Book review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Title: Mockingjay

Author: Suzanne Collins

Also by this Author: The Hunger Games

Series: The Hunger Games, book 3

Age Category: Young Adult

Published by: 24 August 2010,

Pages: 390 p.

Genre: Science Fiction, dystopia

About Mockingjay

The final book in the Hunger Games series starts in District 13, where Katniss is recovering from her injuries. When she does, she will have to decide if she wants to be the face of the revolution.

My thoughts on Mockingjay

This review has taken me such a long time to write. I have taken my sweet time pondering the ending of the trilogy. In all honesty, the ending left me a bit unsatisfied. It left me with more questions than answers. Let us start at the beginning of the book. A warning beforehand, this review, like many of mine do contains spoilers for the book. If you have not read the book yet, I recommend you stop reading here. You can read the conclusion, as I do try to keep that part spoiler-free.

At the start of this book, Katniss is recovering from the injuries of the arena, and she is feeling very defeated. District 12 has been reduced to ashes, and only a few hundred of its residents survived. The news hits Katniss very hard, and her mindset at the beginning of the book is understandable. However, it is also very hard to follow her train of thought. This made me put down the book for a bit, as I couldn't deal with Katniss; she can be such an unlikable character at times, and that made me hesitant to continue reading the book.

Katniss doesn't like her new role as the face of the resistance; she questions everything, and it takes about half the book to start taking any action. The traumatic response Katniss is experiencing is understandable; all of her actions are well-thought-out by Suzanne Collins. However, as said before, she makes it very hard to understand and like her. This book was a big struggle for me; I think it is my least favourite of the three.

This is also because the story is solely told through her perspective, and because of this fact, we only see the parts of the world that she sees; we are missing out on the bigger picture. In the first book, The Hunger Games, a first-person approach works incredibly well; up to this date, this is by far my favourite book in the series. This book could have done better with multiple POVs, given us a bit more than Katniss's scrambled mind to enjoy.

I would have loved for this book to be more, to see more of the revolution, the districts, the politics going on, the people of this world. I think that is my main issue with first-person perspectives, you get such a narrow view of the world you are in.

Suzanne could have done a different kind of wrap-up at the end of the book that discusses the world a little bit more than how it was all glossed over. Also, another interesting thing I found is the fact that Katniss decided to have children in the end. I think on the one hand, this is a bold move on the author's part, because it shows that people change their minds about things like that. I can relate to that, since I, too, have changed my mind about this topic in recent years. It is nice to see that that is okay.

What I also liked about the ending is that it shows that even years later, the traumas of war and the Hunger Games that they have endured don't magically disappear, that even those years later, they still suffer from flashbacks and nightmares. I think this is a very realistic portrayal of trauma, and I am glad to see it so prominently in the ending of the book.

Now, for the only spoiler that I have unfortunately not been able to avoid, is that I knew Katniss was going to end up with Peeta, not Gale. Gale in the first book was one of my favourite characters; however, from the beginning of book three, it became clear that Katniss and Gale were growing apart. Also, Gale had some really extreme ideas that made him less appealing. I still carried a torch for the guy; I have never really liked Peeta. I have no reason for this, but for me, it never made a lot of sense. It is not that he is not nice enough or anything, he is just a bit boring, nothing exciting about him.

Conclusions about Mockingjay

I sat on this review for a long time; I could not make up my mind on whether I actually agree with how this series ended. This book was hard to read, this is mainly due to Katniss being very unlikable. In the vein of the story, it makes sense; however, it took away from my reading experience. The first hundred pages were a real struggle, and I put the book down for a while before I decided that I really wanted to know how it ended. The second part of the book is more action packed and this helped me finish the book.

My main issue with the ending is that I would have liked to see more of the aftermath of the rebellion and how the world evolved from there. I would love to see Suzanne Collins write a story that takes place after the original trilogy has ended; however, I have read somewhere that she is not planning on doing that. I am also not the biggest fan of Peeta as a love interest, so I am taking points off for that as well.

This means I am rating this book a bit controversial; I am going with three cats, not because anything in this book is actually badly written or thought out, just that it does not match my expectations.

Buy English edition

Koop Nederlandse editie

If you can't get enough of my content, consider finding me on my other websites. If you are interested in music, I write about it on Finding Flight Cases. If you enjoy collecting books, I have started a secondhand online bookstore, Arcane Archives. I would love to help you find your next fantasy or science fiction read.