Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

The film had better be good. S'all I'm saying.

From LibraryThing - Katniss Everdeen has survived two Hunger Games, only to find her home district bombed to ruin by the Capitol. Airlifted out of the arena of her final Games, she finds herself in the underground, militaristic District 13, run by the enigmatic President Coin. She volunteers, relectunantly, to be the Mockingjay for the rebel movement, as the fate of all the people she loves-- her family, Peeta, Gale-- hangs in the balance.


This is going to be a very difficult review to write. Throughout the majority of the book, I was mentally muttering to myself what a disappointment it was and how it completely lost the point of the previous two, but then... then I cried at the end and wondered if I'd ever read anything so good. Sigh. Bear with me folks.

First of all, it doesn't have the feel of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, although you can see exactly where Ms Collins has tried to force it. Characters look at each and gasp in shocked tones, "Wow! It's just like The Hunger Games!" just so you can't miss the supposed similarities. If it was a film, you'd have to shoot the screenplay writer for the terrible dialogue. I just didn't care for the whole army-style feel to it - it seemed like every other YA dystopian book out there, which is a shame as these books have always stood on their own feet.

However, Katniss does become a lot more likeable in this book. She irritated me previously because of her complete lack of emotion regarding... well, everything. She murdered people in the arena in the middle of an unfair game and never once considered the moral issues, and took what she wanted from the people who loved her without giving anything in return.  In Mockingjay though, she finally stops pushing people away and starts to be affected by the horrors around her. I particularly liked the points where she realised that the tragedies going on were immoral and unnecessary - it showed how much she'd developed along the way.

My main gripe with this one is the abundance of Gale and a lack of Peeta. Normally I can't stand YA romance as it always feels like it was heaped on with a shovel, but Katniss and Peeta's relationship was so beautifully developed and deep that I wanted to see more of it. Instead, he barely features until the very last page (literally) and Gale's pushy, whiny personality shows up far too much. The lack of focus on their relationshiop is a huge factor in why I didn't like it as much as the others.

By EmpressFunk

I did feel like a lot of the deaths were skated over instead of being dealt with. I know it's a longer book already but surely they could have trimmed down the hours of tramping round army bases to give important characters a good send-off? I'd come to love some of them and felt like they'd been treated unfairly - like Chewie when Princess Leia doesn't give him a medal.

At the end, Katniss uncovers a huge secret behind the rebellion that causes her to act out, but nobody evers questions her afterwards - her actions are just accepted and she's patted on the head and sent on her way. I've read a lot of reviews that talked about how rushed the ending seemed, and I have to agree with them. The author seems to continually have put too much focus on unimportant events and neglected the important ones.

I do admit to crying at the end and getting that Happy Book Fuzz in my stomach. I did enoy the book, it's just that the trilogy seemed to lose its edge here, without any arenas or Games to make it special.

Also, I hate epilogues. Hate them. I just don't care what the characters are doing after they've defeated Lord Voldemort or they've finished fighting the Capitol. I care about the story, not what they name their children. End of.

LATER: I almost forgot. I love that damn cat.