Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Mockingjay

I think this series is complex and challenging as a YA novel and it should be taught in schools. Not that we need more white stories taught in school but if we’re gonna teach white people books make it be this one. At the end of the audio book Suzanne Collins talks about how she came up with the idea for the hunger games while flipping back and fourth between reality TV and coverage of the Iraq war. And that is really interesting. She also tells young people to consider what the implications are that we have some people in the world who take their next meal for granted while others are scrounging to get by. And you know what Suzanne? I think about that a lot. And I get angry every time I think about it.

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robinskye28's review against another edition

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adventurous sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Really struggled to finish this. I was a huge fan of the first two in the series so I thought this was going to be good but I was wrong. Stupidly slow pace in the beginning but in the last 80ish pages everything started going so fast I couldn't keep up. Nothing was explained clearly enough, characters were dropping dead like flies and I had to watch the film to actually understand the ending! I still don't know who half of the characters are, I finished the book and was glad it was over with, took me three months though. Wouldn't recommend.

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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sophie42's review

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challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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night3aven's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - review

Death.
Madness.
Sadness.
Hate.
Broken families.
Broken hearts.
This is what war brings.
And Suzanne Collins makes us understand it, in the worst (but also, the best) possible way.

I can't say it's a perfect novel, but I can say it's one of the most real, most true stories ever.

I didn't particularly enjoy the beginning of the book, which I found slow and unnecessarily long-winded at times.
However, the authoress' excellent writing style comes through again in this last volume.
Although she doesn't use a particularly complex language, she makes vivid and clear descriptions of the events and always manages to capture the reader's attention. Her strong point is the great emotional leverage she has on the reader, which at times, though, proves to be too overwhelming.
Her skill is such that the protagonist's emotions are mirrored by the reader, who continues to suffer, rejoices in small victories, but continues to be tired and destroyed along with the main character. For this reason, reading can often be confusing and tiring.
Some narrative choices, however, such as the love triangle between Peeta, Gale and Katniss, (already present in the previous books, but in this one with an higher importance) can sometimes be superfluous.
The characters are always well characterized and some of them have interesting evolutions (as for Peeta or Beetee), but the great number of different characters can sometimes make us lose focus on the single ones.
Katniss, in this book, is subdued, she is not the strong and fighting protagonist she used to be.
She is emotionally destroyed, tired, upset, indecisive, suffering (and the reader inevitably feels all this).
For this reason probably, the narrative speed is sometimes intercut and not linear

Spoiler

(the mission to retrieve Peeta, in which Katniss is not present, lasts only one chapter, while convincing Katniss to become the Mockingjay takes 3 chapters or more)

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The story, despite everything, after the initial part is very engaging.

Spoiler

I particularly enjoyed Katniss' "visit" to District 8, the battle in District 2 and the final mission in Capitol City.

Even though the story is told by a teenage protagonist (and with precarious mental and physical conditions, to say the least), the story of the war is realistic, raw and painful to the right point.
The final part of the book is the most frenetic, but at the same time the most controversial.

Spoiler

As the story goes on, the districts, from being victims, begin to become executioners and the similarities between President Snow and President Coin begin to become worrying.

Sometimes the danger results excessive, almost "targeted" against the protagonist; I also considered the death of some characters superfluous and useless for the plot:

Spoiler

while Boggs' death is symbolic and useful to send Katniss on her mission, Finnick's (just married and one of the few really happy characters) and Prim's deaths don't seem necessary.

We notice more and more then, how Katniss is not herself

Spoiler

(the girl who was on fire would never have accepted to make children take part at the Hunger Games again)

, but in the final fortunately the girl is able to recover, at least a bit

Spoiler

(killing President Coin is her final gesture of rebellion, her awareness as a representative not so much of the rebellion, as of justice herself)

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The ending is not perfect, but it remains consistent with the story told, albeit terrible and painful.

At the end, it's back to the starting point. The author's greatest flaws are at the same time her greatest strengths. Yes, Katniss is over-emotional, but that's justified in situations like those depicted in the book. Yes, the death of some characters may not have made sense, but war does not follow a logic. Rich, poor, young, old, good, bad: war affects everyone with no holds barred.
I cannot say that "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay" is a perfect book, but I can say that it is one of the books that really left something in me. I can say that the Hunger Games, that Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch, Gale, Prim, Finnick, all the others and everything they went through, will always remain in my mind and in my heart.

What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again.

Spoiler

It's like a game. Repetitive. Even a little tedious after more than twenty years.
But there are much worse games to play.

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