Review - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games #3)

Picture from Goodreads.com

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian

Format: Hardcover (390 pages)

Publisher: Scholastic Inc

Publication Date:  August 24th 2010

Rating: 5/5
Source: Bought from Amazon

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Summary From Goodreads:

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 plains--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.

What I think (Contains minor spoilers):I also apologized if the review seemed to a bit off compared to my other review. The review was written the moment I finished the book and I am still pretty teary and emotional about the ending =(

Before even reading this book, I read a lot of reviews saying how disappointing the ending was and also heard how a lot of people complained about the ending being such a letdown. Thus, I dwelled in the story with this mindset – that I won’t like it.

The plot was relatively slow compared to the first two books, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire as a big portion of the book was mainly “talking” and not a lot of action. Even after reading more than half of the book, I did not know which direction the author is taking with the protagonists of the story. However,  I felt that it was necessary for Mockingjay to long winded because there are so many explanation that tied up all the loose ends that occurred in the first two book.

  

With that said, there were not much character development on Katniss, with the exception that she went completely mental due to the trauma inflicted on her by the Games and the corrupted Capitol. Mockingjay did focus a lot on Gale, and to me, I understood more of his purpose in this whole story although Suzanne Collins did not dived details. However, I did not like how the relationship of Gale and Katniss ended, and that I felt there should be more explanation on that point. Prim was also forced to grow up and almost all changes were focus on her – from the weak little girl under the protection of her older sister to a complete independent individual.  There were some scenes between Annie and Finnick which I did enjoyed and was happy about them. However, I did not think that it was necessary to kill Finnick off. What happened to Annie in the end? Is she happy that her husband is dead and what remains of Finnick was their precious son? What about Joanna? In my opinion, I think she needs closure from the story as well.  I don’t know. I just thought that Collins should have sacrificed someone else beside Finnick. I also really love the relationship between Katniss and Finnick in Mockingjay. There are times that I actually want them to be together in the end. Overall, I was happy that Katniss ended up with Peeta even though I did not like how Katniss treated him in the first two books. In addition, what happen to district 13 and the sketchbook from Cinna? No one knows and there are no implication of it in the book.

Surprisingly, I really love the ending. By the time I reached the last chapter, I started start getting super emotional, and when the epilogue was reached, tears literally rolled down my cheeks. The ending was beautiful and tragic in a way. You might disagree with me, but I think the ending was suited for this genre of book as the story talked about the flaws of human beings.

Rating: ★★★★★