GoddessofApathy’s #CBR4 Review #3, Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay is the third book in The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. If you have read the first and second books, then you are aware that Katniss Everdeen is still the main character and she has now survived two Hunger Games. She is meant to be the mouthpiece and symbol, the real live Mockingjay, for the rebels of Panem. Of course, she questions her involvement with the rebels. She questions her relationships–who do you trust? But as always, she really just wants to take care of those she loves.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in the series and quickly read the second book. The third book was very disappointing to me. I know that this series is a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world full of tragedy, heartache, and hardship, but I found myself chugging through the pages just so that I could get to the end and be done with the whole thing. I didn’t like the weight of sadness that filled the pages, the sense of loss and absence of hope.
I know that the real world is corrupt. I am not sure I enjoy reading about that anymore in my fiction.
On a side note, there are two positive things I got out of the whole series. One was the character of Katniss was strong-willed and independent. When she brooded, it was about something important and not something cheesy. I love that she was the one who took care of others. Katniss is not the most memorable female character, but she is much better than most of her contemporaries. The second positive was the literary connections that were established to Greek mythology. I can at least focus on those merits if nothing else.
I agree that this final book in the series did not do justice to the first two, but it was the abrupt and “thin” ending that left me disappointed.