Review: Mockingjay

Katniss Everdeen survived the Games - twice. She's become the symbol of rebellion, the young, brave, and beautiful Mockingjay.

The real Katniss is tired.  She's scared.  She never asked to be the Mockingjay, or to watch her friends die because of it.

But Katniss doesn't get a choice.  Her world is depending on her to free them from oppression... but can a young girl really save anybody, much less an entire nation?

Entertainment: ★★★★

Okay, it got a little... gory at times.  And it was more than depressing.  But I couldn't put it down; I finished it in six hours. It's addictive.  For all that, though, I had somewhat mixed feelings about it. Read on and I'll try to explain.

Plot: ★★★

It wasn't predictable, exactly, but it was more than a little deja vu.  At times, the plot was nearly identical to those of the first two books.  And I found that I preferred either of the first two books to this one, plot-wise. It just didn't surprise me, or amaze me, like the first two did; it was only average.

Characters: ★★★

The characterization is pretty amazing... for all the side characters.  I was completely lost on Katniss herself, President Snow, and Peeta.  Katniss actually started to turn wimpy, which horrified me as she had been such a strong character before.

And Collins has a pretty consistent habit of building up really amazing characters and then killing them off, which is beyond depressing to read. Her deaths-per-number-of-characters figure has got to be sky high. By the time I read through Hunger Games and Catching Fire and started Mockingjay, I was suffering from some kind of PTSD; I was having a hard time connecting with characters, since I couldn't help but assume they'd all be killed off in short order anyway. But maybe that's just a personal thing.

Writing: ★★★

Again, I just felt like the quality and taste levels went down a little in this last book.  To be fair, I loved The Hunger Games and it's a lot to live up to.  But still, Mockingjay could have been stellar, and it was only "pretty good."  That disappointed me, a lot.

End Result: three stars. A decent book, but not amazingly excellent.