Review for Mockingjay

Title: Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publication Date: August 24, 2010
Source: Bought
Summary (from Goodreads):


"My name is Katniss Everdeen. Why am I not dead? I should be dead.

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."

                                    Review 

                                              (Just a warning there will be spoilers in this review)

Do you remember how, in my review for Catching Fire, I asked “now what?” Well, I have an answer for that after reading Mockingjay. Now what happens? Now this reviewer is left disappointed. Yes, I said it. Very disappointed.

Mockingjay was to me what Catching Fire was to other people. It just didn’t do it for me. Even with Gale (still swooning) in the entire thing I was left feeling…blah.

I hated what Collins did to Finnick, turning him into some kind of shell that could barely function. His death was so…unnecessary! He went through all the hell he did in the arena and out at Snow’s hands, he finally got to marry the love of his life and then he’s eaten by mutts in a sewer. I sat there stunned. How could Collins do that? I also hated what happened to Peeta, and I hated the person he was when he was brought back to Katniss. It wasn’t just what she did to these characters that I came to care about though. It was the entire story line. It just didn’t live up to the previous two. It was like Collins missed the mark now that the Games were out of the story.

The thing that really made me want to slam the book closed (aside from Finnick’s death  because I did slam it closed then and refused to pick it back up for days) was when Coin asked the remaining victors if they thought it would be fair to have one last Game with the Capitol’s children. I loathed Katniss for her answer. I couldn’t understand it, even with her reasoning because it was for Prim. She was in that arena. She knew what it was like. It wasn’t the people in the Capital that made the rules, it was President Snow. They were just as outraged in book two when Katniss and the other victors were sent back in to play for crying out loud!

In the first book we meet a very spirited, very in control girl. She’s kick ass and doesn’t take shit from anyone. Book two she’s a little less of the Katniss we met, but it’s understandable with what she’s just been through and what she’s going through again. But by book three? What happened to Katniss? I swear all she does in Mockingjay is stalk the hallways, nap in closets and end up in the hospital drugged up over and over again. What happened to our strong leading lady? Gone! She’s gone, people!

The only thing I really did like about it was the friendship that formed between Johanna Mason and Katniss. I really didn’t like Johanna in the second book, but she definitely redeemed herself in Mockingjay.

I don’t want to say that the book was a total let down because Collin’s is a good story teller and there were parts of the book that were good, but I can’t help but feel very dissatisfied by it.