Unable to read Mockingjay until three days after its release, I stayed off Twitter and Facebook to avoid spoilers. I ignored emails with Mockingjay thoughts or links to book reviews. I didn't even read the book jacket. When I'm looking forward to a book, especially the last in a series, I want to dive in with a blank slate.
If you loved the first two books of The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, you should do the same. Stop reading this review and dive into Mockingjay. It's worth it; you'll adore it. It may even make you cry.
If you haven't started reading The Hunger Games series (Jodi, are you listening?), you should also stop reading and go get the first book. What's not to love? A country divided and ruled by the ruthless Capitol, and a strong, smart girl challenging them at every turn. Succumb to peer pressure and start reading already.
If any of you made it this far, you're the diehards, the ones who loved the first two books and have already finished Mockingjay. This review is for you.
The last time we saw Katniss, she was again defying the Capitol and living through the Hunger Games. The fight-to-the-death games, forced upon each District of Panem by the cruel Capitol and broadcast live across the nation, were just as violent as ever, but these games ended with half of the surviving victors whisked away to safety and the other half captured by the Capitol. Little did Katniss know, these games were actually a critical part in the uprising against the Capitol.
Mockingjay opens with the aftermath of the Capitol's retaliation when we follow Katniss through the wreckage that was her home, District 12. Walking over skulls and on ashes, Katniss blames herself for those who died and she contemplates whether or not she can do what they're asking of her in District 13.
District 13, thought to have been destroyed years earlier, is the home base for the uprising, and they need Katniss. Beloved because of her defiance in the Hunger Games, District 13 believes Katniss can unite all the districts and encourage them to fight.
Making Katniss the face of the uprising doesn't necessarily sit well with her. Are they just using her as a pawn in a game, just like she was during the Hunger Games? Throughout Mockingjay Katniss questions this and the cruelty of war, from both sides of the conflict. Where do you draw the lines for what is acceptable in war? Can that even be defined?
Mockingjay is a great ending to The Hunger Games series, though it is unsettling and has its share of sorrow. Some of your favorite characters may die and the final question – will she choose her best friend Gale or her Hunger Games partner Peeta? – will be answered, though nothing really ends happily here. You will have some hope, but I just felt overwhelming sadness for Katniss, so the little bit of hope I had wasn't enough. War is a bitch.
I just finished Mockingjay. I expected to tear through it, but I didn’t even think about it when I wasn’t reading. I loved the last 100 pages or so, but before that–not so much. I’ll have to reread it, but I had a hard time keeping track of where they were and why things were happening, and Katniss felt very passive. I’ve since read reviews saying that was on purpose, to show her PTSD–maybe so. Maybe I’ll reread it. I’m not sure I’d recommend the series to someone who hasn’t read it, but I’d definitely recommend the first book.
I didn’t want to say too much in my review and give away spoilers, because there are just so many fans out there, but I agree with you, it did move slower in the beginning than the last half of the book.
I didn’t see Katniss as passive, though. During it I see her as very much anti-war, but then at the end I just felt so bad for her. Her sister, mother, and Gale are all gone, in different ways, and Haymitch is a drunk again. It’s almost like it reverted to pre-Hunger Games but without the looming threat of the Hunger Games.
I still don’t buy it that the Hunger Games and war is over, though. I don’t necessarily think the future is going to be great, which is why Katniss was so hesitant to have children, too. Maybe the Hunger Games won’t be back as we know them, but something else evil will. I was definitely not hopeful when I finished reading it.
But, maybe it’s good that it didn’t end hopeful and cheery. Would that have been true to the disaster that happened to Katniss during all these books?
Ill be honest I messed up in getting my friends into this series. I hope I give agreat spoiler because this book brought me to tears at the death of innocent Prim, loving Finnick, new character Boggs, and the loss of gale although he is not dead he might as well be. This is by far the worst book I have ever read. It has destroyed how I felt about the hunger games series. I loved it. But suzzane collins screwed up when writing this book. What makes this worse is everyone else saying it was great. Prims death was spoiled to me by a friend. And although I knew he death was coming it was horrible. If prim hadn’t died… Well I might still have that love for the series. Suzanne collins will forever be the worst author in my mind and heart… You do not describe the body parts lieing on the ground of CHILDREN after they get blown up. Good bye Mockingjay and good riddance!!