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Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)

Suzanne Collins

Start date: January 1, 2015

Finish date: January 31, 2015

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What Members Thought

Aug 24, 2010 Kate rated it really liked it

No spoilers

My response? I'm numb from all that war. I worked with refugees for years and this story has left me in the same state I used to get into after a tough day of work, jangling with a secondary PTSD -- a veryveryvery faint echo of what they experience.

So. Anyway. I'm still curled up with that and unable to catch the cleverness or plot twists or whatever. I keep trying to hold onto the last few lines of the epilogue -- the way Katniss does.

The ending felt rushed. We'd worked so hard to ...more

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Apr 13, 2014 Shan ~A~ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: animals, siblings, borrowed-hoopla, family, romance, crime, audio, in-series-or-trilogy, favorites, sci-fi

Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, Primrose Everdeen, Gale Hawthorne, Haymitch Abernathy, Finnick Odair, Johanna Mason, President Coriolanus Snow, President Coin

Updated Review: 08/14/2024 ~ not changing my rating even though I felt a bit different about the overall book this time around.

My notes from buddy read instead of new review
Part 1: Chapters 1-9

I'm listening to this via audio with the lovely Tatiana Maslany. So my rambling is probably disjointed. I've seen the movies countless times, so I ...more

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Jan 31, 2012 J. Lynn Else rated it it was ok

Is it that Collins' gets lost in the storyline? Did she just want to finish everything? It was a lot of things, but this book was a sore disappointment compared to the first two books.

The book focuses on the methods and justifications of war including the sacrifices we tolerate against an enemy. Fascinating exploration for a while, but it overshadows the books we have loved previously. There is no more Katniss that I could recognize.

Katniss is nothing but a tool who makes no decisions about he Is it that Collins' gets lost in the storyline? Did she just want to finish everything? It was a lot of things, but this book was a sore disappointment compared to the first two books.

The book focuses on the methods and justifications of war including the sacrifices we tolerate against an enemy. Fascinating exploration for a while, but it overshadows the books we have loved previously. There is no more Katniss that I could recognize.

Katniss is nothing but a tool who makes no decisions about her ever-present "love" triangle. She seems, actually, to feel nothing for anyone except her sister. In the end, a decision is inadequately made and "explained" in one brief bland sentence. Its the biggest let down of the storyline! You wait the entire series for her to come to a decision of the man she discovers that she loves, and its given no emotional revelation! She ends up never facing and dealing with her feelings, something I thought the character would develop into. She ends up never really growing as a character. She also never comes to the realization that she's turned into her mother and is doing the things she once despised her for!

Katniss is, as I said, a tool. Reading all the propo stuff they were doing, it felt like I was reading a Captain America novelization. I kept thinking, we've already explored these grounds with other franchises. Collins created something new with this series, and I was extremely saddened in this final installment as it seemed to be rehashed material that completely changed the series the audience connected with. Peeta's absence is missed! There was no balance between all the madness in this book.

Another frustrating plot point is when Katniss chooses to lead her team to assassinate Snow. Most of her team ends up dying horribly (including some beloved favorites!), and then the rebels end up meeting them at the Capitol building anyway! Its like her journey was for nothing. She did nothing except get people killed and become someone easily manipulated. Katniss did not grow or change or end up doing anything truly significant in this book. I closed the book very let down and sad that this was what Katniss turned out to be. It’s a heartbreaking book, chilling, haunting, and intense, but in the end, the character is what matters, and she did not seem to really grow in any emotional or meaningful way. ...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Steve Lindahl rated it it was amazing

Mockingjay is the only book in the Hunger Games trilogy that doesn't center on the heroine’s (Katniss’) struggles in the games. By this time she is fighting her real enemy, the government that created the games. It follows that this book loses some of what makes the other two unique, but Mockingjay is still an exciting read and an interesting commentary on the various ways governments control their populations.

The first two books told the story of a society with an economic system structured to Mockingjay is the only book in the Hunger Games trilogy that doesn't center on the heroine’s (Katniss’) struggles in the games. By this time she is fighting her real enemy, the government that created the games. It follows that this book loses some of what makes the other two unique, but Mockingjay is still an exciting read and an interesting commentary on the various ways governments control their populations.

The first two books told the story of a society with an economic system structured to funnel money away from the workers, making them dependent on the central government. The games were designed to intimidate the population by reminding them of the power that government held over them. This book presents another government (in district thirteen) that controls its people through laws designed to emphasis the society over the individual. The comparison of capitalism vs. communism is clear and powerful. These books are allegories.

The books are also adventure stories and in Mockingjay there are some changes in the way the adventure is handled. Katniss’ archery skill is so great, one could argue that she is a superhero in the first two novels. In the third, that skill is deemphasized. Katniss contributes to the fight against the Capitol by becoming a symbol of the resistance. Her most important skill is her ability to encourage others to fight rather than her own combat abilities. Or course, the leaders of the resistance cannot keep Katniss away from the frontline because she hates what the Capitol has done to the people she loves. There are plenty of action scenes.

The love triangle relationship Katniss has with Gale and Peeta continues in this book with Gale playing a bigger role and Peeta, who is being held by the enemy, kept in the background. The relationships seem to be propelled more by circumstances and less by emotions in this book. I saw that other reviewers complained about that fact, but in the end I was satisfied with the way things worked out.

On its own, Mockingjay would not work as well as the other two books, but along with them it creates an excellent story that is fun, poignant, and has a powerful message.

Steve Lindahl - Author of Motherless Soul ...more

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Nov 25, 2010 Ahtims rated it liked it

Shelves: borrowed, young-adult, scifi-utopia-dystopia

Finally ended the series. My liking for the series progressively declined, the third one being least liked. I could not have tolerated a fourth book. This one ties up most loose threads, Pan Am as such is destroyed, or perhaps not? The autocrats are taken care of, the Hunger games totally banned, and Katniss and Peta decide upon a non-controversial life. Gayle is still the warrior, bent upon setting things right. The epilogue of the book gives us a glimpse of the future events.

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Dec 28, 2010 Jessica rated it really liked it

Shelves: grade-b, books-i-own, ya, part-of-a-series, dystopian, read-in-2012, disappointing

Ahhh! This book riled up so many emotions! It was definitely a page turner and I found myself compulsively turning the pages just to find out what would happen to my beloved characters.

Honestly, I was SO disappointed. I HATED how Collins chose to end the series and almost felt cheated out of the entire ending. I seriously think that this book needed to be twice as long in order to for the reader to experience the story without feeling rushed (especially at the end). I found myself not even reali ...more

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