Closing my eyes doesn’t help. Fire burns brighter in the darkness. Katniss Everdeen, p. 210
Today I finished Suzanne Collins’ “Mockingjay.” As I mentioned before, I needed some closure so I couldn’t just put this book down and ignore Katniss’ struggles. In these 232, Collins does a great job of keeping us on our toes with her unexpected turns. Collins, once again, impressed me with her character development and her thorough provision of detail to the storyline. The book starts by recounting the destruction of District 12 and the capture of Peeta and other victors. As if this isn’t tragic enough, we learn about Katniss’ internal turmoil and confusion as she faces the reality that she is the face of the Rebellion and will have to submit to the authorities of District 13 if she wants to give Peeta a chance of surviving. As we have already learned, Katniss has never been good at following instructions but instead is defensive and overthinks situations. These two traits cause a lot of trouble and many injuries. Despite all of this, I can’t say I blame her because, in the end, she had all the right to be suspicious. As if this isn’t enough, she goes on to describe a world in which there is no compassion, no empathy, and no limits – only endless fear, hatred and vengeance. As in every war, death is expected, but some of these deaths are so unwanted, unexpected and heartbreaking that I can confidently say I don’t think I’ll read this book again. Though I already said this in a previous post, I’ll say it again: this is my least favorite book of the series. I was wondering if reading it again would help me like it more than the first time, and it did, but I still feel betrayed, shocked and indignant.
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
The true reason I dislike this book is Prim’s death. WHY!? This is so cruel and unnecessary. Maybe, in reality, it is a great plot twist, and I am just biased because I have a little sister I would volunteer for, but if you ask me, Prim’s survival was the only reason this whole journey started in the first place. Everything else is meaningless. Even though it is the most tragic part, there is a lot of emotional commotion outside of Prim’s death too. I still can’t believe Peeta was high jacked! It is heartbreaking that all of Peeta’s sweet memories of Katniss are corrupted and distorted. On the bright side, there is a deep sense of satisfaction when Peeta recovers and returns to Katniss. Finnick’s death is despicable as well as the thought of his son growing up without ever knowing him. Even with all the unpredictability, the fact that Katniss and Peeta get married, have kids, and manage to have a life full of hope and love despite all the challenges seems like an overwhelming victory to me. I guess it’s pretty obvious I have a weakness for happy endings.
488 words
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I read this series in middle school with my sister and my mom, so reading your review about this book brings back some good memories of my mom, my sister, and hot coco(we read it during the winter). I liked this book all the way up till the end where, you nailed it, Prims death. First off, Prim should never had died, like it was a very unnecessary death. Second of all, she died horribly in a fire bomb disguised as care packages! My anger for president snow lives on! Very good and accurate book review!
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I completely agree with you about Prim’s death. It was the whole reason everything started!!!!!!!! I watched the movie when it came out but i remember nothing by now. I really need to do a Hunger Games marathon like you did. Good review!
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I definitely agree that this is the weakest of the three books, though it’s been a while since I’ve read them. It was also around here that I went from having a net neutral feeling to dislike. The second books was, if nothing else, intense, and did a better job of illustrating the brutality of the government (even if having a second games was cheap). But especially towards the end, Mockingbird fell apart for me. I quickly loose patience with relentlessly depressed characters, and *SPOILER* Katniss’s suicidal attitude after the death of Prim left me at the end of my rope.
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