Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)

In the final volume, Collins' rage against the Western Machine gives way to rage against human nature as Katniss goes to war. It's easily the best of the three books and brings everything to a satisfactory close - which is not to say that the ending is a giant ball of fluff. Indeed, Katniss goes through a few additional types of hell before all is done and gets a realistic, qualified, happily-ever-after.

There are still irritating flaws, even excluding carry-overs from the previous books but fewer of them. It's a shame that Collins did not take more time and care to ensure everything made logical sense in her world and to do some research on bows and hunting etc. as then this series would have been a towering achievement. As it is, it is the passionate anger driving the writing that makes these books worthwhile and everything wrong with them ultimately forgivable. Few novels are as compelling and few convey such ferocious anger. The Hunger Games trilogy tackles such a wide range of issues both contemporary and timeless in such a gripping and powerful way that I think it will still be read a long time from now, which is what any serious writer wants for his/her books, surely?

[guessing at the star rating / mining my old FB notes now that they are almost impossible to find]

so many thoughts; it's not as simple as commenting on one book, since this is the ending, so you reflect on the whole trilogy...

at first i was really bored by the whole peeta or gale seesaw - hello? twilight called and they want their pathethic plot device back.

i thought it was geting better when peeta hates katniss - finally! cause it's annoying that she's automatically so desired - but that whole i'm-trying-so-hard to-hold-back-from-hurting-you(biting your neck and sucking your blood, delicious bella)even-though-it-goes-against-my-capital-induced-programming(nature) reminded me (again!) of lameduck twilight

i wonder if the author had the movie rights sold bought before she wrote mockingjay - so much of it was framed inside a tv screen. that bugged me. and the capital as a rigged arena with pods going off every which way was both overly violent (much more so than the other 2 books) and not believable in the least. why would a government place mines within it's own city walls? it's destructive to your population and infrastructure; it would not be tolerated.

lastly, i was shocked by how many of the beloved characters die. after 3 books, they become important and integral and it's hard to see them gone. but i guess the author had to have a futily-of-war message, and you can't do that if everone lives happily ever after.

and yet, i still enjoyed the series. i liked the ending because it's what i wanted to happen. and, as a young adult series, i liked the message that it gave: the ease with which a victim turns to a bully once power has shifted in their favour. any teenager reading the book can see how allowing just one more hunger games opens the door to just one more, then one more. no one wakes up a monster, it happens slowly if you lose sight of your original goal.