Book Review: Mockingjay (Spoilers!!)

Well, I'm a little late to the party, but I read Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. I love the Hunger Games series, I really do. I just think it is so original. That being said, there were some faults with this last book. What did you guys think- did you love it? Hate it? If you've written a review, let me know, I would love to check it out! Warning about the review below- there are potentially spoilers!!

p.s. If you're visiting from the Hop- the question this week is, what is your favorite post from the last three months? I think if I had to choose, it would be Books and What They Mean to Me, because I got so many comments. I love getting comments! :)

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had to think about this book for a week before I decided what to rate it.

Apparently, a lot of people hated the ending- but for me, that was the best part. I thought Suzanne Collins ended the book maybe the only way she could (the last line before the epilogue- *love*). It was surprising and redeeming and fitting until the very end.

I just didn't really like the premise of this book as much as the last two. Parts of it felt worn out, parts of it were a bit too sci-fi, and other parts just didn't work. As my husband said, instead of creating a world and fitting her plot into it, Collins has a plot in mind and forces the world around it. I agree whole-heartedly with this sentiment. Parts of this book just seem so forced- Katniss shooting down bombers as the best example. Those must be some damn special arrows, not to mention the fact that bombers conveniently can no longer fly high in the atmosphere due to the "destruction of the atmosphere" (note to Collins: global warming "destroys" the atmosphere in the sense that what we're putting it can have negative effects- it doesn't literally mean the atmosphere disappears. And if you can still build hovercraft, you should be able to build an airplane). That whole scene jarred me out of the story for several chapters.

There were things I loved. I thought the development of Gale's character was great, and I liked getting to know Prim better in this book. I've always been a fan of Haymitch. I still really liked the relationships between the characters and how complex they were. I love Katniss as a main character- she can certainly hold her own.

One more complaint, and here's a spoiler: I really wasn't a fan of Peeta going all nutso. In the last book, we need our romantic interest to, well, charm us as he always has- and I feel like that was lost in this book. There were maybe two or three things that reflected the old Peeta in this book, but by that point, the romance had lost some of its intrigue. I get that the romantic relationship wasn't at all the central theme of this book, but I feel like Peeta would have had plenty to deal with just from being starved and beaten, without him having to go cuckoo and violent.

All in all- I'm happy with where the story ended up, but I'm not sure I love how it got there.

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