Movie: Mockingjay Part 2

Mockingjay Part 2 begins with Katniss recovering from the attack by Peeta who has been brainwashed by the Capitol into believing that she must be killed. Numerous attempts to deprogram Peeta have so far been unsuccessful. The state of Peeta leads Katniss to reaffirm her desire to kill President Snow and end the war by taking over the Capitol.

At a meeting, President Alma Coin along with Gale and many others realize they need to take out the Capitol's weapons arsenal, a mountain stronghold known as "the Nut" because it is impossible to take out. Gale suggests to President Coin and her military advisers that since they are unlikely to capture the Nut, instead they bomb the mountain and seal it with rock slides, thereby rendering it useless. However, sealing the mountain will trap those inside, including many people from District 2 who are forced to work there. This is unacceptable to Katniss. They decide to leave the train tracks open so that a train carrying survivors can leave the mountain.

Katniss travels to District 2 with Gale to meet with rebels. After the bombing, Katniss and Gale, along with their team meet the survivors but Katniss is shot and wounded, placing her back in sickbay in District 13. She attempts once again to help Peeta, but his brainwashing remains too strong. President Coin refuses to agree to Katniss's request to be placed on a team that will be entering the Capitol as part of the attack. At Finn and Annie's wedding, Katniss takes up Johanna's suggestion; she sneaks on board a transport and arrives at District 2 where she meets up with Gale. Deciding not to bring her back, Coin has her assigned to a team headed by Commander Boggs. The squad also includes Lt. Jackson, Gale, Finnick, the Leeg twins and Cressida. Although they will be part of the invasion team, they learn that the Capital has been rigged by its gamers with pods designed to maim and kill. The Holo shows the location of most of the pods but not all of them. After encountering the first pod, Coin sends Peeta to join Katniss's squad. Although he seems calmer now, Peeta is handcuffed and watched closely by Finnick.

Unfortunately the group encounters an unseen pod that kills Boggs who as he is dying transfers command of the Holo to Katniss. The group triggers an even more lethal second pod which seals the area and releases a sea of black tar. As they are racing towards a building, Peeta attacks Katniss who fights him off. Peeta pushes a soldier into the tar and he is caught in ropes and feathers and strung up. The group manages to find safety in the building, but one of the Leeg twins has been mortally wounded. Her sister stays with her while Katniss and her crew leave just as the Capitol soldiers arrive. They watch from safety while the building is destroyed.

Jackson had tried to secure the Holo from Katniss but she lies to the group convincing them that she has a mission to kill Snow and therefore needs the Holo. In reality, this is her own plan. To avoid further devastating pods, which are everywhere, the group heads into the sewers. Pollux leads them through the sewers which he knows well from his time as a slave in the Capitol.

At first the Capitol and President Snow believe that Katniss has been killed and broadcast her death in the hopes of discouraging the rebels. However, she is soon spotted on a camera in the sewers and Snow orders the attacks to be moved underground.This leads to a horrific attack by mutant mutts. The survivors are sheltered at the home of Tigris where Katniss reveals that she has no mission to kill President Snow.

When Snow invites the citizens of the Capitol to come to his mansion for safety, Gale and Katniss, disguised as Capitol citizens join the exodus. However, just as they near the mansion, the rebels attack.  The ending of the war has devastating consequences for Katniss and reveals the true character of Gale and the real motives of President Coin.

Discussion

Mockingjay Part 2 is a satisfying conclusion to the Hunger Games movies, in general keeping with the  theme and atmosphere of the novels. As in the previous movies, Katniss, was well portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence, as a young woman deeply traumatized by war and the loss of her community and her home. Despite this trauma, Katniss becomes determined to see the rebellion to its end and to assassinate President Snow.

Katniss's distrust of Coin, whom she is warned about by President Snow after his capture,  leads her to correctly assess her situation in the new Panem - she is a liability to Coin.  Katniss shockingly decides to side with Coin on reconvening the games, this time using people from the Capitol, even though she recognizes this as a continuation of the brutality Snow instituted. Katniss knows that if she goes against Coin she will be murdered. Instead, she bides her time, and strikes at the most unlikely moment, thus re-directing the path of the rebellion towards peace and justice. It is an action that surprises even Haymitch.

Mockingjay Part 2 effectively shows the final journey of Katniss from reluctant rebel, to a warrior with a conscience, to war hero to mother and wife. Katniss reluctantly volunteered for the games to save her younger sister, Prim, from certain death. (Ironically, that sacrifice seems worthless in light of Prim's death in the final battle for the Capitol.) In doing so and winning the games with Peeta, she becomes a symbol of resistance against the Capitol, when all she really wants is to go home and live her life. However, Haymitch makes it clear to her, that the games will never, ever really be over. The only way is to depose Snow and stop the Hunger Games.  Katniss even tries to bargain several times with President Snow, but when he shows just how far he's willing to go to hold on to power, she knows he must be stopped. Eventually Katniss loses her connection to Gale who is willing to do anything, to sacrifice anyone, to stop Snow. Katniss does not share this belief.


With the unexpected death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who played Plutarch Heavensbee the Capitol's gamesmaker who joined the revolution, the producers faced a huge dilemma: what to do about his character who was so integral to the storyline? Scenes already shot with Hoffman were retained, those not yet shot, were rewritten. Moviegoers will miss him but this was handled correctly.

There is plenty of action in Mockingjay Part 2 and some frightening scenes for younger viewers. But the movie ends on a hopeful note: Katniss and Peeta share a life together and the fact that they have two children demonstrates they believe in the future. Overall a great conclusion to an excellent book and movie series.

Worlds We Make by Megan Crewe

This novel is the final book in the Fallen World trilogy, a series of novels set in Canada, about a plague devastated world and one girl's struggle to save it.

Kaelyn, Leo, Gav, Tobias, Justin and Anika have left Toronto and are on their way to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. Kaelyn has a cooler containing vials of vaccine serum plus her father's notes on how to sequence the vaccine. She had hoped to find help in Toronto, but the city was in chaos, controlled by a man named Michael and his gang known as the Wardens. When the Wardens learned of Kaelyn's vaccine, they became determined to steal it. Now the six of them are running for their lives, hoping to reach Atlanta without another run-in with the Wardens.

The black SUV the fled Toronto in, becomes disabled with a flat tire, forcing them to stop at a home. During their stop, Gav wakens and becomes very ill, turning so violent they have to lock him in a room in the house they've taken shelter in. He dies overnight and the next morning Tobias' illness begins to manifest itself.

Meanwhile, Leo attempts to contact the CDC via radio, but only manages to receive a transmission from the Wardens who are listening in and warn them that they will take the vaccine. Nevertheless, Kae and her friends forge onward. When they run low on fuel, they stop at a home and Kae orders Leo to take all the gasoline stored in the owner's shed, even though she understands how this person will feel when he returns to find he's been robbed. Kae knows Leo wonders what kind of person she's becoming - someone who must push her conscience down to do the things required in a world where each must look out for themselves. When they attempt to contact the CDC again, they reach Dr. Sheryl Guzman. However, when they explain to her what they have and what they are trying to do, Guzman is skeptical. Kae proves to Guzman who she is and that it was her father, microbiologist Dr. Gordon Weber, who made the first vaccine. Guzman tells Kae that she must make it to Atlanta on her own but that when she gets into the city to contact her and she will help her make her way to the CDC. She also hints that things are not stable where the CDC is situated.

As it turns out the Wardens are hot on the group's trail. When Kae and the group go out to search for Tobias who has left the group, they discover the Wardens searching a house where they have parked the SUV. Barely managing to escape and leaving Tobias to his fate, they find themselves being hunted by Michael and the Wardens in helicopters. In what becomes a game of cat and mouse with Michael, Kae's group finds themselves in a race against time to make it to Atlanta. Complicating matters is that fact that both groups have indicated to Kae that their will be restrictions on who gets the vaccine once it's developed. Kae decides that she can have a say in they type of world that will exist once the plague has been brought under control. Can she devise a plane that ensures that regardless of whether Michael or the CDC makes the vaccine, no one will be denied treatment.

Worlds We Make is a fitting conclusion to Crewe's trilogy, but it is predictable and bland. The linear storyline throws no surprises and even the deaths of two of the characters are to be expected. Crewe wraps up her story in a tidy manner, ending on a positive note. There's nothing special here, except that readers of the previous two novels will simply want to know how it all ends.

There are no especially brilliant characters and even the villain, Michael, isn't a particularly bad person. Perhaps the deaths of too many characters in this trilogy ultimately worked against the storyline.

Book Details:
Worlds We Make by Megan Crewe
New York: Hyperion   2014
280 pp.

Fractured by Teri Terry

Fractured is the second book in the Slated series by Canadian-born author, Teri Terry.

Kyla is confused by bits of memories that begin surfacing after a violent attack by a man named Wayne Best in the woods near her home. Slateds are not supposed to be violent but Kyla is not an ordinary Slated. For one thing her Levo does not work and she doesn't behave like a typical Slated. Kyla begins to have memories of someone named Rain and she starts to realize that she is someone else other than Kyla.

She also begins having memories of a man named Nico. Eventually Kyla remembers and recognizes that her biology teacher, Mr. Hatten, is the enigmatic Nico. Nico finally confronts Kyla and asks her if she remembers who she is. Nico explains to Kyla what happened to her, how he trained her as part of the radical group, Free UK, so that she would survive Slating and recover her memories.

Kyla was born Lucy who was left handed. She joined Free UK when she was thirteen and her left-handedness was changed by Nico (by smashing a brick onto her hand) so that she would be right handed. When she joined Free UK Lucy took the name Rain. Rain taken by the Lorders and was Slated but as a right-handed person. "How Slating is done depends on handedness. Memory access is hemisphere dominated and linked to handedness." So when Rain was Slated, the process did not work because it was done as if she was right-handed when she was really left-handed. This protected her from the procedure.She then returned as a Slated girl named Kyla. Rains memories are intact, just waiting to return which they are now doing gradually.

Kyla continues to meet Nico on and off, but she has mixed feelings about him. She feels alternately repelled and attracted to him but is not certain why. He tells her she is his special one and explains to her, her involvement in the Free UK group. Yet Kyla can't help but feel that Nico is hiding something from Kyla.

Kyla also meets a new guy named Cameron who lives across the street with his aunt and uncle. Cam seems determined to forge a friendship with Kyla, one she's not too interested in developing. At the same time, Tori, Ben's ex-girlfriend reappears, with her Levo removed. Everyone thought that Tori had been terminated but we learn that Tori was spared this fate by a Lorder who "rescued" her and kept her in his home where she was forced to do certain things. Tori murdered this man and escaped and is taken by Kyla to Nico who hides her at a Free UK safehouse.

Nico asks Kyla to learn the layout of the New London Hospital where she continues to go weekly to meet with Dr. Lysander. He also introduces her to an old acquaintance, Katran, who Kyla (as Rain) trained with in Free UK. Because Kyla is experiencing so many difficulties sorting out her identities, Katran warns her to leave Free UK, that Nico has been using her and has had something done to her by a special doctor, Dr. Craig, who has caused her to have two identities. Katran warns her to leave the Free UK group because he suspects Nico's plans for her will place her in danger.

Kyla's situation becomes even more complicated when she is grabbed by the Lorders and taken to see Agent Coulson who tells her they have been monitoring her unusual activities. He knows she is working with AGT (what the Lorders call Free UK) and tells her that if she wants to see Ben again, she will act as a double agent and supply them with intelligence on the terrorist group's activities. Kyla decides not to tell Nico about her meeting with Coulson and to give Coulson only the information he needs while warning Ben.

However, things take a desperate turn when Kyla discovers that Nico and Free UK are planning kidnappings and assassinations, specifically targeting the Armstrong Memorial Day event which her family will attend. This event is in remembrance of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the assassination of Kyla's current mother's father who was Prime Minister at that time. Nico tells Kyla that she must attend the function because she is the only Free UK agent who can infiltrate such a function. He does not tell her what the purpose of her presence will be.

A series of events now happen to move things forward. Nico makes contact with Kyla's mother and tells her that he will provide her with information on her lost son Robert, who was removed in a school bombing years ago, if she makes a statement against the Lorders and Slating at the Armstrong Memorial Day. In order to impress Nico that she can live up to his expectations for her, Kyla helps Nico and Katran capture Dr. Lysander. She also makes the discovery that Ben is alive and is being trained as a Lorder agent at a special facility. When she sneaks onto the facility to meet him she learns that he does not remember her.

When Kyla is told what her mission will be during the Armstrong Memorial Day she struggles to accept what Nico wants of her. Instead, she begins to think on her own and chooses a different path which has repercussions for all involved including Kyla and her family. These events also result in Kyla remembering more of her past, especially when she was Lucy and before she became Rain.

The beginning of this novel was at times confusing; it took several chapters to get into the story and to begin to understand what was happening with Kyla. Terry complicates her novel by having Kyla have three different identities - Lucy, Rain and Kyla. To some characters she is Rain, to others she is Kyla.

In Fractured, Kyla struggles to uncover the mystery of her three identities and her past. We learn that she has been taken from her family and essentially experimented with so that the Slating process will not fully work and so that she can be used by a terrorist organization. The result is a young girl who has a fractured identity and a fragmented memory which she begins to regain as events trigger their recall. Kyla begins to piece everything together with information provided by Nico and Katran, as well as memories that surface from dreams and situations she experiences. Kyla is very conflicted, wanting to please Nico, but also recognizing that if she does what he wants innocent people who have been trying to help her will be harmed. Kyla has a serious moral dilemma to resolve but she proves she's up to the task, despite having little context to make her decisions. She hardly knows Nico, or Dr. Lysander or her mother or father and she has to decide whom to trust.

Terry crafts Nico as a manipulative, cunning man who uses people to achieve his goals of destabilizing the Lorders and ending Slating. Although his intent is a noble one, his means are questionable at best and there is no doubt that he has done considerable harm to Kyla. The way he treats her is creepy and disturbing and Terry effectively relays this to her readers.

There are plenty of other unknowns in the story besides Kyla's past. Who has betrayed Kyla to Agent Coulson? Who is Cam and why is he so intent upon seeing Kyla? What has happened to Ben and what exactly is he involved in now?

Readers will find Fractured takes some time to get going, but Terry does explain what has happened to Kyla fairly early on in the novel. This allows the story to move forward while maintaining Kyla's struggle to understand her past.

The third novel is due out next year and should provide a fitting conclusion to this interesting, unique dystopia.

Book Details:
Fractured by Teri Terry
New York: Nancy Paulsen Books 2013
330 pp.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire is the second novel in the Hunger Games trilogy. It opens with Katniss and Peeta preparing to go on the Victory Tour which occurs halfway between the annual Hunger Games. Both Katniss and Peeta now have homes in the Victor's Village  with Katniss sharing her home with her mother and sister, Prim. 

Katniss would like nothing better than to forget the Games, "But the Victory Tour makes that impossible...it is the Capitol's way of keeping the horror fresh and immediate." She dreads being the star of a show that celebrates this horror knowing she will be facing families whose children she killed to survive.

Before meeting up with Effie Trinket, Cinna and the others to travel on the tour, Katniss visits the woods to check on the snare line for her friend Gale Hawthorne.  Gale now works in the coal mine every day except Sunday so he has no time to take in extra food for his family. Katniss has taken over this responsibility.  Katniss takes the snare line kills to Gale's mother, Hazelle and then visits the Hob to buy white liquor for Haymitch.  At Haymitch's house, she rouses him from a drunken slumber. Peeta arrives but it is evident that things are not well between him and Katniss, something Haymitch notes.

The situation is even more troubling when Katniss arrives at her house to discover an unexpected visit from President Snow. Snow indicates to Katniss her act with the poisonous berries in the Hunger Games, where she and Peeta threatened to kill themselves by eating the berries, has become a huge problem for the Capitol. Seneca Crane, the head Gamemaker did not kill them both but allowed two victors. While those in the Capitol viewed this as an act of love, in the Districts is was seen as an act of defiance. He tells her that "...if a girl from District 12 of all places can defy the Capitol and walk away unharmed, what is to stop them from doing the same?..What is to prevent, say, an uprising?" This comes as a complete surprise to Katniss who has no way of knowing what is happening outside of District 12. Snow warns Katniss that should the Capitol lose control over the districts, the entire system would collapse.

Snow reveals that he knows Katniss doesn't love Peeta and that she disappears into the woods every Sunday with her "cousin", Gale Hawthorne. Katniss and Peeta have resumed their cool relationship while she has continued to meet with Gale whom she considers as a good friend. He then threatens her that if the situation is not resolved satisfactorily and convincingly there will be deadly repercussions. President Snow warns Katniss that the upcoming Victory Tour is the only opportunity she will have to turn things around by demonstrating her love for Peeta thereby confirming the berries incident was an act of love rather than defiance. This will reduce the potential for uprisings. She agrees to this but Snow warns her she must convince him. Just before he leaves, Snow indicates that he knows about "the kiss" - a reference to the one time Katniss and Gale kissed in the woods. This tells her that she is being watched more closely than she realized.

Katniss tells no one about her conversation with President Snow until she is on the train setting out on the tour. On the victory tour several important things happen. When Katniss confides in Haymitch about her conversation with President Snow, he tells her she will never have a future with Gale and that she will have to marry Peeta. As future mentors, each year their "romance" and private life will be revisited. She will have to marry Peeta if she wants to protect those she loves. This is something Katniss had not realized. 

From the beginning, the Victory Tour is a disaster. When their tour arrives at District Eleven, Katniss and Peeta announce that one month of their winnings will go to the families of the two tributes from that district (Rue and Thresh). As well when Katniss apologizes and thanks the District for their support she is honored by Rue's mockingjay whistle and the three-fingered salute, considered by the Capitol to be an act of dissent. As they are leaving the stage, Katniss witnesses the man who initiated the mockingjay whistle being shot in the head. Intending to show her gratitude to the people of District 11, Katniss realizes that instead she has elicited dissent. 

At this point, Katniss and Haymitch tell Peeta about President Snow's threats and he is understandably furious. As the tour continues, Katniss recognizes the defiance of the people in Districts 8, 4 and 3, who see her as a symbol of resistance, chanting her name. When it ends in the Capitol, knowing they have not succeeded in quelling the defiance, Peeta and Katniss attempt a public marriage proposal. But according to President Snow, this is not enough. Desperate, Katniss decides she will flee into the woods, taking her family, as well as Gale and Peeta and their families and Haymitch.

At the party at President Snow's mansion, Katniss meets the new Head Gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee. As they are dancing, Plutarch shows her the face of his watch which has a mockingjay image, exactly like the pin Katniss wore during the Hunger Games. This strange encounter is puzzling to Katniss but she is preoccupied with her plan to escape from District 12 and so she doesn't realize what Plutarch is attempting to reveal to her. 

When Katniss returns to District 12 she visits Madge, the daughter of the district's mayor. In the mayor's home she is shocked to see television coverage of an uprising in District 8 which is brutally suppressed. In the woods, Katniss meets up with Gale who initially agrees to leave, but when he learns about the uprising in District 8, he changes his mind. Gale is determined to become involved in fighting against the Capitol and won't abandon those families who cannot leave.  Gale, now furious, returns home only to be caught by the new Head Peacekeeper, Romulus Thread with Unfortunately, Gale is arrested and whipped by Thread, a brutal man who is determined to enforce the Capitol's laws. 

After the Hob burns down and as Gale is recovering, Katniss meets two refugees in the woods, Bonnie and Twill who have fled the uprising in District 8. They show Katniss a round flatbread with the image of a mockingjay stamped on it, telling her they are on her side. Bonnie and Twill provide Katniss with more details about the District 8 uprising. They tell her they are headed for District 13 which they believe survived the war years ago, because they moved underground. Katniss is doubtful but Bonnie explains that District 13 has been left alone because they have nuclear weapons.  After helping Bonnie and Twill, Katniss discovers that in order to return home she must climb over the now electrified fence. Days later Katniss begins to suspect that Bonnie was telling the truth about District 13, because she is able to confirm Bonnie's assertion that any broadcast by the Capitol from District 13 is staged.

While Katniss is prepping for her bridal shoot, she learns that there has probably been a revolt in District 4 as well as District 3 and Haymitch reveals that District 7 and 11 have also rebelled. However, any thoughts of rebellion are cut short when President Snow announces that for the 75th anniversary of the Hunger Games, the tributes will come from the existing pool of victors from previous games. This means that Katniss and either Haymitch or Peeta will have to compete again in the arena. Katniss cannot bear to face the horrors of the arena once again, but she decides that since she and Peeta will likely be the tributes from District 12, they must work to save Peeta. But unknown to Katniss and Peeta, this time the games will have a very different ending, if the rebels' plans work

Discussion

Catching Fire is the second novel in the Hunger Games trilogy. It is well paced and unlike many second novels in a trilogy, it is well-written, furthering the plot while building suspense for the final novel. Catching Fire portrays the events that set up Katniss Everdeen as the Mockingjay, the symbol of rebellion against the Capitol. 

The novel picks up the story approximately six months after the Hunger Games. Katniss and Peeta now have homes in the Victor Village, joining Haymitch who has been living there alone for years. Katniss and Peeta have resumed their cool relationship: Katniss remains cordial but indifferent to Peeta and is still focused on Gale Hawthorne who now works in the coal mines. But she quickly learns that any kind of life with Gale will never happen because the pretense of0 romance between herself and Peeta must be played out to the fullest if the three families are to survive unharmed.

In this second novel, the story focuses on Katniss gradually becoming the symbol of resistance to the Capitol, something she really doesn't want. The groundwork for this plotline was set up in the first novel when Katniss was given a mockingjay pin by her friend, Madge who knows only that it belonged to her aunt and was in their family for years. The mockingjay likely became a quiet symbol of resistance many years earlier. The mockingjay is a new bird that arose from the mating between the male jabberjays which were a Capitol muttation and weapon, and the districts' native mockingbirds. The mockingjays went on to survive and replace the jabberjays. As a result, people viewed the mockingjay as a symbol of overcoming the  Capitol. Katniss wore Madge's pin during the Games, believing it was simply a token from her district not realizing its significance. President Snow most certainly does.

Rue's mockingjay song, continues the mockingjay as a sign of resistance When Katniss and Peeta arrive in District 11 for the first part of the Victory Tour, they are greeted with Rue's mockingjay song as a show of support for what Katniss did in the arena. This results in brutal action by the Peacekeepers. The mockingjay appears unexpectedly in the Capitol when Katniss meets Head Gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee, who reveals the bird on his watch face. At this time Katniss simply believes  the Head Gamemaker is being superficial. 

However, Katniss doesn't want to become the face of resistance. She wants to flee. She believes it's her fault that the situation is becoming volatile. But Gale tells her, "You haven't hurt people -- you've given them an opportunity. They just have to be brave enough to take it. There's already been talk in the mines. People who want to fight. Don't you see? It's happening. It's finally happening! If there's an uprising in District Eight, why not here?"  

However Katniss begins to reconsider when District 12 is targeted by the Capitol. The new Head Peacekeeper brutally whips Gale for poaching, burns down the Hob and has the fence permanently electrified. Katniss begins to see that running away is an act of cowardice. While she never thought what she did with the berries in the Hunger Games was an act of defiance, she begins to realize that "it isn't enough to keep myself or my family or my friends alive by running away. Even if I could, it wouldn't fix anything....At some point, you have to stop running away. Even if I could, It wouldn't fix anything. It wouldn't stop people from being hurt the way Gale was today...At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead. The hard thing is finding the courage to do it." Katniss realizes that there is no way to protect those she loves, that she must act and that Gale is right. "He's also right that since I have set it in motion, I could do so much. Although I have no idea what exactly that should be. But deciding not to run away is a crucial first step."

It is when Katniss encounters District 8 refugees, Twill and Bonnie who show her a wafer of bread with the mockingjay insignia and tell her "It means we're on your side." that she begins to wonder "Am I unwittingly the face of the hoped-for rebellion? Has the mockingjay on my pin become a symbol of resistance?"

The 75th Hunger Games and third Quarter Quell see the male and female tributes reaped from the existing pool of victors. This is done "...as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol..." Katniss realizes as a victor, she and the others "...are the very embodiment of hope where there is no hope. And now twenty-three of us will be killed to show how even that hope was an illusion."  It is clear that President Snow is determined to stifle the growing flames of rebellion against the Capitol. If he can kill off the victors, no one has any hope.

What Katniss is not aware of however, is that there are many people involved within the Capitol and amongst the victors who are working to advance the rebellion.  In the Capitol, preparing for the Third Quarter Quell Hunger Games, both Peeta and Katniss, their prep teams and the other victor tributes commit acts of rebellion. During their time with the Gamemakers, Peeta paints a picture of Rue to hold the Gamemakers accountable for killing her while Katniss hangs a dummy of Seneca Crane who was murdered by Snow to show she's not a game piece in their Games. Katniss wants to give hope to the rebels by making it clear that she's defying the Capitol the end. She doesn't want "...to play the Hunger Games by the Capitol's rules." She knows Snow wants her and Peeta dead but Katniss is determined that Peeta survive because he can win people to the rebellion.  

Cinna takes rebellion to the next level by reworking her wedding dress chosen by President Snow so that Katniss becomes the mockingjay - the symbol of the rebellion. And Peeta stirs up the Capitol even further by claiming not only are he and Katniss married but that she is pregnant. This causes chaos with all the victors joining hands "...in what must be the first public show of unity since the Dark Days." Everyone in the districts and the Capitol will have seen this unexpected act. Haymitch tells them that "Even the idea of opposing the Capitol's agenda is a source of confusion for the people here..."  Katniss knows Snow will not back down and cancel the games but that he will hit back hard. He begins by killing Cinna as Katniss is launched into the arena. 

It soon becomes evident that some of the victors are working to help Katniss and Peeta - something Katniss notes but cannot explain. She is puzzled by Finnick's apparent willingness to help her and Peeta: he doesn't kill her at the Cornucopia, and he saves Peeta's life later on. She also realizes that Beetee is working to destroy the arena's force field, although Katniss believes it is just an act of rebellion when in fact it allows District 13 to rescue her, Beetee and Finnick.

On her way to District 13, Katniss learns the truth about what is happening, that there was a larger plan by the rebels to save her and Peeta with the help of tributes from Districts 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 11. She learns that Plutarch Heavensbee has been working with the rebels for years - the reason for the mockingjay on his watch -  and that she has become the face of the rebellion. This enrages Katniss who feels used. "It's an awful lot to take in, this elaborate plan in which I was a piece, just as I was meant to be a piece in the Hunger Games. Used without consent, without knowledge. At least in the Hunger Games, I knew I was being played with." 

Plutarch explains that the tributes were working to keep her alive.  "We had to save you because you're the mockingjay, Katniss...While you live, the revolution lives."   Katniss begins to realize her role. "The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol's plans. The symbol of the rebellion." She never understood nor was she meant to understand.

 

Collins continues to develop the main characters in this novel as believable, unique people who are faced with difficult choices. Katniss is struggling to process her experiences in the Hunger Games and her changing relationships with both Gale and Peeta, as well as with her mother and her sister Prim. Peeta, who is honorable and good,  and who loves Katniss, must process betrayal. Gale, who is Katniss's closest friend, is fueled by such intense anger that he's determined to be a part of any rebellion. Effie Trinket is the face of the Capitol, seemingly shallow and yet not quite indifferent to the suffering of the tributes, especially Katniss. She is beginning to view Peeta, Katniss and Haymitch differently.

The ending is the perfect setup for the final novel, Mockingjay. With Peeta and Johanna now prisoners in the Capitol, and District 12 bombed and burned to oblivion, Katniss must come to terms with what has happened. Will she step forward, to become the face of the rebellion ? How will the inner conflict she is experiencing over Gale and Peeta be resolved? This trilogy is likely to become a classic in the canon of young adult literature and unlike many book to film endeavours, appears to have a decent movie adaptation as well.

Book Details:
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Inc.     2009
391 pp.

The Lives We Lost by Megan Crewe

The Lives We Lost is the second book in the post-apocalyptic Fallen Worlds trilogy by Canadian author, Megan Crewe. Kaelyn's friend, Leo, arrives unexpectedly on the island ferry with news about the mainland. To the shock of everyone, Leo tells those on the island that the virus had infected nearly everyone in both Canada, the United States, and most likely the world. Everyone is just as badly off as those on the island and help will not be forthcoming.

As the pandemic continues to rage, Kaelyn is now sharing a house with her boyfriend, Gav, her cousin Meredith, and Tessa and the recently returned Leo. When Kaelyn finds the keys to her father's research center, she decides to investigate to see if he had made any progress in developing a treatment for the virus. She finds the lab intact, her father's notes on his research into a cure, and several vials of vaccine. Apparently her father injected himself with vaccine three weeks before he was murdered, so Kaelyn feels certain that he must have found an antidote for the illness.

Kaelyn approaches Nell at the hospital, telling her about the find and asking her if she can make more. But Nell tells Kaelyn that she doesn't have the expertise. So Kaelyn decides that she must travel to the mainland to find someone who can replicate her father's work and produce more vaccine.

Initially Kaelyn and Gav decide they will make the journey to Ottawa in the hopes of locating scientists. But when the island is attacked by a military helicopter, they along with Leo, Meredith, and Tessa flee, with the help of a mainlander who came to warn them. This man, Tobias Rawls, is a young soldier from a nearby, secret military base on mainland Nova Scotia. Tobias has an armoured vehicle and he is asked to join them on their trek to Ottawa. After scavenging supplies from nearby stores, the group sets out.

As expected, things do not go as planned. Just as they enter New Brunswick, they run out of gas. When the group goes to look for fuel, their truck is vandalized and they must now walk on foot to Ottawa. Packing as much supplies as possible onto sleds they continue their journey on foot by following a major highway. However, those who vandalized them are not so eager to see them leave. Kaelyn's group narrowly escapes these people who are armed and driving a green van, by hiding in the forest by the highway. They continue onward traveling in the woods adjacent to the highway until they arrive at a hidden colony run by Hilary Cloutier. The colony was once an artist's colony for painters, writers, and composers to spend some time working on their craft. At the colony they meet a woman from Ottawa who tells them that traveling to the capital will be pointless because the government and scientists have abandoned the city.

So Kaelyn and her friends, Gav, Leo, and Tobias decide to travel to Toronto because of its numerous hospitals and the higher probability of locating researchers who might be able to make vaccine. Kaelyn decides to leave Meredith with Tessa who has opted to stay behind at the colony. But before they can set out, the unknown people in the van search the colony. Everyone hides, the vigilantes leave and the group manages to flee safely, although they have now unwittingly picked up Hilary's son, Justin, an unpredictable teenager who doesn't fully understand the dangers involved.

Kaelyn's goal now is to try to arrive safely in Toronto with the vaccine. But Kaelyn has an unknown group pursuing her and they seem to know that she has a vaccine. When they arrive in Toronto, Gav falls ill with the virus. Leo and Kaelyn learn that a man from British Columbia, Michael, has risen to take control of every area he passes through by offering food and medicine to those who will side with him. Known as Michael's Wardens, they are now in pursuit of Kaelyn. Can she outwit her pursuers and keep the vaccine from falling into the wrong hands?Can Kaelyn save both Gav and Tobias?

Crewe's novel is a decent second installment in the Fallen World series. Kaelyn and her group must deal with the winter weather, a lack of food, the ever present danger of contracting the virus, and the knowledge that they are being pursued by hostile survivors. However, for the most part, any hardships the group encounters seem to be easily remedied and any suspense created by their pursuers is not sustained. Instead the focus is on the main characters having to accept the fact that the lives they once had are gone forever - a point Kaelyn returns to again and again. They are hopeful that a vaccine might make their lives what they once were.

" 'I don't want our lives to stay like this, ' he said. 'I don't know if this vaccine is going to make a difference, but it could. It's the best chance we've got. I want to fight for that....' "

Kaelyn is presented as a strong female character who, although having doubts, generally seems completely determined to find someone who can replicate her father's vaccine even though she's not certain that the vaccine works. (There is a hint that it does because both Gav and Tobias were not innoculated and by the end of the novel, they are now sick. Tessa and Leo were and remain healthy.) Even when she witnesses the unintended murder of the three people tailing them, she seems to quickly recover. Even when Gav becomes desperately ill, Kaelyn still remains focused on her goal - to get the vaccines to someone who can make more of the same.

The basic storyline is somewhat predictable - we knew that both Gav and Tobias would likely sicken after Gav refuses the vaccine and Kaelyn doesn't offer Tobias an inoculation. And we know it's predictable that they would be pursued by someone wanting what they have. Having an army man who just happens to be a crack shot,  along for the adventure turns out to come in quite handy too. There's the hint of a love triangle, with Kaelyn loving Gav, but unable to admit to herself that she is attracted to her best friend, Leo who is put out when his girlfriend, Tessa, seems more interested in gardening than being with him. But it all makes for an enjoyable read and a suspenseful but hanging ending to the second novel.

Book Details:
The Lives We Lost by Megan Crewe
New York: Hyperion    2013
276 pp.

The Darkest MInds by Alexandra Bracken

The Darkest Minds is a fascinating science fiction novel, with a very unique premise. After the prologue set in the present, the novel opens by backtracking to when Ruby was ten years old. All around her, her classmates and friends are sickening and dying with what was first called Everhart's Disease but which eventually came to be known as IAAN - Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration. Children first began getting sick when Ruby was in Grade 4 and her first experience of it was seeing her classmate, Grace, drop dead in class.

But Ruby soon discovers that the adults, including her parents are terrified of the children who have not sickened and died. So terrified in fact, that the surviving children have been sent to special "rehabilitation" camps like Thurmond, located somewhere in Virginia. These camps are guarded by special armed forces known as PSI Forces but they do not rehabilitate.

Once there, the children are examined and undergo a CT scan to check their brains. They are then classified according to their special abilities into various categories; Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Red. Blues have telekenetic abilities, while Oranges can manipulate other peoples minds. Ruby sees this for herself when she arrives at the camp and a 13-year-old Orange causes an army officer to kill herself. When she sees how the yellow, oranges and reds are treated, she knows she cannot be classified as an Orange, so she manipulates the doctor who examines her and she is classified as a Green.

Eventually however, the scientists discover that some Yellows, Oranges and Reds have managed to escape detection. At Thurmond, the Calm Control, a special auditory signal designed to control the children, is changed to expose those children who have hidden their abilities. Ruby is one of these children and she is discovered through her serious adverse reaction to the CC signal. However, to her disbelief and great fear, a doctor, Cate Begbie surreptitiously slips her a note telling her to do exactly what she asks so as to save her life.

Ruby does what Cate asks and she is rescued from Thurmond. But when she meets Cate's boyfriend/partner Rob and she inadvertently touches him, she learns that he is not what he seems to be. Ruby decides that she needs to part ways with Cate and Rob and that happens sooner than she expects. While in the convenience store, she catches a young girl scavenging in the ruins and gives chase. When Ruby hears Cate and Rob searching for her she makes the decision to follow the girl into the van being driven by two other young people; eighteen-year-old Liam and his partner Chubs, who are both Blue,  while the little girl Suzume (Zu) is a Yellow who wears yellow gloves to protect others from her touch. Fear of being abandoned, once again leads Ruby into lying and she tells Liam and Chubs that she is a Green.

Shortly after picking up Ruby, the group finds themselves being pursued by Cate and later on by PSI Forces, as well as a skip tracer named Lady Jane whom Liam had a run-in with earlier. Driving in a battered black van Liam calls Black Betty, they flee from one town to the next in a game of cat and mouse. Their overall goal is to find a mysterious, hidden community of children and young people called East River. East River is run by a young person named Skip Kid who supposedly has repeatedly escaped the authorities, and offers children with special abilities a safe haven. The three of them, along with Zu want to find East River, contact their parents and hopefully go home. Ruby also wants to learn how to control her abilities so that she can live without the fear of harming people. As things are now, she must avoid all human contact.

However, when the four stumble across a group from East River and are taken there, Ruby is shocked to learn who Slip Kid is. The identity of Slip Kid is foreshadowed earlier in the novel, when Ruby was still an inmate at Thurmond. Very quickly she, Liam, and Chubs come to realize that East River is nothing like what they hoped. And Slip Kid even more so. Chubs even suggests that they have left behind one type of camp for another. Eventually, their confrontation with Slip Kid turns deadly leading Ruby to make some very difficult choices.

Discussion

In The Darkest Minds, Alexandra Bracken has crafted a remarkable tale, managing to create realistic characters and place them in heart-pounding situations that keep the reader craving more. The story is told in Ruby's voice which is authentic, making the reader feel every one of Ruby's fears and emotions. Ruby is a caring girl, who fully believes she is a monster. She knows what she is capable of, something readers don't know until more than halfway through the novel. As Ruby matures, she wants to understand how to control her unique abilities, rather than using them to harm people. She doesn't understand why other Oranges have done terrible things, whether they were this way before or  became what they are because of how they were treated. One of the great strengths of this novel is how Ruby begins to quickly mature throughout the story. Slip Kid, although a cruel and manipulative person, manages to teach Ruby something about her abilities and she begins to understand how she might survive in her "brave new world" without losing who she is.

In addition to the suspense, Bracken has added a developing romance between Liam and Ruby. This romantic element is filled with a great deal of angst however, because Ruby is afraid that her touch might hurt Liam. Nevertheless, the two manage to develop a deep friendship and it is this friendship that results in Ruby making the shocking decision she does at the end of the novel.

Perhaps more significant is the wonderful, pure friendship that eventually develops between Ruby and Chubs who is skeptical of Ruby the moment he encounters her. This leads to an element of conflict between the two, because Chubs intuitively knows she's hiding something and thinks she's a danger to their group. This conflict continues throughout most of the novel but is resolved near the end.

One of the interesting features of this novel is the author's use of the novel, Watership Down by Richard Adams. In this novel, a small group of rabbits living in southern England have their own culture. One of the rabbits, Fiver, has a vision in which he sees their home destroyed. Unable to convince the other rabbits to seek safety, Fiver, along with a group of rabbits leaves their warren to find a new home. When their warren is destroyed, they look for a new home and settle in Watership Down. But Watership Down is not ideal and problems ensue. They have no does and send representatives to another warren called Efrafa. However, they soon learn that Efrafa is a rigidly controlled warren where there are few freedoms. Some of the does however, do wish to leave the tyranny of Efrafa and they are helped by Hazel, Fiver's brother and the other rabbits. This results in a great conflict between the two warrens and an epic battle.

Ruby has read Watership Down and Chubs is reading it when they are traveling around in Black Betty. What happened in Watership Down is similar to what is happening in Ruby's life and she can relate to the rabbit's situation in the novel. Like Efrafa, East River was supposed to be a haven for the Psi children. Instead, it is ruled by the cruel Clancy Gray, who considers Oranges to be above everyone else. But Ruby knows that "by cunning and full of tricks" she can preserve a part of who she is and she can survive.

The Darkest Minds has a great cover that readers won't understand until they get a little ways into the novel. And the title is a reference to the mind of those labelled as Oranges, as it becomes evident that these young people have the superior capability to manipulate others - leading to the possibility of great abuse and tyranny. In other words, they have the darkest minds. The symbol on the cover is not a trident but is in fact the Greek letter Psi (φ) done in orange and yellow.

There's no other way to describe this book than awesome. It is in the same league as The Hunger Games, well written, good plot development and a kicker of an ending. The next book, Never Fade, will be published Fall 2013.

Book Details:
The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
New York: Hyperion 2013
488 pp.

The Barcode Rebellion by Suzanne Weyn

The Bar Code Rebellion is the second book of the trilogy by Weyn which explores a futuristic society where an attempt has been made to control people by their DNA.
The novel opens with Kayla and Mfumbe Taylor have left the Adirondacks and are on their way to the barcode resistance march on the Capital, Washington, D.C. They are protesting the now mandatory barcode tattooing of everyone seventeen and older. Senator David Young plans to challenge President Loudon Waters over the constitutionality of the barcode which infringes on the personal freedom of US citizens. He also wants the President to admit that the barcode is being used to store "other unknown information" about a person.

While waiting outside the White House for President Loudon to appear, Kayla and Mfumbe meet up with August Sanchez who is also a barcode resister and who was part of a fringe group attempting to contact aliens via their thoughts. The protest turns deadly however, when the jets and Global-1 forces attack the protestors and begin arresting them. Mfumbe is captured but Kayla is rescued by the long haul trucker, Katie, whom Kayla met in the first book. Katie is now going by the name of Dusa. Kayla learns that many of the barcode resisters were arrested and tattooed against their will. Dusa and her friends, Francis and Nate, believe that Gene Drake, Kayla's neighbour who was killed trying to destroy a barcode facility discovered that the tattoos contain more than just a person's genetic information.

Kayla, with the help of Dusa, manages to rescue Mfumbe who is badly injured. After leaving him at his parent's home, Kayla and Dusa head west. When they arrive in St. Louis, a chance encounter brings Kayla face to face with a girl named Kara, who looks identical to her. Kayla learns that in fact there are at least four others who look like her

Kayla and Dusa travel to the Great Basin Desert where they meet up with other resisters, called the Drakians, hiding out in the limestone caves.There the mystery about Kayla's origins begins to deepen. From the stolen personal files the resistance uses to make fake barcodes, Dusa has come across Kayla's grandmother's file. She learns that her grandmother had not only a son - Kayla's father, but another child named Kayla M1-6. And from a third girl named Kendra, who is also a Kayla look-alike, she learns that all of the Kayla's have the same barcode.Eventually Kayla discovers that her grandmother gave birth to sextuplet clones of which Kayla is one.

While in the desert Kayla meets a genius computer hacker, Jake who has designed a special kind of hovercraft which he calls a "swing-lo". Kayla and Jake decide that they need to contact Allyson, Kayla's friend and former Decode member who is now doing nanobot research at CalTech. They travel there to enlist Allyson's help in solving the mystery of Kayla and also the barcodes. What they learn is far more sinister than they could ever have imagined.

Discussion

The Bar Code Rebellion is a short novel that might appeal to younger readers. As the second novel in the trilogy, The Bar Code Rebellion is entirely plot driven with little character development and a bit of romance. The idea behind the novels, that a multinational corporation uses nanotechnology to control the citizens of a country is an interesting idea but is poorly developed with large plot holes. For example, we learn that Kayla is actually one of six clones who were created from Kathryn Reed and implanted in Ashely Reed who was married to Kathryn's son, Joey. This means that Kayla is actually a clone of Joey's mother and her father is not her father, but her son. The clones were part of a transgenic experiment, with each clone getting a bit more bird DNA than the next. Joey and Ashley got the first clone, Kayla, who had the least amount of avian DNA. Yet when Kayla's "mother" Ashley is ranting against the barcode in the first book, she never mentions to Kayla or even hints that she is a clone - surely an important fact she would want her to know, given the dire situation that is developing. Another glaring inconsistency: GlobalHelix which created the six transgenic clones loses them - highly unlikely in a corporation which excels in controlling each and every citizen.

The writing is poor, with many coincidences that are just too convenient. As an example,  Amber who has run away from her crazy Aunt Emily wakes up one morning to find a maniacal clone of Kayla in her tent, in the middle of the desert. And she just accepts this? Mostly the plotline is predictable with everything easily and quickly resolved. It's a shame because the concept with its inherent themes of identity, privacy, control, and ethics of research and consent are important in our highly internet-based society.

It will be interesting to see how Weyn can possibly write a third novel after all the ends were wrapped up in the second.

Book Details:
The Bar Code Rebellion by Suzanne Weyn
Scholastic       2006
265 pp.