Why I Wish Susan Collins Had Lost Reelection And Her Mockingjay Manuscript

While Georgia’s Senate races are both advancing to runoff elections, most races have been called, including that of Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who has just won reelection for her fifth term. I, for one, wish the Republican incumbent had lost the election, along with her manuscript of Mockingjay, the third and final installment of her bestselling dystopian trilogy, The Hunger Games.

First and foremost, Sen. Collins’ victory on Wednesday was a major loss for Democrats, who had expected Sara Gideon to flip the seat and help reclaim the Senate majority. Retaining her congressional seat has narrowed Democrats’ path toward flipping the Senate and has reduced the margin by which they will be able to do so. Similarly, Collins reduced two of my favorite characters to dust by killing off Finnick Odair, the District 4 survivor of the 3rd Quarter Quell, and Primrose Everdeen, Katniss Everdeen’s beloved younger sister, in the second half of Mockingjay. While I found this unnecessarily cruel to the characters and readers who loved them, I have to admit, it is pretty impressive that Collins had the time to write three bestselling novels, and help adapt them into a successful movie franchise, all while serving in Congress.

Further, Sen. Collins, who is a self-described “moderate Republican,” donated to the campaigns of two QAnon-believing Maine state legislature candidates. This support for far-right conspiracy theorists, along with her voting to confirm Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, is concerning at best and makes me wish that she had lost reelection. Additionally, I wish the senator and young adult fiction author had quit while she was ahead after publishing Catching Fire, the second book of The Hunger Games trilogy, and before she decided to make Peeta Mellark a victim of “hijacking,” or brainwashing, by the Capitol. Collins’ choice to write this into the plot of Mockingjay not only caused Peeta to attempt to strangle Katniss, whom he loved, but also caused the compassionate character to struggle with PTSD-like symptoms for the rest of his life, and for what? To deprive her preteen readership of a truly happy ending? Try reading the room next time, Susan.

Lastly, despite her efforts to distance herself from Trump’s politics, Sen. Collins voted in favor of his tax plan and to acquit at his impeachment trial. But I guess this was no surprise coming from the same woman who, after three whole books, refused to give Katniss the satisfaction of killing the corrupt President Coriolanus Snow herself. Also, the lizard mutts in Mockingjay were lame as hell, way less cool than the wolf mutts from the first book.

-HP ’22