Mockingjay Review

 Mockingjay Review

Author: Suzanne Collins

Year: 2010

(The Hunger Games Book 3)

 

Well, last night I finished the trilogy, so now let’s talk about it. If you are unaware of the series, watch the two reviews of the previous books. Especially since there are spoilers of the last two books in here. Anyway with that, let’s get started. I’ll be honest, until the last sixty or so pages, I was very skeptical. I thought the book was moving slower, had less interest, and wasn’t very satisfying. And I’ll be honest, I wish the final chapters had been extended, and more of the beginning cut out, or shortened. But it still hits every emotion, and still retains the raw writing of the last two books. And does it wrap a pretty bow around it? Eh, sort of. If that bow were covered in blood and tears. Just saying, go in prepared knowing people will die. A lot. And it’s not just the giant death toll going up that has this sense of doom and misery. The characters all seem to be mentally unstable, and it shows. You really feel like the numerous terrible things that have happened to them is affecting them, and they’re just unable to go on, even though they have to. But I will say that sometimes all the stress added on Katniss’s shoulders makes her act a little more bitchy and hostile than I would have liked. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a large part of her character, but a big part of that is running along the line, and never crossing it, which I got in this, but again, a lot’s happening to her, it’s more understandable. As for the other characters, some get better, some like maybe Haymitch just seem to be there more or less and don’t contribute as much as I’d like, and some get the closure they deserve, and some might just die, no questions asked. Also, I remember thinking how Catching Fire had a little more romance going back and forth. This almost cuts away whatever romance there was and smacks it against the wall, and to be honest I’m happy with that. There isn’t much, especially again, with all this other stuff that’s happening. And then there is the big deciding factor between who and who. I’ll be honest, ultimately I didn’t care and would have been happy with either. I just enjoyed for once not knowing who would be chosen/dead. But I say she did a good job playing out a very hard plot point to write around. And I will say on the topic of characters, there are a lot of names in this book. I don’t think in any other closing chapter of a series had I had this many nobody characters I didn’t care about get introduced. And some of them were there for food fodder effect, but more or less, there’s only a small handful that matter. And as for a big climax, I’m not sure which moment between two were bigger, but they both were pretty god damn big. And both were probably as good as it could have been. It wasn’t a standard war end where you beat the bad guys and celebrate, and it felt more realistic. And she did a wonderful job introducing this new district, which again at first was skeptical with, but it all resolved back around and did about as good as it could have with how it was going. But damn does the emotional moments hit hard. Every death takes a little toll by little toll that is finally released in the big climax… which is shortly after probably the biggest death in the series. Anyway, the book as a whole I thought was fantastic, even though a large part of the story I thought I would just be giving it a four, but it wiped that nonsense away and delivered an end that I was so satisfied with. And I do realize that’s a big part of the series for me. Because I’ve had doubts around a lot of corners. About characters that didn’t seem that great, how slow it seemed in areas, and others. But all these things come around and are fantastic. I will say I enjoyed this one better than Catching Fire, but is it better than the original Hunger Games I loved so much? Eh… I am going through enough emotional trauma, I don’t have to decide that right now. Anyway, I guess I’ll close this up. Mockingjay happened, and I have finished the series and am so happy I did. I guess this is it. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Mockingjay gets a 5/5

Spoilers: Seriously, these are some spoilers you won’t want to read. I mean it! I myself had one spoiled to me, and that was Finnick’s death. Yeah, and to be honest, I kind of wanted better. As far as main characters go he was in the top five or six, and he was like nothing. Just a better moment, or more closure, or even some kind of memorial would have been better. However, Prim’s death I didn’t see at all. And she is easily one of my favorite characters, because she kicked ass the last two books. But damn. And to be honest, killing Coin was possibly my favorite moment in the book, same with the conversation with Snow. And Snow managed to sort of win and take the satisfaction of his death away. And yeah, Gale sort of just got written out for convience to set up the Peeta thing. I don’t mind, with how fifty-fifty the situation was, it was a hard thing to write in. But she really won me over for Peeta with how she wrote they should be together, and they’re both so mentally unstable I can almost see Gale just trying to get away. Although I also wish the mom would live with Katniss. But ultimately I was satisfied, that ending man, it got me.