Book: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay

Author: Suzanne Collins

Edition Published: 2011

By: Scholastic UK

Goodreads summary: 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.

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Rating: ☽☽☽☽/5

Katniss has now survived The Hunger Games twice, only the escape the arena on the second. But she’s still not safe. Panem is fighting back, and a revolution is unfolding. And it seems everyone has a hand in the carefully laid plans, and Katniss has to put them all together.

She has to be the Mockingjay. The symbol of the fight, the battle, the revolution. No matter what the personal cost.

It is impossible to be the Mockingjay. Impossible to complete even this one sentence. Because now I know everything I say will directly be taken out on Peeta. Result in his torture. But not his death, no, nothing so merciful as that. Snow will ensure that his life is much worse than death.

Before I talk about the good, let’s start with the things I didn’t like about this book. There isn’t many things, just one big one. One very big one in fact.

The ending. Not the very last pages, where everything is happy between Peeta and Katniss – that is possibly one of my favorite parts about the book. But the last 50 pages or so, I just…didn’t like. And I know Emma will back me up on this one.

It just felt somewhat rushed. Like Suzanne had decided each book had to be under a certain number of pages and just crammed everything in. I feel like some things that need to be explained, weren’t explained. And although The Hunger Games were abolished, Katniss is back in District 12 as she was before. She loses Prim. Annie loses Finnick. Yes, Annie loses Finnick, which means she should be mad, right? Crazy without her lover to calm her. But no, she’s barely mentioned after he dies. And when she is, she is completely sane.

It seemed like more could have happened. Like Suzanne Collins went halfway to happiness – with The Hunger Games finishing and Peeta being back to normal – but not all the way there. It’s a bit like, if you’re going to decide to go the happy way, go the happy way. Don’t start going that way and then take the second left turn off the road. This just really annoyed me, and actually made me pretty sad. I think this could be one movie that I like more than the book. I can’t wait to find out.

Now, for the good.

I have to say, this book absolutely consumed my thoughts for hours. I actually walked around, ate, thought in a daze. About this book. About Katniss. About her situation, her mind. About the Capitol. The suspense just took over, and whenever I could in the past 24 hours, I have held that book and read. And read. And read.

I. Could. Not. Put. It. Down.

And I have to give The Hunger Games so much praise for this, because it evoked something in me I have never experienced before. To be so consumed in a fantasy world that the real world no longer seems normal. And just, simply for this, I believe this book and this series deserves 5 stars. I feel, currently, like this book deserves all the fricking stars in the sky. And beyond. I am truly part of the fandom. And The Hunger Games is honestly the best series I’ve ever read.

Is The Hunger Games a dystopian series?

This is something I would really like to discuss. Apparently, The Hunger Games falls under the adventure fiction, science fiction, drama and action genres, but not dystopian (according to Wikipedia, anyway). But obviously, this series is dystopian. Unless, of course, it is not set in the future. Because anyone in their right mind would classify the actual Games (and Panem) as undesirable. So, it comes down to the question, is The Hunger Games set in the future? And, is it a dystopian series?

-Beth