Sometimes It Works Out

I may have mentioned here (I think I did -- but I know I did in some comments on friend's blogs) that I read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire (the 2nd of the trilogy) and was, essentially, annoyed by them. The stories were good, but I got hung up on what seemed to be too much focus on the stupid love triangle between Peeta and Gale and Katniss, which I really felt was a small part of the larger story and not worth the focus. And so I'd been dragging my feet on reading the 3rd book (Mockingjay) because I just got so annoyed with the whole thing every time I thought about it.

Still, I have several friends who just go on and on about it and so I was going to borrow it, but my friend who was going to loan it to me was out of town, and it was only $7 for Kindle, so I bit the bullet. And then I read two or three other books while scowling at its listing on my Kindle every time I went around it.

Finally, last night I went ahead and opened it. And I just finished it this evening.

Honestly. Mockingjay is the best of the lot, I think. The spoilers and discussions I've read online that made me think I would be even more frustrated and annoyed with it than the previous two have me scratching my head now that I've read it for myself. It's a perfect finish to the series in just about every way and, rather than being annoyed at the previous two, I can see where it was going in the long run and the journey that Katniss made and give a little sigh of feeling like everything is now complete and that while maybe everything isn't all wine and roses for everyone in the books, it is an ending that makes sense and is, in general, happy.

So now I'm really rather glad I went ahead and gritted my teeth til I could make myself read it. And I have to stop and wonder what the ratio of worth it to not really is...because there are other series I've given up on. I hope not all of them were big mistakes.