REVIEW: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

From Amazon “Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12.”

When I read Catching Fire, the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy, I thought there was no way it would be as good as the first one was. Hunger Games set the bar pretty high as an engrossing read that kept me guessing til the end. Then I read Catching Fire and it was every bit as good as Hunger Games. It most definitely did not suffer from the sophomore slump that happens with the second books of some series where the first one was totally kick arse and the second one was good BUT not nearly as much as the first one. Given that the first two books in this trilogy were so good I blew through them both in less than a day, it left me wondering if Mockingjay would live up to its predecessors. I am happy to say that it did. This book took a different turn than the previous two titles as they focused on Katniss and her determination to survive the brutal Hunger Games. This one focuses on the revolution that is taking place as a result of the districts saying they have had enough of the Capitol ruling them and sending their children to be slaughtered in these horrific games.

This book could have fallen flat in a number of ways-focusing too much on the revolution itself or the politics involved or doing too much with the Gale/Peeta/Katniss love triangle. In fact it didn’t focus on any one area too much but blended them all together in a way that made the story come along quite nicely. I liked that Katniss was a little more relatable in this one. She had the choice of becoming the Mockingjay (the poster child for the revolution) and risk the Capitol harming the still captive Peeta or refuse and save Peeta but let the Capitol win. But the question remains is Peeta even on their side? The ending, which I will not give away here I totally did not expect at all. I don’t really know how I expected it all to end but it wasn’t like that. I was ok with how it all wrapped up though and I think fans of the previous two books will be too. I really enjoyed The Hunger Games trilogy and am really glad I stepped out of my normal realm of reading to give them a try. Many times when books have a lot of hype and I finally cave in and read them I’m left thinking “THAT is what all the fuss was about?” It was most assuredly not the case here. These books are wonderful and I highly recommend them. Give in to the hype and try them out!

This book is from my own personal library