Title: Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins
Blurber Blabber Review: Buy it used or on sale!
Series: Third and last book in the trilogy.
Language/Writing Style: Third person narrative. Mix of dialogue and internal thoughts/memories of the main character, Katniss.
Adult Content: There is quite a good amount of violence and death in this book, as to be expected with this series. There is also some references to torture and depictions of the brutalities of war on civilians and soldiers.
Rereadability: As with the previous two books, this is a fast and engrossing read. I think that it's more rereadable than the second one but not as much as the first one since the first one is still the best and could almost be a stand alone. Also, this last book is a bit heavier emotionally.
Published: 2010
Length: 400 pages
(Read on for the more detailed and SPOILER-filled "blabber" review)
Ah so now we’re down to the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy! Collins pulled a bit of a switcheroo on us by letting us think in the first two books that the focus of this trilogy would be on Katniss as she grows into a badass leader of a rebellion, when it turns out that the overarching theme is really the destructive brutality of war and Katniss is more just a somewhat frustrating narrator. In the end we see that there is no good side really, just people caught in the middle and forever changed by the effects of war. My friend thinks I'm reading too much into this for a YA book. I still have issues with the development of Katniss, but I have to admire Collins for not making this all neat and pretty in the end. Ok, let’s get this thing started.
Katniss is now living in District 13, which came as a bit of a surprise in that, instead of being a warm and spirited rebel underground (don't expect any sweaty barefoot dance parties like in the Matrix series), it’s a very strict and regimented district led by a cold leader named Alma Coin who is not that different from Snow. After a series of Capitol PSAs where Peeta calls for a cease fire and incites accusations of betrayal in District 13, Katniss finally comes out of her PTSD zombie mode and agrees to be the rebellion’s mockingjay in exchange for immunity for all of the captured victors and agreement that she will be the one to kill Snow in the end.
Much of the book is then spent with the development of Katniss as the mockingjay. Unfortunately, the development is not so much within Katniss, but more in her appearance (bird-themed military uniform?) and District 13’s own set of filmed promos. Inside, Katniss is still a traumatized and indecisive young woman who is being pushed around by greater forces.
The rebels and Snow are soon competing with each other in conflicting promos with Katniss and Peeta, both of whom are being manipulated for the different causes. During one battle for the air waves, Peeta sneaks out an urgent message that the Capitol will be attacking District 13 shortly. This earns him some respect in District 13 once proven true, and a team, including Gale (awwkwaaaard) rescues Peeta and some of the other captured tributes. Yippee! Oh wait, but don’t celebrate just yet because returned Peeta is not the same Peeta we know and love. The Capitol has tortured him and distorted his memories of Katniss so that he now hates her and is a bit nutso. Oh boy.
Katniss runs away from all this drama and buries herself in the war effort in District 2, where we start to see a further division between Gale and Katniss and more similarities between the battle tactics of the Capitol and the rebels. Gale is in favor of using some more extreme and deadly tactics, “following the same rule book President Snow used,” in order to prevent attacks on the rebels. Katniss, however, disagrees and believes that argument can be used to justify killing anyone at any time, including forcing the Hunger Games. I think it’s time to start packing away our Team Gale t-shirts.
After getting shot in one of the attacks, Katniss is sent back to District 13’s hospital where she slowly recovers and revisits Peeta only to be stunned by his callous, yet truthful, comments. Katniss runs away and is upset because Peeta now sees her for who she really is: “Violent. Distrustful. Manipulative. Deadly.” Yup. You hit it on the bulls eye. Katniss is every one of those things to a certain extent. And there aren’t many redeeming characteristics which makes it hard to feel anything more for Katniss than pity and anger on her behalf.
Katniss is sent into the Capitol as part of a squadron including Gale and Finnick. The Capitol has been transformed into a quasi-Games environment with pods filled with random but deadly horrors. Coin also sends unstable Peeta to join the crew to hopefully kill Katniss, as Coin has finished using Katniss to unite the other districts and now wants to eliminate a potential problem and rival. Sigh, again both Katniss and Peeta are simply being pushed around and used.
While Katniss’ squadron is only supposed to do easy peasy missions for the camera, one mission goes badly and soon the team is struggling to survive the crazy pods and freakish reptilian mutts as they continue on Katniss’ pretend false mission to assassinate Snow. Along the way, some of our favorites are killed (Nooooo! Finnick!) and Peeta slowly starts to sort out his distorted memories (unfortunately some of his real memories are not so great).
At one point Katniss tells Peeta that she always thought of him as an “ally” (oh man, that’s the best you can do?). Peeta responds with, “Friend. Lover. Victor. Enemy. Fiancee. Target. Mutt. Neighbor. Hunter. Tribute. Ally. I’ll add that to the list of words I use to try to figure you out.” Oooh burn. But so right on. At another point Katniss overhears Peeta and Gale wondering who she will choose and Gale claims that she’ll pick whoever she thinks she can’t survive without. Katniss is horrified at this indication that love, desire or even compatability would not sway her, but it’s so true - Katniss hasn’t been swayed by love or desire and has always prized survival over all else.
As they get closer to Snow, the remaining team gets split up until it’s just Katniss and Gale. Gale gets captured by some Peacemakers and begs Katniss to kill him quickly as they agreed and instead she runs away. Seriously, Katniss is not doing anything to win us over at this point. Katniss makes her way to Snow’s place and sees that a bunch of children refugees have been clustered in front as a human shield. A hovercraft appears and drops parachutes that the kids believe are filled with food, but instead contain explosives, half of which detonate. As a team of rebel medics run in to attend to the injured Katniss sees that her sister Prim (who is 13 and so she shouldn’t even be in the military yet - suspicious!) is part of the rebel medics. Just as Katniss runs to Prim, the second half of the parachute packages explode, killing Prim and severely burning Katniss.
Katniss slowly heals physically and learns that Coin now leads Panem and Snow is being held prisoner awaiting his execution. Katniss stumbles across Snow one day and he tries to convince her that the hovercraft that dropped the bombs was actually the rebels. Katniss is confused and unsure who to believe and has also distanced herself from Gale who she believes helped conceive the bombs that killed Prim.
Before Snow’s execution, Coin proposes her new plan to the remaining tributes - a final, symbolic Hunger Games, using the children related to those who held the most power in the Capitol. It is at this moment I totally lose all faith in the future of District 13 and Panem under the leadership of Coin. History repeating itself. After a brief reflection on how nothing has changed and nothing will ever change, Katniss votes yes and Haymitch follows her vote.
At Snow’s execution Katmiss aims to shoot at Snow and then surprises everyone by instead shooting Coin dead. Woohoo! (Don't worry, Snow still dies too). Katniss then moves to bite off a suicide pill but is stopped by Peeta. She screams for Gale hoping he’ll shoot her dead but he doesn’t, just as she didn’t when he was captured in the Capitol, and Katniss reflects on how they are both “sorry excuses for hunters and friends.” Yeah, Team Gale shirts should all just be burned at this point.
I wish that Collins had given us more insight into Katniss’ thoughts when she voted yes for the new Hunger Games and then killed Coin. Instead we get mental diarrhea from Katniss both before and after that, but nothing during the actual important acts and decisions. Was Katniss making a decision for herself or merely succumbing to Snow’s manipulations?
Katniss is imprisoned for several weeks during which she contemplates recent events. Finally one day Katniss is abruptly told by Haymitch that they will be going home to District 12. Haymitch and Katniss move back into their houses in the Victor’s Village and Katniss shuts down until one day she finds Peeta planting primrose bushes around her house (aw Peeta). We find out that Gale went to District 2 for some fancy job there and we never hear of him again.
Peeta and Katniss eventually grow back together and Katniss realizes that what she needs to survive is not Gale’s fire, filled with rage and hatred and similar to hers, but Peeta’s bright dandelion in the spring, symbolizing rebirth. In the end, she did as exactly Gale predicted - she “chose” the one who she thought she’d survive best with. I tend to see it as she picked whoever was left and stuck around. I wonder whether Katniss’ love for Peeta in the end is indeed real. It may be as real as Katniss is capable of.
The book ends with an epilogue where twenty years later Katniss and Peeta have a son and daughter despite Katniss’ initial terror and reluctance to have children. One day Katniss will tell her children everything that happened, and until then Katniss continues to try to remind herself of the every day acts of goodness that she witnesses and knows people are capable of.
In the end, I never really could like Katniss as much as I tried. She was often just manipulated by others, remained cold and distant, and could never make up her damn mind. She never even chose between Gale and Peeta. That decision was made for her as soon as Prim was killed and Peeta followed her to District 12. But now I realize that that none of that was the point to the books.. Katniss is not actually the heroine and she’s not meant to be completely likeable. She’s simply the lens through which we can witness the atrocities and effects of war and human brutality. She is a product of the destructiveness of the Games, who has managed to survive in some form at the end. She and Peeta will never be completely healed (physically or emotionally) from what happened during the Games and the rebellion.
This series ended in a completely unexpected way. While I think it fits perfectly, I can’t say that I’m completely satisfied or pleased personally. But that’s okay because that’s not what it’s meant to do. This isn’t a love story, or a coming of age story. It’s a war story, and there’s noting satisfying or pleasing about war.
I think my first time reading this series I would have rated all of them as buy it now! But, upon rereading them, I am a bit more disappointed with Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Doing a trilogy with an amazing first book is hard to pull off though because there are always tons of expectations. So I still love the second and third books, but definitely not as much as the first one.
Where to find Mockingjay?
Ah so now we’re down to the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy! Collins pulled a bit of a switcheroo on us by letting us think in the first two books that the focus of this trilogy would be on Katniss as she grows into a badass leader of a rebellion, when it turns out that the overarching theme is really the destructive brutality of war and Katniss is more just a somewhat frustrating narrator. In the end we see that there is no good side really, just people caught in the middle and forever changed by the effects of war. My friend thinks I'm reading too much into this for a YA book. I still have issues with the development of Katniss, but I have to admire Collins for not making this all neat and pretty in the end. Ok, let’s get this thing started.
Katniss is now living in District 13, which came as a bit of a surprise in that, instead of being a warm and spirited rebel underground (don't expect any sweaty barefoot dance parties like in the Matrix series), it’s a very strict and regimented district led by a cold leader named Alma Coin who is not that different from Snow. After a series of Capitol PSAs where Peeta calls for a cease fire and incites accusations of betrayal in District 13, Katniss finally comes out of her PTSD zombie mode and agrees to be the rebellion’s mockingjay in exchange for immunity for all of the captured victors and agreement that she will be the one to kill Snow in the end.
Much of the book is then spent with the development of Katniss as the mockingjay. Unfortunately, the development is not so much within Katniss, but more in her appearance (bird-themed military uniform?) and District 13’s own set of filmed promos. Inside, Katniss is still a traumatized and indecisive young woman who is being pushed around by greater forces.
The rebels and Snow are soon competing with each other in conflicting promos with Katniss and Peeta, both of whom are being manipulated for the different causes. During one battle for the air waves, Peeta sneaks out an urgent message that the Capitol will be attacking District 13 shortly. This earns him some respect in District 13 once proven true, and a team, including Gale (awwkwaaaard) rescues Peeta and some of the other captured tributes. Yippee! Oh wait, but don’t celebrate just yet because returned Peeta is not the same Peeta we know and love. The Capitol has tortured him and distorted his memories of Katniss so that he now hates her and is a bit nutso. Oh boy.
Katniss runs away from all this drama and buries herself in the war effort in District 2, where we start to see a further division between Gale and Katniss and more similarities between the battle tactics of the Capitol and the rebels. Gale is in favor of using some more extreme and deadly tactics, “following the same rule book President Snow used,” in order to prevent attacks on the rebels. Katniss, however, disagrees and believes that argument can be used to justify killing anyone at any time, including forcing the Hunger Games. I think it’s time to start packing away our Team Gale t-shirts.
After getting shot in one of the attacks, Katniss is sent back to District 13’s hospital where she slowly recovers and revisits Peeta only to be stunned by his callous, yet truthful, comments. Katniss runs away and is upset because Peeta now sees her for who she really is: “Violent. Distrustful. Manipulative. Deadly.” Yup. You hit it on the bulls eye. Katniss is every one of those things to a certain extent. And there aren’t many redeeming characteristics which makes it hard to feel anything more for Katniss than pity and anger on her behalf.
Katniss is sent into the Capitol as part of a squadron including Gale and Finnick. The Capitol has been transformed into a quasi-Games environment with pods filled with random but deadly horrors. Coin also sends unstable Peeta to join the crew to hopefully kill Katniss, as Coin has finished using Katniss to unite the other districts and now wants to eliminate a potential problem and rival. Sigh, again both Katniss and Peeta are simply being pushed around and used.
While Katniss’ squadron is only supposed to do easy peasy missions for the camera, one mission goes badly and soon the team is struggling to survive the crazy pods and freakish reptilian mutts as they continue on Katniss’ pretend false mission to assassinate Snow. Along the way, some of our favorites are killed (Nooooo! Finnick!) and Peeta slowly starts to sort out his distorted memories (unfortunately some of his real memories are not so great).
At one point Katniss tells Peeta that she always thought of him as an “ally” (oh man, that’s the best you can do?). Peeta responds with, “Friend. Lover. Victor. Enemy. Fiancee. Target. Mutt. Neighbor. Hunter. Tribute. Ally. I’ll add that to the list of words I use to try to figure you out.” Oooh burn. But so right on. At another point Katniss overhears Peeta and Gale wondering who she will choose and Gale claims that she’ll pick whoever she thinks she can’t survive without. Katniss is horrified at this indication that love, desire or even compatability would not sway her, but it’s so true - Katniss hasn’t been swayed by love or desire and has always prized survival over all else.
As they get closer to Snow, the remaining team gets split up until it’s just Katniss and Gale. Gale gets captured by some Peacemakers and begs Katniss to kill him quickly as they agreed and instead she runs away. Seriously, Katniss is not doing anything to win us over at this point. Katniss makes her way to Snow’s place and sees that a bunch of children refugees have been clustered in front as a human shield. A hovercraft appears and drops parachutes that the kids believe are filled with food, but instead contain explosives, half of which detonate. As a team of rebel medics run in to attend to the injured Katniss sees that her sister Prim (who is 13 and so she shouldn’t even be in the military yet - suspicious!) is part of the rebel medics. Just as Katniss runs to Prim, the second half of the parachute packages explode, killing Prim and severely burning Katniss.
Katniss slowly heals physically and learns that Coin now leads Panem and Snow is being held prisoner awaiting his execution. Katniss stumbles across Snow one day and he tries to convince her that the hovercraft that dropped the bombs was actually the rebels. Katniss is confused and unsure who to believe and has also distanced herself from Gale who she believes helped conceive the bombs that killed Prim.
Before Snow’s execution, Coin proposes her new plan to the remaining tributes - a final, symbolic Hunger Games, using the children related to those who held the most power in the Capitol. It is at this moment I totally lose all faith in the future of District 13 and Panem under the leadership of Coin. History repeating itself. After a brief reflection on how nothing has changed and nothing will ever change, Katniss votes yes and Haymitch follows her vote.
At Snow’s execution Katmiss aims to shoot at Snow and then surprises everyone by instead shooting Coin dead. Woohoo! (Don't worry, Snow still dies too). Katniss then moves to bite off a suicide pill but is stopped by Peeta. She screams for Gale hoping he’ll shoot her dead but he doesn’t, just as she didn’t when he was captured in the Capitol, and Katniss reflects on how they are both “sorry excuses for hunters and friends.” Yeah, Team Gale shirts should all just be burned at this point.
I wish that Collins had given us more insight into Katniss’ thoughts when she voted yes for the new Hunger Games and then killed Coin. Instead we get mental diarrhea from Katniss both before and after that, but nothing during the actual important acts and decisions. Was Katniss making a decision for herself or merely succumbing to Snow’s manipulations?
Katniss is imprisoned for several weeks during which she contemplates recent events. Finally one day Katniss is abruptly told by Haymitch that they will be going home to District 12. Haymitch and Katniss move back into their houses in the Victor’s Village and Katniss shuts down until one day she finds Peeta planting primrose bushes around her house (aw Peeta). We find out that Gale went to District 2 for some fancy job there and we never hear of him again.
Peeta and Katniss eventually grow back together and Katniss realizes that what she needs to survive is not Gale’s fire, filled with rage and hatred and similar to hers, but Peeta’s bright dandelion in the spring, symbolizing rebirth. In the end, she did as exactly Gale predicted - she “chose” the one who she thought she’d survive best with. I tend to see it as she picked whoever was left and stuck around. I wonder whether Katniss’ love for Peeta in the end is indeed real. It may be as real as Katniss is capable of.
The book ends with an epilogue where twenty years later Katniss and Peeta have a son and daughter despite Katniss’ initial terror and reluctance to have children. One day Katniss will tell her children everything that happened, and until then Katniss continues to try to remind herself of the every day acts of goodness that she witnesses and knows people are capable of.
In the end, I never really could like Katniss as much as I tried. She was often just manipulated by others, remained cold and distant, and could never make up her damn mind. She never even chose between Gale and Peeta. That decision was made for her as soon as Prim was killed and Peeta followed her to District 12. But now I realize that that none of that was the point to the books.. Katniss is not actually the heroine and she’s not meant to be completely likeable. She’s simply the lens through which we can witness the atrocities and effects of war and human brutality. She is a product of the destructiveness of the Games, who has managed to survive in some form at the end. She and Peeta will never be completely healed (physically or emotionally) from what happened during the Games and the rebellion.
This series ended in a completely unexpected way. While I think it fits perfectly, I can’t say that I’m completely satisfied or pleased personally. But that’s okay because that’s not what it’s meant to do. This isn’t a love story, or a coming of age story. It’s a war story, and there’s noting satisfying or pleasing about war.
I think my first time reading this series I would have rated all of them as buy it now! But, upon rereading them, I am a bit more disappointed with Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Doing a trilogy with an amazing first book is hard to pull off though because there are always tons of expectations. So I still love the second and third books, but definitely not as much as the first one.
Where to find Mockingjay?
Go to your local book store or library!
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