timidly handed over my composition book and she read it. The next morning when she had returned it to me, she said “I liked your story. I would love to read what happens next.” I was very surprised that another person liked what I had written, let alone ask for more stories. That fueled my writing just a little more. In addition to the short fiction, I branched out into poetry and screenplays.

During my sophomore year of high school I enrolled in the county community college to supplement my homeschool education. While I was there I decided to pursue a degree in English to enhance my skills as a writer. I found the creative writing classes to be challenging to me. Not only did I have to produce something, but I had to make copies for my classmates and professor to read a critique. And it was in those creative writing classes that I was introduced to this question:

“Why do you write?”

It seems like a very harmless question, but it is a very difficult one to answer. And any answer you give sounds sort of false. For me the answer came from a fictional author in one of my favorite books, The Book of the Banshee by Anne Fine.

In the book, Will Flowers is caught in a war between his teenage sister Estelle who has seemed to become a howling banshee of a person overnight and his parents. He spends the majority of the book recounting the scary situation at home and comparing it to the life of a person from a book he happened to pick up at school, which takes place during World War I. He also describes a visit to his school from Alicia Whitley, the author of his favorite series who gives him the idea to write about his life experiences. In one scene in the book, Ms. Whitley says to the students “Write for the reader in you.” Suddenly the answer seemed so obvious. I write because I love to read, and I was always running out of books to read, so writing my own story was like having the best of both worlds.

 That line stuck with me long after I read the book and has helped me answer that simple question: “Why do you write?” Now as a writer on the verge of finishing her first novel, it has become easier and easier to write. I just have to figure out what the reader in me would want to happen next. In some ways, I continually inspire myself, which makes my work so much more than words on a page. It's a life journey.