Mockingjay

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins // 390 pgs

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Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.

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I didn’t hate the final installment of the Hunger Games trilogy; I thought it was fun (though sometimes frustrating) and depicted an actual revolution in a serious tone. It gets gritty and dark, people Katniss loves die; in some cases, a character’s death is almost a footnote due to the chaos occurring. The parallel between Snow and Coin was well done, depicting that there isn’t a good or bad side in war and revolution. It’s a mature theme that I think is good for teens to approach, and Collins executed it well.

Katniss being both this puppet of the revolution, a girl thrust into this awful situation with most of her agency removed, takes the center stage of this book. While I understand that is the point of the story, I didn’t fully enjoy it. Things just seem to happen around her; I wish she had just a little bit more control. I feel like there could have been a way to execute this theme more satisfyingly.

I also loathed the love triangle. I was never a fan of Gale as a romantic interest, but in this book man was he the worst. He was even more pushy and treated Katniss like she had to like him. It felt exploitative, like he needed to be the center of her attention while she is experiencing significant trauma. While I do like Peeta as a love interest, I actually enjoyed his separation from Katniss for a bit and him being traumatized so bad he hated her. It could have been an interesting dynamic, an almost inverse of the first book. Instead, Katniss wallows in her own pain. I wish more was done with Peeta’s trauma a bit, and I felt like the third part needed more build up to him trusting Katniss again.

I do think things got better at the ending; Katniss finally retaking her agency against Coin and finally finding stability and happiness, though with the echoes of trauma still haunting her. It was realistic, yet still bittersweet.