Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3) in All Challenges All The Time

Mar 25, 2015 Catsalive rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014, 2016, 2022, 2024

I thought the ending was pretty weak & anticlimactic. In fact, this whole book is a bit of a grind, then you get to the end & wonder why you bothered - the apathetic heroine didn't give a shit about anything/one & only had space for self-pity, so why should we care.

Oh! Peeta! Yep, the rest of the world can go to hell in a handbasket as long as I get my way over him, not because I love him but because I need him to prop up my self-esteem. Ugh!

Gale, Finnick & Haymitch were so much more interestin ...more

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Jul 22, 2017 Susan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This trilogy was so good and I am so sad it's over. I honestly don't know what took me so long to read all 3 books but I am sure glad I read them now, I am going to miss the characters, Katness, Gale, Peeta and Haymitch (I loved Haymitch) what a great book. SO much happened in this book that at first I kept thinking I think I'm going to stop reading it. I had a love hate relationship with what had happened to Peeta and then they want to kill off the main girl (Katness) and again I'm like this is ...more

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

Shelves: 2024-floab, loss-of-a-loved-one, animals, siblings, borrowed-hoopla, fantasy, family, crime, romance, title-one-word

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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Feb 25, 2012 Sassafrass rated it it was amazing

Shelves: z-2013, z-challenge-books-2013, audiobooks, young-adult, dystopia

This wasn't my favorite in the series, but I gave it a higher score because the whole trilogy was fantastic. I have to remember that this is a dystopian series so I shouldn't expect a lovely, neat HEA but the romance addict in me can't help it sometimes.

I was reeling from all of the deaths because, man, people were dying left and right in this thing. And it hurt. It also hurt that Katniss had her head up her rear end for most of the book. I'm glad she figured out though how to play the game. It' ...more

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Nov 29, 2018 Carrie rated it liked it

Shelves: mgr, young-adult, dystopia

3 stars?
2.5 stars?
2.75 stars is more like it

So this was a hard book to rate, because I liked it, it was okay. I love how it wasn't yet again let's go back and have another hunger games, that was a plus. I was dreading that. The whole time reading I kept on thinking this is going to be a book that the ending will make or break it, and sadly it broke it. I was let down by the end, it felt as if she was losing steam in writing it. The best thing about the ending was Buttercup and Katness bonding. ...more

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May 22, 2010 Malin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: my-books

This book is the third in The Hunger Games trilogy and this review WILL contain spoilers for both The Hunger Games (Book 1) and Catching Fire (Book 2). So skip over this if you've managed to avoid the series so far. You really should read the books, though. : )

Katniss Everdeen has survived not one, but two Hunger Games, and is now a wanted criminal. Her home district in Panem has been completely destroyed, but luckily her best friend Gale and her family, as well as a few hundred survivors have b This book is the third in The Hunger Games trilogy and this review WILL contain spoilers for both The Hunger Games (Book 1) and Catching Fire (Book 2). So skip over this if you've managed to avoid the series so far. You really should read the books, though. : )

Katniss Everdeen has survived not one, but two Hunger Games, and is now a wanted criminal. Her home district in Panem has been completely destroyed, but luckily her best friend Gale and her family, as well as a few hundred survivors have been rescued and taken to the believed to be destroyed District 13. While Katniss is still alive, she's not allowed any respite. The survivors of District 13 have rebuilt their civilization underground, and manage to feed, clothe, train and educate everyone through rigid order. They are now in open rebellion against the Capitol and want Katniss to help them mobilize the rest of the country by operating as a figurehead and symbol, the Mockingjay.

"My name is Katniss Everdeen. I am seventeen years old. My home is District 12. I was in the Hunger Games. I escaped. The Capitol hates me. Peeta was taken prisoner. He is thought to be dead. Most likely he is dead. It is possibly best if he is dead..."

While Katniss was rescued from the 75th Hunger Games by District 13, Peeta was not, and it turns out that there are fates worse than death. Peeta appears to support the cause of the Capitol, and begs Katniss and the rebels to agree to a peace treaty. Katniss agrees to be the Mockingjay on the condition that Peeta (and some of the other surviving Hunger Games contestants unaccounted for) be rescued, and not executed as traitors. Until he is, it's quite obvious that President Snow is torturing him specifically to try to break Katniss' spirit, and through her the rebellion.

Is Katniss right to agree to be a figure head for a civil war she wants no part of? While she has survived the Hunger Game arena twice, it's quite clear that war, politics and propaganda are just as deadly a game to traverse, and she has to make sure her loved ones are safe. She lives with the knowledge that District 12 was destroyed in retaliation of her actions, that Peeta is being tortured because of her, and that if she steps a foot out of line as figurehead, she could endanger the lives of the loved ones she has left. Unable to truly trust anyone, she has to make the best of a dreadful situation, and hope that things turn out right in the end.

While I thought that Catching Fire became a bit of a rehash of the first book in the series, Collins takes the book and her heroine in a different direction in Mockingjay. The districts of Panem are now in open rebellion, and while the first books had fights to the death as televised entertainment and a way to keep the population cowed and contolled, this book depicts full on civil war. Katniss is still so young, but forced to make nearly impossible decisions, to keep herself and her loved ones safe. She's racked with guilt about Peeta, who's being tortured and brainwashed by the Capitol and President Snow. She feels conflicted towards Gale, who seems to excel and thrive at guerilla warfare and advanced weapons development. She knows that District 13 and its President need her to act as figurehead, but that also that because of her popularity, she may not live long once the war is over, no matter what side emerges victorious.

I didn't have books like this when I was a teenager, that's for sure. I kept putting off reading Mockingjay because the previous two books were so dark, and I had heard this one was especially bleak. However, The Hunger Games trilogy are now the publishing phenomena of the season, with a very good film adaptation in the cinemas, and teenagers everywhere devouring the books. Three of the teenage girls I teach claimed that they couldn't do their homework properly (which among other things, involves writing a reading log), because they were worried they were going to spoil the book for me. Obviously, I can't give my pupils excuses to skip their homework, so I devoured the book in the course of a weekend, and can now with authority join in the discussion of whether Team Peeta or Team Gale should win. I certainly think teenage girls (and boys) have much better role models in these books than they get in the Twilight books. Collins certainly can't be accused of underestimating the intelligence or maturity levels of teens, and teens today could do much worse than reading and discussing these books. A very good (if bleak) ending to an engrossing series. ...more

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