“What will break me?

This is the question that consumes me over the next three days as we wait to be released from our prison of safety. What will break me into a million pieces so that I am beyond repair, beyond usefulness? I mention it to no one, but it devours my waking hours and weaves itself throughout my nightmares.” ~Katniss in Mockingjay, ch.11

So now I’ve read Mockingjay, the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. And I have nothing new to say about the quality of the book or of the series. I loved it. I liked the ending, even though some people didn’t much. I read it in a couple of days, reading whenever I could get some free time. I’ll read the entire series again sometime, and I’ll recommend it to others.

However, the thing I noticed in this third book, the idea that impressed itself upon me, comes from the quotation at the top of this post. President Snow and Capitol goons are out to destroy Katniss, not necessarily to kill her, although they’d do that if they could, but to destroy her usefulness, her courage, and her ability to serve any good purpose. Snow wants to destroy Katniss’s ability to love. Snow uses other people’s pain to hurt and distract and break Katniss. He uses fear and psychological manipulation and blackmail and Katniss’s own weaknesses, all to devastate her and make her useless to the rebels. Katniss’s enemies can’t kill her, so they work on her emotions and hurt other people who are close to her so that she will be neutralized and/or become mentally unhinged.

Isn’t that exactly what Satan tries to do with us? It’s kind of like the story of Job. God won’t let Satan kill us or remove us from His presence; however, we are sometimes beset on every side. I’ve been feeling particularly plagued and bedeviled lately. One person I love has left the faith, abjured Christ and declared himself apostate. Another beloved friend has lost an especially close relationship and is questioning God’s faithfulness. I look at my family, and I see problems and pain and physical illness and sadness and broken relationships. I sometimes feel like a walking advertisement for the book “Things Fall Apart.” (I haven’t actually read it, but the title is evocative enough.)

One of the characters in Mockingjay is “hijacked”, reprogrammed, brainwashed, by the enemy. It’s exactly what Satan is trying to do each and every Christian. He can’t take away our salvation, but he can steal our joy. He can attack us in all sorts of ways in this less-than-perfect world, take away the people and experiences that mean the most in our lives, and destroy our usefulness to God’s kingdom. Sometimes I feel as if I’m inside the (very serious) game that Katniss and Peeta play in the book: Real or unreal? Has my friend really, irrevocably removed himself from God’s grace? Or will God work to bring him back? Can I see past the physical and emotional pain that some friends and family members are experiencing now to see a God who is good and will one day wipe away all tears and banish all suffering? Or will I allow the vicissitudes and the real torments that afflict me and my family and friends to break me into a million pieces so that I am useless and beyond repair? Will I allow Satan to deceive me and blind me to God’s goodness and mercy in Christ? Is there really a hope and a future for me and for those I love?

I don’t know, but at least as I read Mockingjay, I thought about these issues. And I prayed, “Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Give me the power to see what is Real and to be able to stand like Job and say, ‘I know that my Redeemer lives.'”

Good book. Good series. Good, hard, challenging thoughts.

Semicolon review of Hunger Games.
My Favorite Author reviews Mockingjay.
Jen Robinson’s Book Page on Mockingjay
Mockingjay review at Between the Covers with Stephany.

Sixteen year old Evie is a loner; she has no real friends. She delivers newspapers on Sunday mornings in the Hokepe Woods subdivision, and she tries to get Jonah Luks, college-aged animal control agent, to notice her. Then, Jonah discovers a dead body in the woods behind the subdivision, and Evie becomes involved in a drama that’s quickly spinning out of control.

I liked this book, but I wouldn’t recommend it to just anyone. First of all, it’s scary and creepy. The main plot element is the murder of a young girl in the woods by an unknown assailant. That kind of story is going to give some kids nightmares. I kind of expected to have bad dreams myself last night, but I slept like a rock. The violence in the story is not terribly graphic, but the atmosphere of the entire novel is intense and edgy. I felt as if the events in the novel were on the edge of an explosion at any given moment. The blurb on the back of the book calls it “a haunting tale.”

And haunting it is. I am haunted after reading The Space Between the Trees by the thought of girls who have empty lives, some of them like Evie never taking risks and others like Evie’s friend Hadley taking so many risks, and al of them empty and hopeless. Evie is awkward and defensive because she has no reason to value herself or her own life. Hadley is abandoned and self-destructive because she has no reason to value herself or her own life. Both girls are obviously headed for trouble, and so when they make one bad decision after another, it’s stressful and nerve-wracking to continue reading, knowing that they’re headed for a big fall.

Then the books ends, not with a bang but with a whimper. As I read reviews after finishing the book, some people liked the ending, and others didn’t. It’s not a conventional suspense novel ending, but it is realistic. Sometimes people get away with lies and really bad deeds. Or at least as far as the legal authorities are concerned, they escape the consequences of their actions. I believe in divine justice and in forgiveness and grace. So, after the close of the book, either Hadley and Evie will receive justice as they continue down their self-destructive paths, or else grace will find them.

I loved the writing in this book. I’ll give you a few examples to close, but I’m not sure the quotations I’ve chosen will pack as much punch in isolation as they did in context. If you like the quotations and if you can manage the emotional intensity of murder and spiritual emptiness, you may want to give the book a try.

Evie introducing her mother to the reader:
“Mom grew up beautiful. Now some beautiful people let their beauty just lie there on them, like a coat of sweat on their face, but Mom, she manages hers. She orders her beauty into shape like a squad of soldiers or a page of math problems. So when she finally decides to look up at me, her face is all set, her beauty ready to salute.”

Evie hearing mysterious footsteps in the woods at night (Yes, of course, they do that.):
“I can feel the hollow places in my body, the arteries that flutter with the coming of my blood, the chambers of my heart that flood and void. The footsteps and my heart become one plodding rhythm. And it takes me a moment to realize that the footsteps have stopped, because I’m still hearing my own pulse in my ears.”

Title quote and key to Evie’s self-image:
“At school that Monday after, there were rumors that Hadley had tried to burn down the woods, rumors that she had killed a man, killed herself, killed Zabet. But somehow my name was never whispered, as if I were a ghost, an escapee, the space between the trees, the page on which a story is written.”

I should also mention that the cover is a bit gimmicky, but I really liked it. The space between the branches on the cover is actually die-cut to reveal the cover page underneath.