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

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

Shelves: completed-series-trilogy, favorites, military, 2024-floab, fantasy, siblings, futuristic, in-series-or-trilogy, romance, family

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

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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Jan 30, 2013 Jojobean rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: physical-books-owned, set-in-made-up-world, 5-star-ratings, dystopian-post-apocalyptic, paperback, favorites, 2010-publication, series-book-3

*There will be MAJOR SPOILERS*

Where to start with this book. I liked a lot of things in this book however I also hated a lot of things and I got pissed off many a times.

Basically this book picks up about a month after "Catching Fire". Katniss is now in district 13 with Gale and their families. Peeta is still captured by the capitol. District 13's president, Coin, is basically manning the rebellion. All the districts, save for district 2, are rebelling against the capitol. The book basically dea ...more

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Nov 26, 2014 Beth Roberts rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own, kindle

What must it feel like for an author to know that she has written a true classic? Surely that is how Suzanne Collins must feel, and deservedly so.

Once again, I am late to the party on "The Hunger Games". Like "Twilight", it took a kid dragging me to the movie to get me to read the books. However, the similarities between the "Twilight" saga and "The Hunger Games" trilogy must end there. In fact, one of the reasons I was so hesitant to read "The Hunger Games" was because of my overall dissatisfac What must it feel like for an author to know that she has written a true classic? Surely that is how Suzanne Collins must feel, and deservedly so.

Once again, I am late to the party on "The Hunger Games". Like "Twilight", it took a kid dragging me to the movie to get me to read the books. However, the similarities between the "Twilight" saga and "The Hunger Games" trilogy must end there. In fact, one of the reasons I was so hesitant to read "The Hunger Games" was because of my overall dissatisfaction with the final two books in "Twilight."

Because "Twilight" was my first foray into the now copious and prevalent YA genre, I dismissed everything beyond it as teen angst and sparkly vampires. I think I made a grievous error there.

I finished "The Mockingjay" this morning and have thought about it much of today. It has left my mind dark, stark and bereft. There are so many themes running through this trilogy that to dismiss it casually is just wrong. This is, in its completion, a work that demands further thought and an investment of emotion, whether the reader is willing or not.

Each book, in its simplest observation, is tightly planned and controlled. There are no wasted words, descriptions or dialog. Each of the three books is comprised of 27 chapters, divided into three parts, each 9 chapters long. I didn't do a word count of each individual chapter - but my guess is they run pretty close to each other.

I have to say, I read nothing similar to this as a YA myself years ago. Now, at 50, I feel cheated. Today's YA literature - sparkly vamps aside - has much to offer young people struggling to find a place in a world riddled with problems and issues.

Having grown up in the wake of the John F. Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam War, the subject of dissension and war itself has woven itself throughout my life, albeit, fortunately, on the outskirts. For this new generation, a product of 9/11 and a world changed by terror, "The Hunger Games" has much to address. And wisely, it does not attempt to preach and resolve. These dark themes are ones that have always been upon the earth and will continue to be.

"The Hunger Games" makes clear that we are all flawed, and that the differences are simply the degree to which individuals go to cover, hide, defy, embrace those flaws, and the decisions we make in our lives as a result. Perhaps, as Katniss Everdeen does, the best we can do is to survive, one moment, hour, day at a time, until we realize the tapestry of our lives may be more far-reaching than we had ever planned. That simply surviving is the equivalent of a boulder thrown in a calm mountain lake - the ripples impacting the far shore we can't even see.

"The Hunger Games" reads like that boulder in the lake. Some books leave you changed. This trilogy is a classic, with raw emotion and humanity lacking in profanity and gratuitous sex. There is life there, though at times, it is most definitely raw, hostile, angry and ugly.

I know that I, jaded by "Twilight" and beautiful, sparkly vampires, kept relying on the boy/girl element in this trilogy. But in the end, that is not what comes up and smacks you in the face. In fact, I almost wish the author had not included the epilogue. That was the only part that kind of spoke of "selling out" and a concession to the teen romance genre.

Katniss Everdeen IS amazing, if for nothing other than making it okay to realize that much of life is simply learning to make peace with the damage and fallout, and that if you are fortunate to end up in some kind of harmony with those around you, to not take it for granted. Ever. ...more

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Mar 05, 2012 Mandi rated it it was amazing

Although I felt like she rushed the ending, it was still an amazing ending to the hunger games. I didn't really expect Katniss to turn out like that in the end. It does make sense that she did though. Especially after all that she's been through. But, I did expect her to choose the right guy when it was all over, which she did. I'm not looking forward to this one becoming a movie. There is so many scenes that would be even more heartbreaking on film than they already are. Overall, a good ending ...more

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