[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.