Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

NOTE: Review provides no spoilers of Mockingjay, however it does provide spoilers of the first two books The Hunger Games and Catching Fire which I suggest you begin the trilogy with.

"He must know that the unthinkable has happened and to survive will require previously unthinkable acts."

I admit, after finishing Catching Fire I wasn't content to wait on the library's waiting list for the final installment of The Hunger Games trilogy- I had to find out what happened right away, so I read the ebook instead. I was definitely glad I only began reading the books after the release of Mockingjay as I can't imagine having to wait months to discover the fate of Katniss, Peeta, Gale, and exactly what happened to district twelve as well as if they will manage to defeat the Capitol. I managed to avoid most of the hype when the book was released in my attempt to avoid any spoilers of earlier books in the series, so I feel as if I went into Mockingjay with a fairly open mind. Unfortunately Mockingjay was by far the weakest book in The Hunger Games Trilogy for me. I was disappointed by Katniss and how she let others push her around and determine her fate. Even how the love triangle turns out seems more like Katniss going with the default than actively making a decision, and for a girl who was such a strong character in the first two books I really expected a little more strength in this final leg of her journey. I did feel as if I would have been content with less romantic conflict in the earlier books, but since it was there, I was surprised that after so much build-up Collins pretty much brushed it off at the end.

Without offering any spoilers of the novel, I will also say I found the book needlessly depressing. Obviously, Collins is writing dystopia and so it is expected that everything will not be sunshine and roses, but I feel like she went too far with the bleak turn of events. So many characters died that by the time an important death occurred I was numb rather than heartbroken. I was really disappointed in the ending, I felt as if it was rushed and lazy, with the fates of many people simply being thrown away in a sentence or two after three books dedicated to their development. The thing about the final book in a trilogy, is that there have already been two books to build up a reader's attachment to characters and by the time I read Mockingjay I was very much attached to the world Collins' had created. The action in the novel is very well done, and the book is very much a page-turner. However I was unfortunately let down by the grim and hasty wrap-up that Mockingjay provides for what is otherwise an exceptional trilogy and the end result is that I am unlikely to reread the Hunger Games anytime soon, knowing that this is how everything ends.

Release Date: August 24, 2010 
Pages: 398
Overall: 3/5
Source: Ebook 
Buy the Book

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

NOTE: Review provides no spoilers of Catching Fire, however it does provide spoilers of the first book in The Hunger Games, which I suggest you begin the trilogy with.

"I can’t fight the sun. I can only watch helplessly as its drags me into a day that I’ve been dreading for months."

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins is the second book in the trilogy which begins with The Hunger Games. The novel picks up just in time for Katniss and Peeta to leave on the victory tour following their survival of The Hunger Games. Unfortunately, any relief they feel is short-lived as The Capitol has seen their actions as rebellion and the result has put everyone they know at risk. Then it's time for the Quarter Quell, a special themed Hunger Games that takes place every twenty five years. When it's announced that the participants will be selected from previous surviving victors, Katniss and Peeta are back in the arena again for a whole new horror show. Isolated from the world, they can't possibly predict what is going on while they are inside.

Catching Fire is incredibly successful at sucking the reader back into Collins' dystopian world, and although it plays on similar themes to The Hunger Games, including the continuation of the love triangle between Peeta, Gale and Katniss as well as a desperate attempt to survive the Hunger Games, it still manages to seems fresh and exciting. I did start to get tired of Katniss' wavering back and forth over who she loves more, Peeta or Gale, or if she even loves any of them. The Hunger Games is such a strong trilogy I really wish that Collins had relied slightly less on the love triangle aspect when telling the story. That said, Catching Fire is the perfect middle book for a trilogy; the characters grow, the plot thickens, and the reader is left knowing more but still eager to pick up the final book. In that sense it succeeds, but I was often left thinking that I wanted slightly more from the book; something I hadn't already experienced in The Hunger Games. What I found interesting was that although The Hunger Games works well as a standalone novel, Catching Fire makes the reader desperately want to pick up the next book in the series. Although I waited a month and a half patiently on the library wait list for Catching Fire, I immediately downloaded Mockingjay after finishing it.

Release Date: September 1, 2009
Pages: 391
Overall: 4/5
Source: Public Library
Buy the Book