Mockingjay
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The ending... how did it leave you feeling?
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Megan
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rated it 2 stars
Feb 01, 2012 01:25PM

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You read my mind. I loved this book as well. It was so real & raw to me. I do believe peeta was katniss' soul mate. The loved each other warts & all. Remember when she returns to D12 broken & severely depressed. She won't shower and sleeps her days away. Then Peeta shows up with the primrose bushes to planet for Katniss, as a memorial to Prim. And it clicks with her. He 's only one who actually gives a shit about me. She goes back in the house and takes a shower, changes her clothes. She asks Greasy Sae about Gale to see how her heart reacts. And she realizes he means nothing to her.

I agree completely. I think people didn't like the book because she didn't end up with Gale or that is wasn't a happy Disneyfied type of ending. It was very much realistic and people have a hard time trying to grasp what war and the aftermath is like. Anyways, I loved the trilogy and this book. The ending was good to end the story. It left me wondering and thinking about it like you said.


There were a lot of loose ends that were never dealt with. Gale just goes to district 2 (Katniss and him never even have a final goodbye), her mother stays in the Capitol, she winds up with Peeta, etc. It felt like simpply getting a recap of the events. It was all way too rushed for me.

I mean what's good in a book if you read it and then it's done and over? If it doesn't leave you with questions, what good is it? Not all things in life are going to be answered. I know there are things we would like answered or maybe just more information, but thinking and reflecting on it keeps it with you longer and makes it more precious. Like Veronica Roth said, "I want to give people space to think and breathe while they read my book...I would much rather you come away with questions than answers." (She's the author of Divergent, which is AMAZING by the way.) Questions make you think and get your own answers and help you develop you're virtues and beliefs.

This is the story of a war and war changes things drastically, both in a society and its people. It's thus pretty understandable why some character would act 'OCC' at the end (like Gale for example). But what really annoyed me for most of the third book, and which I think is really the fatal flaw of Collin's writing, is that she didn't allow Katniss to stand up for herself. During the entire series Katniss is manipulated; she's a pawn, and people use her to represent and start the rebellion because they are too afraid to do it themselves, and because they eventually begin to believe in a savior. And Katniss makes a point herself of how she's just an image. SO what I was expecting was to see her rise up to the occasion. Do something about it. Put some heart into her action. Drop the drugs and cease mopping around. Take her OWN decisions and bring to an end what has made her life a mess till now.
Is it understandable for a 16-17 year old to feel insecure about becoming such a symbol and being the head of a revolution? Yes. But why would we be reading the books if it wasn't to see Katniss affirm herself? Instead she doesn't account to much, and keeps avoiding her responsibilities for far too long.
That's why it doesn't matter to me if she ended up with Peeta, and if Gale went away. Both guys had decent predispositions to go with Katniss at the end. Katniss simply didn't get to choose, and no where in the book is there a clear explanation, a proof of her feelings, given to the readers. If well explained and demonstrated, Katniss could have ended up with Gale just as well as with Peeta. Everything was just bundled up messily for the sake of finishing quickly. It's a shame, really, because so much more could have been done.
Harold wrote: "The ending of Mockingjay is the reason that I'm glad I read The Hunger Games series."
yayy!
yayy!

Because of the sufferings that Katniss had been through, I was expecting her to be stronger than ever. An inspiration that I could look up to.
Honestly, the hanging tree-from the first time I heard it(audio book)-left me nightmares. It, unknowingly, scared the crap out of me.
The ending also made me yearn for more. It's as if I was expecting "JUST KIDDING" at the end.
This story made me traumatized with bad happenings leaving me to a state swearing not to read any tragic stories anymore(even though this was not a very tragic story since it had a somehow happy ending).

the thing i liked about it most was the fact that it WAS realistic. thank you for pointing that out. i think what most people are most concerned about are the lack of romantic scenes for Peeta and Katniss. but this abrupt realistic ending was smart for Collins. I think she intended the series to end on such an abrupt way so that people would continue to discuss it and form their own theories and their own stories. because the best stories are not fed to you. you give your own interpretation of the story and make the story live on.

I feel the same way...


We started to see Gale change when he began insisting on a revolution before anything had started. And he just continued down that path, so it made sense for him to choose that life over Katniss in the end. Especially because he kept giving indications that he knew she didn't truly love him, so he forced himself to back off throughout the third book. Plus she loved her sister so much and she knew she'd never be able to forgive him for contributing to her death, even if indirectly. I am glad the author didn't make the character of Prim more fleshed out for the reader, otherwise I'd have been beside myself.
It was frustrating how Katniss would be so adament about something (like her mission to kill Snow) and then just turn around and implusively do something completely different. I kept reminding myself that she is a 17 year old girl, and that is how they tend to be. Overall she made good decisions so it wasn't difficult to understand why people wanted to follow her.
I think the ending to the series could have definitely been worse; more disturbing and even more depressing. I'm actually thankful it wasn't.

I've seen other YA dystopia do the "actually the rebel leader is just as bad as the tyrant you were overthrowing" thing before, but they did it better. They left you with something to hang on to at the end.
The Hunger Games doesn't leave us with anything. Prim's dead, Cinna's Dead, Peeta is all murdery-brainwashed-hateful, Gale developed the weapon that killed Prim, Snow is an evil asshole, Coin is an evil asshole.
Everyone sucks. Everyone who doesn't suck is dead. Katniss has, unsurprisingly, gone crazy.
How fucking depressing is that? It's like building a huge model world and then stamping all over it until every single thing you built is destroyed. Way to go!
I prefer books which have difficult topics, which have characters die, which make me cry. But they need to leave SOMETHING left, some tiny little glimmer of hope, some evidence that everything you watched and loved and saw develop over a trilogy wasn't all completely destroyed.
I thought Patrick Ness did this a thousand times better.

I happen to find it perfect for the series. She went through hell and back and ended up in hell again. If it were to end happy with butterflies and rainbows and Gale, then I would have thrown the book away. To me, the ending shows that there is pain with war, and that even though terrible, terrible things happened, life goes on. Like the dandelion, you can find beauty and peace and happiness if you try, if you perservere and fight through coping with the hurt.
The romance was not the highlight of the story. If that's all you were looking at was who she ended up with, then you missed a lot. In our civilized and rather "easy" world we live in, where we debate on the books we read and the things we wear (much like the Capitol), we tend to block out all the bad things and not process them.
I think Katniss did her best in the first two books to be strong, but by the third, with Peeta being hijacked, her District gone, having to live underground and under a different type of "evil" power, I think she broke. I can't imagine being twisted and used and manipulated so much and then watch everyone I love die around me. I think of how I might handle that and it makes Katniss look like she did it with a smile on her face.
The fact is that Collins kept the character real and they grew and changed the way that you could expect them to change given the circumstances.

I think Gale and Katniss both knew they didn't have a chance after the parachute bombings. He did say that taking care of her family was about all he had going for him and that was shot to hell after what could have been his bombs blew up Prim and set Katniss on fire. That would be a pretty big hurdle in a relationship. I think it would be hard for everyone if Gale went back to 12. Katniss felt relieved when he was gone. Maybe because he wouldn't be around to stir up any more emotions.




I don't think Collins needs to clarify anything. Look at all the buzz she created by not doing so. If it wrapped up nicely, there would not be as much discussion. :)
The ending is perfectly alright, but I sort of felt "Oh. OK." after the ending, if you know what I mean.



At first when I finished the book I was disappointed because it wasn't a "happy ending". I hoped that Katniss would find inner peace and feel better after living through all that tragedy.
Think of it from Katniss' viewpoint. The ending sounded 'pure Katniss Everdeen' to me. Dissatisfied with the way things resulted in, but faking a smile, trying her best to look in the bright side of things, not having overcome her days of deep pain... It's not that it's bad, it's just Katniss. That would probably be me if I were her too.
Katniss lived through many things, perhaps harder than I can imagine. She had to 'love' someone for the sake of her own life, for a bunch of 'games' that are nothing but cruelty. She had to take responsibility of her family, remain strong and cope with all the sorrow.
She couldn't even succeed in the end, and her wish in the beginning of the series didn't come true. She couldn't protect her sister from the inevitable end. She may have succeeded in saving Panem, rescuing Peeta and gaining independence; but she had to give up on what she wanted best.
I think that was what Suzanne Collins wanted to do. See how the book stuck to me? I think about it, all the time. The Hunger Games series didn't simply end for me. I keep comparing it to my own life, to sort out my priorities. To know what I really want, and act accordingly. To learn that not always do I get things the way I wanted in life, yet to do what it takes to fight for it anyway.


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