Review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Summary: Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins’s groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year

Review: I'm going to be purposely spoiler free here. I know that if someone spoiled it for me I would be furious, so I won't do that to anyone else. Although I'm thinking I may wait a week and go for broke with a spoilerish review, there's just to much to try and hold it all in.

I love this series and I love these books and mostly I love Katniss. I wanted badly to give this book 5 stars, but I felt it was missing something, and the thing it missed for me was Katniss and Peeta. Not their relationship, but their individual personalities that I have grown to know and love. I knew they would emerge changed after their last time in the games, that they would be damaged body and soul, but I missed them all the same. I ached for them as they tried to find some way out of the pain that had been inflicted on them, and while I missed those traits that I love, I admire the way that Collins is able to convey the emotions in her writing. You could really see the destruction that was left behind after the games had ended and the war began.

On a personal note, I also really hate epilogues. I didn't like it in Harry Potter and I didn't like it here. I will say, this one wasn't nearly as bad as others, but they are something I generally find unnecessary. I appreciate the fact that it is a great way to give us a peak at the future, but I also think it can cheapen the lives that I imagine these charecters have gone onto. To condense years into a few pages is something I really feel fails to live up to the story that we've just read. I won't go on and on about it, but it is something that dissapointed me.

That being said. I loved everything else. I thought this book was far darker then the other two (if that is possible) and that it all ended the way it should have. I liked how it all played out and how Katniss had to figure out her place in all of it. I like how she found herself in the midst of the chaos and confusion. I loved how it wasn't just the Capitol that they were facing, but the worst in everyone's nature, and they had to conquer those personal demons as well as the Capitol. I especially loved how they struggled with how to defeat the Capitol without becoming just like those they wished to take down. It was all so well done.

I can't say enough about Katniss. I think I've always felt a connection to her because of her choice of weapon, because it's the one that I use too. I've loved her since the first pages of Hunger Games and it certainly didn't diminish here as we see her trying to emerge from the hell she's been put through (and continues to be put through). I loved, and hated, seeing try to figure out not only the physical war that is being waged, but also the political and emotional one, especially with herself.

Gale and Peeta (and everyone else) do not dissapoint either. It's amazing how no one is without scars, and yet they all try to move forward and find their place in the grander scheme of things. I had my own preferences going in, but Collins has the ability to make you love both equally, and you can see how hard it must be for all involved, when friendship and love and war and pain are all tangled up together and there's no easy way out.

Mockingjay was overwhelming and heartbreaking and wonderful. I'm sad that it's over, I'm not really ready for it to be over, but I will definitly re-read, if only to revisit the charecters I've come to really, really love.

About Suzanne Collins:
http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/

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