Mockingjay

Suzanne Collins

Katniss is isolated in District 13. Her role is to provide the face of the rebellion. With Peeta gone, and confused feelings about Gale’s role in her life, Katniss is cast adrift. Somehow she must kill President Snow, or die trying.

The deaths in this novel are even more futile than in the second novel. Too many secondary characters are introduced, and it feels like the deaths are just tossed in to add ‘suspense’ – which failed miserably as far as I’m concerned.

Katniss completely loses her humanity in this novel – and so she completely loses me as a character. She’s coldly calculating, which is pointed out by the other characters, yet noone seems to do anything about it. She’s just unlikeable, and gets people killed on a regular basis.

I didn’t love the ending either. I didn’t feel any sadness at the ending of the Capitol – even with some key people dying. I felt that a better ending would have been if Katniss had died – her rehabilitation wasn’t convincing either.

I’m on team Gale. Peeta is just a wuss. Yeah yeah, he’s been affected by Tracker Jackle poison and everything, but still, he’s all ‘Just let me die, I’m a casualty already’, and doesn’t make an effort to fix himself up.

It seems like the future of the world is quite doomed too. If District 13 is to control the new empire, those food rations and everything else are going to stay just as strict. As far as I’m concerned, they’re going from one tyrant to another.

Did I like anything about this novel? Not really. It had action – but it was better in the first book. It just felt forced. I realise that it had to have a conclusion, but this wasn’t what I wanted or expected.