A brilliant, fast-paced, emotional roller coaster. A heroine worthy of the respect of tweens and adults alike. A critique of our own society as we see a future where our worst elements are taken to the extreme. While kept appropriate for its readers, it does not disguise the horrors of war or pretend like happily ever after is an option after the destruction that the audience witnesses. A wide array of well developed, complex characters.
I could go on and on, but I will stop here and just say that if you have not taken the time to read Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series, stop reading this now and go buy it. It is yet another shining example of young adult fiction that should not be loved by readers of all ages.
Now that you've done that, I can stop worrying about spoilers. I picked up the final book in this series the day it came out, and finished it that night. I had been waiting since learning at the end of Catching Fire (a year ago) that there was no more District 12. The chilling cliffhanger and the fact that I believed Catching Fire to be even better than the brilliant first book in the series, The Hunger Games. I loved the unexpected twists and the growth of our favorite characters. The conflicts were new and you could sense their world was changing. You could sense the change because Collins' writing made you so familiar with this society that you could tell when things were just a little different. Mockingjay starts and thrusts you right back into Panem as Katniss, our beloved but reluctant heroine, is faced with the increasingly difficult decision of whether or not to be the face of the revolution. You know what she will decide, not just because it makes sense for the story, but because you know what kind of person Katniss is. When given too much time to think she can be clumsy and stumble and occasionally even act her age (17). However, at her core she is brave and wise. Her instincts are so pure and good that you know when she ultimately makes her decision it will be for the good of both her family and friends as well as the people of Panem. Her will to survive in the Hunger Games was stronger than anything the gamemakers could throw at her, and that will continues in the real war ahead. The thing that makes her will so strong is that her desire to survive is not about herself, it's about protecting her family and those she loves. If dying was what was needed to insure their survival, she would not hesitate, but she knows that they need her and she must continue on. Her selflessness combined with her strength makes her a brilliant heroine, and her imperfections make her relatable.
Mockingjay is a powerful and emotional book that does not hide the complications and consequences of civil war. We see in Gale someone who has been oppressed by his government so long that he wants not only to win, but wants it to hurt the Capitol. We see Peeta completely changed by cruel methods of brainwashing, so much so that the sweet, loving, charismatic boy that we grew to love in the first two novels is absent from almost the entire book. Nothing is more heart-breaking than the game of Real, Not Real that they create to try and help Peeta to understand what was an actual memory and what had been placed in his head by President Snow's people. And there is so much loss. While we are distracted by Peeta and Katniss during the final campaign of the war, Finnick is lost to some crazy animal hybrid. Hi death almost goes unnoticed as you are racing to read the final pages, but stopped me as I hastened to re-read that section and make sure that I understood what had just happened to one of my favorite characters. In the final moments of the war, we witness through Katniss' eyes the bombs going off that kill her beloved sister. After all her efforts to save Prim, starting with volunteering on the first Reaping Day to take her place in the Hunger Games, the war took her anyway. Collins pulls you into Katniss' head and you feel every moment of anguish as the realization of what has occurred is made clear.
It was emotionally draining to read this book, but if Collins had held back at all it would have felt empty or false. This society was so far gone that only that level of destruction could lead to any kind of sustained change. And only a heroine with the pure heart and brave instincts of Katniss could we have made it through to the end.
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