The conclusion to Collins' Hunger Games trilogy is more satisfying than its predecessor, Catching Fire, and still less than the very high bar she set with The Hunger Games. Ultimately, Catching Fire and Mockingjay together feel like a single book that was split into two parts with the 75th Hunger Games thrown in to Catching Fire for extra excitement.

Mockingjay follows the revolution that is the natural consequence of the events of Catching Fire. Katniss finds herself in the hands of the not-quite-dead-yet District 13, the rebels who lost the civil war 75 years ago that precipitated the introduction of the Hunger Games in the first place. She finds herself a figure of inspiration - much to her discomfiture - and stuck between her love and loyalty for Gale (longtime hunting companion) and Peeta (fellow Hunger Games combatant).

I quite like Collins' portrayal of the larger forces at work demonstrating how little power Katniss actually has, and how desperately (and with rough consequences) her attempts to parlay her power end up playing out. The politicians against whom Katniss ranges herself are not bumbling adults; they are smarter and think faster because she's playing in their world. Katniss' strengths, as ever, lie in short-term guerilla tactics.

Collins complicates both love interests very well. Gale is a little more ruthless than Katniss is comfortable with. Peeta has been tortured by the government at the Capitol. So... love triangle, boo. Well-executed love triangle... I'll say "okay" before "yay," because they're a trope that really needs a rest, but at least no one fell in love with someone because of their eyes or their hair or something.

The plotting and structure are where I couldn't keep my interest level high. This book is a war story; the revolutionaries make their inexorable way toward the castle and we see that neither side is all that you'd hope for. Both make calculated attacks for political gain - because the war is bigger than any battle. By the time Katniss arrives with her small band of elite soldiers to infiltrate the Capitol, well, the stake get higher, and the pace gets faster, and the dangers get a little more out of this world. We're suddenly introduce to new terminology ("pods"), which, while not complicated, could have easily been introduced in Catching Fire as a way of providing continuity. As it is, each time the word came up - and once it arose, it veritably swarmed - it took me out of the story.

The reveal of the source of the name of the country - Panem - was a bit of a soul-crusher. Collins builds this fabulous, intricate world, and then reveals that the name of the country is based on a pithy phrase from ancient history - a name that reflects the Hunger Games more than anything (which is good symmetry for writing, sure), but presumably the country was Panem before the Hunger Games were installed. And yes, there might have been something else that preceded the Games, but if so, we never heard about them. In a trilogy of deliberate and based choices, this felt cheap.

And the denouement killed me a little. I understand why it's necessary. I understand that we want Katniss to have as happy a life as she can get, because I did, too. I wanted a happy life for her. Collins slows the story down to a point where I felt that the happy ending was too many words with not enough detail. Her attention to detail means that Katniss doesn't get happy-ever-after, as seen in the first part of the denouement, but the latter part focuses only on the mostly happy. As a conclusion, it felt a little, well, inconclusive.

Like Catching Fire, you're going to read this if you want to know the end of Katniss' story. And they're both good reads. They simply don't match up to the first installment - they're different kinds of books. In many ways, they're more ambitious kinds of books. And that's to be applauded.