Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)

by Suzanne Collins

[ibeforem]

*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***

I’m not even going to try to discuss this without spoilers. So consider yourself warned!

First of all, I really liked the book. I found it to be a mostly satisfying conclusion to the series. In some ways, I found it more engrossing than Catching Fire, which was mostly a rehash of Hunger Games. But what I really want to discuss is Katniss.

A lot of people read this book and immediately hated what Collins did with Katniss. They felt like she changed Katniss into someone weak who just waited for things to happen to her instead of taking charge.

I have to say that I disagree! I guess I’ve always felt that Katniss was an emotionally immature character, and was often having her strings pulled by other people — she just didn’t realize it. When the bodies started piling up, she just wasn’t emotionally mature enough to handle it. I think the only decision she made in the whole series that was truly hers was the decision to step up and take Prim’s place. Other than that, she was always someone’s pawn in the game. An extremely effective pawn, but a pawn, nonetheless. I think that most of the time, her independence was an illusion.

That’s not to say the book was perfect. My main complaint was the pacing. I think we spent way too much time in 13 and not nearly enough time in the Capitol. The ending was horribly rushed, with Katniss’s trial and banishment just glossed over. I would have loved a better, slower exposure of 13 being just like the Capitol. Especially the part about Coin wanting another Hunger Games. That’s taken care of in about 4 pages, and it needed to have more impact than that.

Overall, I wasn’t at all surprised by how Katniss ended up at the end. After 3 books of people manipulating her, a mental break was not completely unexpected.