My Problem with Peeta (AKA The "Nice Guy" Complex)

Time and time again on my blog I've mentioned my dislike for Peeta, and then immediately said something along the lines of 'but that's a discussion for another time' or 'but I won't get into that now', and I figured it's about time I got into it. 

Now if you're a big Peeta fan you're most welcome here - people can like whichever characters they like as far as I'm concerned - but if you're the kind of Peeta fan that can't bear to see any criticism of your perfect baby angel, then it's probably best that you stop reading now. Because I don't like Peeta Mellark.

(I'd also recommend you stop reading now if you haven't read The Hunger Games/haven't finished the trilogy yet - I don't want to spoil anything for you!)

First thing's first, I think it's important to stress that I don't hate Peeta, in fact there are quite a few things about him that I really like. For example, I love that Peeta plays around with gender stereotypes in much the same way that Katniss does; I think it's fantastic we have this couple in YA who are completely opposite to what we might expect from a stereotypical couple. It's Peeta who likes to bake and paint, Peeta who doesn't like violence, Peeta who wants to fall in love and start a family, while Katniss enjoys hunting - she's good at it - and she'd much rather be left alone than have anyone fawning all over her. The two of them completely subvert common gender stereotypes, and I love that, because as much as it's important for women to know they don't have to like typically feminine things, it's just as important for men to know they don't have to like typically masculine things.

I can also appreciate that the two of them do make a good team in the arena. While Katniss handles all the brutal stuff within the arena, Peeta handles all the political, backstabby (it's totally a word) stuff outside the arena. He knows how to win over a crowd, and he does it well.

And perhaps most importantly in terms of this post, I understand why Katniss and Peeta make sense as a couple. Ultimately no one's really going to understand what the two of them went through like the other can, and this series is all about surviving through the consequences of war and these two need each other to survive because without each other their mental state can fall into a dark, dark place.

BUT

I'm personally not a fan of the two of them as a couple. Don't worry, this isn't going to be a post for Team Gale or any of that crap - screw Team Peeta and Team Gale, I'm on Team Katniss.

First and foremost, I read Katniss as aromantic: someone who doesn't experience romantic attraction. Someone who is aromantic isn't necessarily also asexual, but unfortunately, like asexuality, it's something which is often overlooked. That's not to say she is aromantic - the only person who knows that for certain is Suzanne Collins - but she always felt that way to me; she kisses both Peeta and Gale when they're upset because she doesn't know how else to comfort them, and she's aware that people kiss the ones they love. There's no denying that she loves Peeta, in the same way that she loves Gale, but in my opinion it's not necessarily romantic love so much as it is companionship. For me, Katniss's most important relationship is always going to be her relationship with Prim.

Even when Katniss claims to be in love with Peeta, it still doesn't feel quite like romantic love to me so much as it feels like the plea of a young girl who needs the one person around her who can understand her.

As much I'm not a member of Team Gale, just as I'm not a member of Team Peeta, I do hate the way Gale is treated by a lot of fans. Gale and Peeta are pretty shitty towards Katniss, particularly in Catching Fire when both of them are pressuring her into being in love with them when frankly Katniss has bigger fish to fry. On top of struggling with PTSD, she's also a 16 year old girl who has accidentally started a rebellion and because of that the President himself is threatening her friends and family. But neither of them take that into account at first, despite the fact that Peeta wouldn't be alive if it weren't for Katniss. How can he expect feelings she had to develop to stay alive to be completely true? How can he expect her to even think about something like romance when it's a struggle for her just to get out of bed on a morning? Still Gale's the one who seems to get the most hate. Why? Because Peeta's nice.

Constantly Katniss is told that someone like her should feel lucky that someone like Peeta loves her, that she doesn't deserve someone so nice and good and sweet:

"You could live a thousand life times but you will never deserve that boy."

Now obviously other characters saying that isn't Peeta's fault, but it doesn't make me like the guy anymore. Katniss is such a compelling, fantastic heroine; she's flawed and selfish and selfless and brave, and yet all anyone cares about is how much of Peeta's love she's earned.

The thing that makes me dislike Peeta most, however, is the epilogue to Mockingjay. The epilogue made me so uncomfortable. Obviously this isn't a light, fluffy trilogy so perhaps it'd be weird if I didn't feel uncomfortable, but it didn't make me uncomfortable in the way I expected it would. Don't get me wrong, I love the way Collins writes characters who are never going to be okay again; Katniss and Peeta have been royally fucked over by war, and no amount of medication or therapy is going to make them better. I love that realism behind the series. Yes, Katniss began the revolution that will prevent the annual deaths of hundreds of children in years to come, but at what personal cost?

What I hated most was the way Katniss talked about her children. In the very first book Katniss tells us she doesn't want children. For the most part we can assume that's because there's the chance they'd be reaped and have to compete in the Games. I'm sure we can all understand that. However, there may be something deeper to it - perhaps I'm looking into it too much, but maybe Katniss never wants to have children period. It could be marriage and children is not something that interests her, which further supports my theory of her being aromantic.

To me it felt as though Katniss did NOT want those children, regardless of how much she loves them now they've been born. Let's look at the way she talks about them, shall we?

'It took five, ten, fifteen years for me to agree. But Peeta wanted them so badly. When I first felt her stirring inside of me, I was consumed with a terror that felt as old as life itself. Only the joy of holding her in my arms could tame it. Carrying him was a little easier, but not much.'

Not 'we'. Peeta. Katniss had children because Peeta wanted them, because over the course of 'five, ten, fifteen years' he finally managed to wear her down and he got what he wanted. I'm not trying to suggest that Peeta's an abusive husband - I don't think their marriage is an unhappy one, though I doubt either of them are ever really happy either - but it is possible for people who don't want children to basically be bullied into having them, and those lines just made me so uncomfortable.

I hate this idea that because Peeta's nice, he gets to have everything he wants. I'm not saying he doesn't suffer because the poor guy really does - he gets tortured by the Capitol, for heaven's sake - but there are a lot of fans out there who think he can do no wrong when actually, you know what, he can. He's not an angel, he's human. Yes we can argue that Katniss just happened to change her mind about having children, but the fact of the matter is she's so broken by the end of Mockingjay it probably wouldn't have been too hard to get her to do pretty much anything if you kept going on and on and on about it. All throughout her teens she was surrounded by people who were constantly telling her how much of a terrible person she was compared to Peeta, so it's no wonder she ends up giving the guy what he wants. 

I don't think people shouldn't like Peeta - I completely understand why he's a fan favourite - I just wish some fans would look at the trilogy a little more critically. I'm not suggesting we should purposefully read things to talk about what we don't like about them, that's not what it means to read critically, and I'm also not saying you have to read critically. Read however you want! But sometimes just look at something a little differently. Look at this trilogy, not as a series of books about a teenage girl who has to choose between two boys, but as a series of books about a teenager whose life is literally threatened by her government, who's been feeding her family since childhood after the death of her father sent her mother into a severe depression, who tried so hard to protect her little sister and still wasn't strong enough to protect her from a bomb because how could she be? Then reread that epilogue, and see how it makes you feel.

My perfect ending for Katniss was for her and Prim to go and live somewhere peaceful and quiet, selling cheese from Prim's goat and enjoying the tranquility of the countryside while Prim became a fantastic doctor and looked after Katniss when the nightmares came. If not that, I'd've loved to have seen Katniss and Johanna together romantically or not, I don't care travelling Panem and smashing the patriarchy. But that's just in my own little fantasy...

Katniss: my precious baby angel.

So there you have it. That's why I don't like Peeta. I'm sure you're all just willing me to shut up, but I figured it was about time I actually talked about this.

So, what are your thoughts?

Review | The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Giver

by Lois Lowry

My Rating: 

It is the future. There is no war, no hunger, no pain. No one in the community wants for anything. Everything needed is provided. And at twelve years old, each member of the community has their profession carefully chosen for them by the Committee of Elders.

Twelve-year old Jonas has never thought there was anything wrong with his world. But from the moment he is selected as the Receiver of Memory, Jonas discovers that their community is not as perfect as it seems.

It is only with the help of the Giver, that Jonas can find what has been lost. And it is only through his personal courage that Jonas finds the strength to do what is right…

If you're interested in reading my review with spoilers, you can find it on Goodreads here!

I won my copy of The Giver in a First Reads Giveaway.

I've been meaning to read this book for years. When it comes to dystopian fiction this story is a classic, so when I won myself a copy - rereleased to coincide with the release of the film - I was excited to read it at last.

Sadly, this book really disappointed me. The only thing that disappoints me more than a book I don't like is a book I don't like which has a lot of potential, and The Giver is one such book.

I like my dystopian fiction to scare me with the possibility that it could come true. Books like Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World and The Hunger Games are frightening because we can see echoes of those stories in the world we live in now; we can understand how these societies may have come about. The Giver just didn't do that for me. I didn't get this community's way of life, and I didn't understand how a lot of it worked. For me dystopian fiction should have at least a grain of truth in it, but this community had somehow managed feats that I couldn't understand the science behind.

The Giver was too metaphorical for my tastes. There was a certain point that made me sad which is the main reason why I gave it 2 stars instead of 1, but I still didn't particularly enjoy the book.

The Giver just didn't do it for me, but judging by the other ratings on Goodreads I'm in the minority so be sure to read it for yourself if it's on your TBR!

Review | Legend by Marie Lu

Legend

by Marie Lu

My Rating: 

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. 

Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. 

Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem. 

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths - until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect.

 
Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family's survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias's death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

If you'd like to see my review with spoilers, you can find it on Goodreads here!

I'd be a liar if I said I didn't step into Legend with high expectations, but I was hugely disappointed. As far as I could tell from the blurb Legend had a very interesting premise, particularly as it was claiming to be a modern interpretation of Victor Hugo Les Miserables. However, the only similarity between the two novels is that there is someone of authority in pursuit of a criminal, and if that makes Legend a Les Mis retelling then so is every other novel which uses two such characters. That sure is a lot of retellings.

Unlike the characters in Les Mis, June and Day are flat. They can do everything; they are intelligent, quick, strong and talented and it's simply unbelievable. Throughout the novel they were far too similar to one another in terms of character. In other words, they are pretty much the same person with different genitalia. I like depth and conflict in characters, and for me June and Day have neither.

The romance between the two protagonists was far too quick and forced. Let's be honest for a minute here: this is the start of a YA dystopian trilogy with one male protagonist and one female protagonist, of course they're going to fall in love. I would have been pleasantly surprised if Lu had simply developed a friendship between the two of them and the romance for later in the trilogy. They barely knew another; it was a severe case of instalove.

The relationship I enjoyed most was that of June and her doomed brother Metias. They had a closeness which was lovely to read, and I think Metias may have been my favourite character in the novel. There was something honourable, admirable and rather gentle about him, so I very much enjoyed his role within the story. It says something, then, if my favourite character was the one who was killed in one of the very early chapters.

Overall there wasn't enough character building in the novel for me - I found none of them, aside from Metias, particularly memorable - but I also felt a lack of world building, which is a shame because some of the aspects of the futuristic world Lu created intrigued me, but instead Lu seemed to ghost over all of the details.

In fact what Legend is lacking in plot and character development it seems to make up for in descriptions of what every single character is wearing - including the ones who don't matter! I love a good outfit just as much as the next person, but I'd rather read about what a character is doing than what they're wearing. Give me a scenario and I can probably picture an outfit for them myself! Unless a particular aspect of an outfit is going to be important later then I don't need to know what every single person is wearing all the time.

All in all I think it's fairly obvious that Legend is certainly not a novel I'm particularly fond of, and I doubt that I'll read the rest of the trilogy. If I don't care about the main characters in the first book then I'm not likely to care what happens to them throughout the other two books either. In terms of YA dystopia this was a disappointment for me but, despite my criticism of it, it would make a good read for readers out there who enjoy fast-paced, quick reads who are perhaps only just starting out in the dystopian genre.

As for my copy, I think it's going to find a new home either in a charity shop or in a library.

Review | Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

My Rating:

Lena's been to the very edge. She's questioned love and the life-changing and agonising choices that come with it.

She's made her decision. But can she survive the consequences?

Pandemonium is the second novel in Lauren Oliver's Delirium trilogy set in a dystopian world in which love  - or the deliria as it is known - has been declared a disease. Closeness between boys and girls is prohibited and when they reach eighteen they go through a prodecure that stops them from feeling love altogether. They are paired off into loveless marriages and live the rest of their lives unable to feel passion.
     At the end of the first novel (now would be a good time for those of you who have yet to start the trilogy to stop reading) our heroine Lena is left to escape to the Wilds alone after Alex is shot. The second novel in the trilogy takes place between two time frames; one from when Lena is discovered by the other Wildlings and another six months later where she is posing as a cured in New York as part of the resistance.
     As it was in Delirium Oliver's writing style is beautiful. Even if you're not a fan of the plot these books are worth a read simply for the way in which they are told. Her way of storytelling is pretty and poetic; to put it simply, they are a joy to read.
     Oliver should also be congratulated on her character development. Lena is not only one of my favourite dystopian heroines but one of my favourite heroines period. When we first begin the trilogy Lena cannot wait to be cured, as a reader would expect from a girl who has been raised to believe that love is a disease - one that tore her mother from her - she whole-heartedly believes that love is dangerous and that it causes people to hurt, maim and kill in its name. She starts out as a rather meek but believable heroine who gradually changes throughout the course of Delirium, when it comes to Pandemonium Lena has run into the Wilds and it becomes necessary for her to grow tougher.
     Unlike many heroines out there Lena's character progression feels natural and real. This is how I would expect a person to develop if they were thrust from a controlled, civilised environment to a wilderness brimming with escapees. It was a delight to read, in fact my favourite chapters in Pandemonium were the ones which focused on Lena's life during her first six months in the Wilds rather than the ones which focused on her in New York city.
     Lena is not the only person in the Wilds, of course, and though she sometimes irritated me I liked Raven - the leader of this particular group of Invalids - a lot. There was something rather Katniss Everdeen about her, possibly to compensate for Lena's innate gentleness as we no longer have Hana to fill such a role, and she complimented Lena nicely; the reader is able to see the difference between someone new to the Wilds and someone who is accustomed to the harsh lifestyle that they face in pursuit of freedom.
     One of the main reasons that this book was a disappointment for me compared with the first book - which was one of my favourite reads last year - was Julian, Lena's new love interest. When reading Delirium I felt real chemistry between Alex and Lena, but the relationship between Lena and Julian felt weak in comparison; it felt forced simply for the sake of bringing in a new love interest, because apparently not enough YA dystopian trilogies have more than one love interest these days. Personally I felt as though they fell in love far too quickly, especially when compared with the romantic relationship we saw develop throughout the first novel.
     I was really hoping that Oliver would forget bringing in a new love interest and instead focus on the relationship between Lena and her mother who, by the end of the first novel, we have discovered is still very much alive. Considering so much of Lena's fear of love and so much of her life has been shaped by her mother's absence I was hoping for a reunion which would allow the book to focus on the love between a mother and her daughter rather than a pair of lovers. After all it isn't only romantic relationships that the cure for the deliria destroys, it also destroys the ways that families and friends interact with one another to the extent that they are no longer the same people. To me that is just as haunting as no longer being able to love your lover and I felt as though familial and platonic love was glossed over more than it should have been.
     All in all Pandemonium is not a bad sequel, but it's not an amazing one either. I chose to continue with the trilogy because I adored the first book so much, however the first book, despite perhaps not having the happiest of endings, does have a beautifully bittersweet finality to it. I would highly suggest reading Delirium and only Delirium, as Pandemonium falls rather flat in comparison.
     Thanks for reading! J.