Be warned. Spoilers abound . As well as Major Ramblings. *salute*

Odd tidbit of information: Recently, I had a teeny, tiny silverfish (I almost typed catfish, which would have made this story much more interesting) that just chilled on my bathroom floor for days, in the same spot. It had to have been at least three or four days.

I know it was alive because it would half heartedly scurry out of the way of much-too-close feet, a stark contrast to the usual lively and feisty personality of the creature. Other than those few movements, it would just lie there. Like it had given up. I found myself being careful not to step on it. The poor thing just seemed so pathetic and zoned-out.

So, I started referring to it lovingly as Katniss. The similar sound might explain why I nearly typed catfish, though a catfish lying on the bathroom floor would be very odd indeed. Come to think of it, it would be even stranger if the actual Katniss had been lying on the floor in my bathroom. Although, it wouldn't be unusual behavior for her, based upon this book.

The little silverfish eerily reminded me of how Katniss acted in Mockingjay. Defeated.

Well, I tried to allow her to live out her short life in peace and let her continue stumbling incoherently out of the way only when imminent danger reared it's ugly head, but danger's head turned out to be the not-so-ugly face of my dog, who gobbled up poor little Katniss and her six nearly defective legs.

So the moral of the story is? Uh.... Don't give up or you could be killed by an adorable fluffy giant monster? Anyway, onto more of my ramblings...


Do not read this review if you have not yet read Mockingjay. Pretty much any spoiler you could imagine will be here .


I pre ordered this book and got it the day of release. I started it right away but halfway through the book, I put it down and didn't pick up back up for a couple months. I do this sometimes, but I have NEVER done it with a series that I love so much, never even considered it. I just found myself so uninterested. I almost wish I hadn't picked it back up. My imaginings of what happened were so much better and more entertaining, more emotional.

I love this series and the world so much. I love the main characters and the side characters, especially Finnick. But literally 8 of them die over a matter of pages. And I knew they would, but I wanted more. I wanted flowers and a song for them, like what she did for Rue.  Oftentimes, I would be like "Wait. What happened to so-and-so?" Then, I would flip back through and try to figure out when they died or disappeared.

There were a few tear jerker moments though. They were mainly towards the beginning of the book and most of them had to do with memories of the past, like reliving the greatest hits of Katniss.

One thing that really bothered me: What's with all the passing out?  It seemed like every few chapters, Katniss was waking up in medical or having long fits of mindlessness. It just didn't seem like she was there for a majority of important plot lines.  She would just have a conversation with someone like "Oh, I'm confused. What happened?" And then they would narrate it to her. Even the biggest battle at the end. Oh yeah, by the way. President Snow is in custody. Oh, you're cleared of all charges. It's all over. Go home.

And the biggest "What the hell?" moment for me was when Katniss actually voted in favor of having another Hunger Games? I'm sorry, what? We are supposed to believe that this girl who has fought in and despised the Hunger Games twice, would do this? The girl who had almost everything taken from her because of the them. The girl who volunteered to go to die in place of her little sister would willingly condemn more little girls to death within the Games, and do it in honor of her sister? Have more Hunger Games- for Prim? Huh? Did I miss something?

I've heard people say that it was to trick Coin, so that she could kill her later, but that doesn't make much sense either. If Coin sees that now she's willing to kill children when she never would have before, wouldn't that make her more suspicious?

And most of all - if that was her big plan, we needed to see her mind reeling and see the wheels turning like we usually do. Hear the plan unravel inside her head. I, personally, desperately needed that moment of pure clarity, where Katniss figures out what her purpose in all of this was. But no, all we got was: kill all those kids, for Prim.

That leads me to another point. I wanted to know more at the end. I wanted some kind of showdown between Katniss and Coin where Coin admits her guilt. How was she proven guilty? Who else was involved? How was Katniss cleared? What were Coin's real motives? Did Peeta know about Coin somehow? Is that why he told her not to trust them and to "find out what was going on"? Did Coin stage any of the other attacks? And did Katniss even care to ask any of these questions?

I kept expecting Katniss to have some revealing AHA moment where she gives an inspired speech at the end before or after she executes Coin, or Snow, or whoever the hell she wanted to execute. As long as she did it with flare. I wanted true conviction. I expected her to be courageous and say "Hold me accountable if you want, but they did this." Or just do something brave. Not run away and try to commit suicide.

I wanted the ending to feel the way it felt when she yelled, "If we burn. You burn with us."

Then there's the issue of the so called love triangle, that falls completely on it's face and gets laughed at by all the rebels. Well maybe not laughed at, but the rebels are always bringing up and commenting on this love triangle that, at least in this book, we don't see much evidence even exists. Katniss never chooses Peeta. Gale just stops showing up, even after Katniss had the most traumatic experience of her life. He doesn't call. He doesn't write. And the confession of love for either one of them pretty much never happens, except for in a passing remark at the end.  I do think she should have ended up with Peeta.

I love Peeta and I found the tortured Peeta infinitely interesting. There is so much that could have been done with that. I wanted so much for her to uncuff Peeta and for him to just go crazy, like he was about to hurt her but instead kiss her with a frenzied passion, as if there was nothing he wanted or needed more in the world than to be close to her. Nothing like that ever happened. That's what I wanted but didn't get from this book. Passion. It wasn't there; Katniss didn't have it for Peeta or Gale. It just wasn't in Katniss this time around.

The passion wasn't there for me either. I wanted to care. I wanted so badly to care. The only person I really didn't want to die was Peeta. But even that faded after all the talk about killing him, which Katniss was completely fine with?  At the end, I couldn't care less who died. I didn't really even care that Prim died and I should have cared. I almost think it would have been more poetic for Katniss to die for Prim at the end.

At least give us some real raw intensity, but all we got was indifference. Katniss was indifferent to who she ended up with, what happened with the Capital or the Games, and even to her own children. I wanted some emotion.

She could have at least said, "Her life ended when they spoke her name, but now a new life begins with that name. Primrose." With Peeta and Katniss standing over their new little bundle of joy daughter that they named for her sister. Or some gushing love story about how Katniss and Peeta finally got together. Always.

Or for her to be by herself, leading a life of meaning.  I find it hard to believe she would just give up and not want to be involved in her own life or other people lives and just fade away. Or even Katniss and Gale, if the love was really there. But No. He just fades into the background. Just gone. No poetic or heroic ending. Yes, life can be like that. But this is fiction! Fiction should make you feel powerful, like you can rise against all in your path. Like anything is possible. I did feel like anything could happen, but unfortunately I just didn't care what that particular "anything" might be.

My biggest gripe is not necessarily with the events that happened but with the lack of conviction that they happened with, in addition to the fact that I didn't feel any of the closure I was hoping for. Not with Peeta or Gale, or President Snow, or Prim or Katniss's Mom, or the Capital and worst of all not with the Hunger Games.

I think that the only closure I felt was with the cat, Buttercup.

I definitely would have liked a happily ever after, but I can't say I was expecting one. But whatever happened I wanted to see the ever after. Watch it unfold. Feel the emotions, whether good or bad. Live it all with Katniss. But I didn't. I'm sure some people did but not me, unfortunately. I felt as detached as she did.

Out of tremendous respect for the series and characters, I couldn't bring myself to give less than four stars. Even though this was more of a three for me. I just loved the first two sooo much. I just can't stand to admit that this book was pretty much a disaster for me.  Not when I think about Peeta. Ahhhh. Peeta.

I also feel like I gained a lot from reading this. Even though I don't agree with some of what Collins did with the characters, I still feel like this was a valuable read. Learning from what you read is one the most important aspects of the reading experience. I certainly learned a lot from this book, even if it was moreso about myself than about the characters in the book. That's what I strive for with reading. Sure, I want to be entertained, but that isn't always my only corcern. Sometimes, I want to be changed and this book and the entire series changed me.

And it did actually gave me a lot to think about, which is usually how I judge books.  Sometimes, I'm satisfied in the dissatisfaction. I like having things to ponder. However, I would have liked a little more closure. So despite my issues with this particular book, I still love the Hunger Games and Suzanne Collins. 

Just in a little bit of a jaded kind of way.