Scott Couey

For me, Mockingjay was the weakest of the books.

In reading a trilogy of books, the last book is typically either really great or just dreadfully horrible. With Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (books one and two being The Hunger Games and Catching Fire (respectively)), I was somewhere in the middle. It wasn’t the worst book I’ve ever read, but then again it wasn’t the best either. In all honesty, I loved the book up until the final three or four chapters…that’s when I started pulling out the “Really Suzanne Collins?!” (see Seth Meyers on SNL).

In book three of the saga, we find that half of the remaining participants in the last Hunger Games have been kidnapped by the Capital while Plutarch Heavensbee has helped save Katniss and the other half. We find out that Peeta is one of the tributes that was kidnapped by the Capital and he has been brainwashed into thinking that Katniss is the enemy. Katniss has been named the “Mockingjay” of the fight as a result of her rebellious ways toward the Capital and they want to dispose of her (by way of Peeta or any other means necessary). The rebellion has started and it is an all out war – innocent people dying everywhere. Since she is the Mockingjay, they don’t want the enemy to have easy access to Katniss, so they put her on a team that basically shoots videos about what is going on around them and they use these videos to interrupt the Capitol’s television feeds. Katniss requests the privilege of killing President Snow, so she and several others make their way to the President’s mansion. Unbeknownst to them, the Capitol has sent out soldiers looking for them in an attempt to kill them, thus ending the rebellion.

For me, this is where things hit a rough spot. I really did not like the way the author handled Katniss’ opportunity to kill President Snow (I don’t want to ruin it for you, so I won’t tell you what happens). I know that engaging books are supposed to have plot twists to keep the reader interested, but to me this was just plain stupid. The very end to me (again, I won’t tell you what happens) felt to “wrap things up with a pretty bow” for me. It was like Mrs. Collins just said “Yeah, I’m done with this series. Let’s get this over with.” and to me the last three or four chapters show this. Don’t get me wrong, I love the entire series but this was the weakest of the three books for me.

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