Mockingjay (Hunger Games #3)By: Suzanne Collins
Published By: Scholastic
Publication Date: August 2010
Page Count: 390
Buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound
Source: Purchased by Reviewer
Audience: Young Adult - Dystopian
I found Mockingjay to be a difficult bird (pun intended). It is very different than the other two books in the series. The enemies are more abundant and less obvious, and Katniss has a serious struggle on her hands for mental health, let alone freedom from oppression. She has seen so much by the time Mockingjay begins, that she really finds it hard to cope... and the bodies certainly pile up in this, the final installment of the trilogy.
I really found it difficult to review this the first time I read it, and a year later, and another reread have helped me sort out my feelings. I don't love this book. I think it is amazing, but it completely gutted me. I am a hopeful reader and I love a good happy ending, but I was unrealistic to hope for such a thing here. The message is that in war, no one is safe. Suzanne Collins spent the first two books building up to a horrifying finale where loved characters die in the worst ways, and hope is very nearly lost. All that is left is a tiny flicker of a flame, and Katniss doesn't look to be the girl to fan that flame for a lot of the book. She rises up at times to deliver stirring speeches, but then is pulled back down by the weight of all the things that have happened to her.
Katniss learns the truths of characters such as Gale, who is shockingly heartless and blood thirsty, and Haymitch, ever calculating and surprisingly cold. She is left with no one really that she can trust, as even Peeta is not available to her at times. My heart went out to him on this reread; it has taken me a long time to come around to Peeta, but now I wonder why!!
In the end, I felt like Katniss was trapped between a rock (President Snow) and a hard place (President Coin) and her solution was probably the only thing she could have done. Details got a little vague and drawn out after the crescendo moment, and it all felt a little anticlimactic... I was left wondering how life could go on normally, given what happened, and I think it would have felt like that to Katniss too. Brilliant but brutal.
My name is Katniss Everdeen. Why am I not dead? I should be dead.
Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.
It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plains--except Katniss.
The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay--no matter what the personal cost.
Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.
It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plains--except Katniss.
The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay--no matter what the personal cost.
