Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins

Recommended for 14 years-adult.

It seems like I was waiting for this book for AGES and then when it finally came out a few weeks ago I felt like my world was coming to an end. Well, a small part of my world at any rate. I suddenly realised I hadn't even thought about what life after finishing The Hunger Games would be like.

Fortunately Collins catered for people like me, creating a book which lingers with you long after you turn the final page.

Mockingjay is the third and final book in The Hunger Games trilogy, and it packs a heavy punch. The pace of the narrative is fast, with major events happening left, right and centre. Of central concern to the reader is WHAT HAPPENED TO PEETA AFTER KATNISS ESCAPED FROM THE HUNGER GAMES RING? The answer will leave you shocked.

Although the ending feels somewhat rushed, and Katniss does end up with (choose?) the wrong guy, Collins kind of wrote herself into a corner after the dramatic events of the finale. All the loose ends are tied up, but not with the narrative finese of her earlier two books. Still, it was a satisfying resolution to the trilogy.

Recommended for kids over 14 because there is a fair bit of gore - flesh-eating muttations etc etc. Very entertaining.

The Tennant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte

Recommended for ages 15-adult.

This book has been on my 'must-read' list for ages now, and I finally got around to reading it at then end of last month. It's one of the Bronte classics, and is the last novel written by Anne who died when she was quite young.

The plot is told through the eyes of a young English gentleman who finds himself falling in love with his new neighbour - the supposedly widowed Mrs Helen Graham. The neighbours all gossip and speculate about the mysterious origins of her and her young son, and much of the book concerns itself with slowly revealing Mrs Graham's troubled past. Her diary, handed over to the narrator and thus to the reader at a critical point in the book, reveals the terrible truth of her position and her past.

Although it was considered a challenging and dangerous book for its time, the modern reader might wonder why Helen did not do more to help herself and her son. One Victorian critic went so far as to deem the novel "utterly unfit to be put into the hands of girls", but now we can read it as an early feminist novel. Its funny how attitudes to literature change over time!

This book is recommended for 15years-adults because of the heavy way it deals with the issues of alcoholism, infidelity and violence within a relationship.

PS. If you don't want to buy a copy, you can read this and many other classic books online at http://gutenberg.net.au/ (Project Gutenberg).