The Hunger Games – Mockingjay is the third and final book in The Hunger Games trilogy. It continues following the story of Katniss as the revolt against the Capitol grows. Here’s my book review of The Hunger Games – Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.
Disclaimer: Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means if you click on the link and make a purchase, I’ll get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please note that all sales are processed by the linked website, not Rays of Adventure, so you’ll be subject to their privacy policy.
Overview of The Hunger Games – Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
My book review of The Hunger Games – Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins assumes you’ve read the first two books in the series – Check out my review of the first book here and my review of the second book here.
The third book in the series, Mockingjay, continues to follow Katniss Everdeen. At the end of the second book, she is lifted from the Hunger Games arena after they manage to blow up the force field around the games. However, Peeta wasn’t able to be rescued, and instead was captured by the Capitol. Katniss is upset and angry that her friend from District 12, and her sort-of-lover, has been taken.
Katniss is taken to District 13, after the whole of her home District 12 is burned in fighting. In District 13, she is part of the Rebel forces. They’re leading an uprising against the ruling Capitol, with all districts uniting to fight against the Capitol’s rule. After some persuasion, Katniss agrees to be the Mockingjay, the iconic symbol of the revolution. They take her to be filmed in her iconic Mockingjay costume, giving speeches to unite the rebels and encourage them to continue fighting the rebels.
Katniss’s friend Gale is also part of the fight, but their relationship is complicated as Katniss is still concerned about Peeta. She sees him on TV several times. After one TV interview, where it’s clear he isn’t well, the rebel forces in District 13 decide to rescue him from the Capitol. They succeed, but when Peeta is brought back, they realise the Capitol have managed to hijack his memories and emotions to see Katniss as an enemy, not his love.
The fighting in the Districts continues, and efforts begin to help restore Peeta’s original memories. Eventually, all Districts are secured by the rebels. So then it’s time for them to travel to the Capitol for the final takeover. However, just when they think they are about to get to the President’s mansion, disaster strikes right in front of Katniss. I won’t give spoilers here – but it’s an incredibly moving part of the book. Katniss is emotionally damaged from her ordeal, and ends up back in District 12. Again, I won’t give a spoiler as to which guy she chooses – both Gale and Peeta play an important role in this book. But after some time, the ending is happier.
If you’d like to buy this book, click on this link or the picture below to buy it from Amazon (affiliate).
What I liked about this book
I felt like this book was a good ending to the Hunger Games trilogy. It felt like more of a fighting, war-type novel than the others. There were a lot of fighting scenes, and a lot of suspense. The book created a really good atmosphere, where you could really feel the suspense and tension of the war. It really made you realise how much this war meant to the people.
The love triangle between Katniss, Gale and Peeta was focussed on less in this book. But there was still enough for me to keep wondering which guy she was going to choose, if any. Again, I liked both male characters and I didn’t feel like it made it obvious who she would end up with. I like romances where you don’t fully know who is going to get together at the end! I also felt like the ending resolved the love triangle really well. There was a really good reason why she chose the guy she did. And the explanation of why was so beautiful – it wasn’t long, but it was one of my favourite paragraphs in the whole book. I was really happy with the ending!
There are a lot of deaths in this book as well, as you’d expect from a book set in a war. It felt like no deaths were off limits – I really couldn’t tell who might be killed off next. Again, this added to the suspense in the whole book. I think it’s a shame that some characters didn’t survive, but that’s the reality of war.
What I wasn’t so sure about
I found the beginning of this book a bit slow, and it took me a while to get into it. Again, there were parts of Katniss’s character that I wasn’t so keen on. In the beginning of the book, she seemed quite self-centred, just focussing on her own misery, and not wanting to help anyone. I get that she’s been through a lot. But I would have preferred a character who wanted to help a bit more in these early stages.
There was also a big twist at the end, which I felt didn’t get enough explanation. Warning – this part contains spoilers. When President Coin takes over, Katniss agrees to hold a final Hunger Games. That just seemed completely wrong and out of character for her, after everything she’d been through in the arena. I get that she was upset by what had just happened, but I didn’t like that she said yes. But then (another spoiler warning), she shoots President Coin instead of the Capitol’s President Snow. That bit confused me a bit as well. I like that she didn’t kill President Snow – even though she was angry at him. But it didn’t feel like there was a good enough explanation for her choosing to kill Coin. It was just explained away as her being mentally unstable, but I feel like that should have been more explanation than that. Was it anything to do with Coin’s suggestion of doing another Hunger Games? I felt like there must have been more reason.
The people’s reaction to Katniss killing Coin was also a bit under-developed. I wanted to know what other people thought – were they also against Coin? Was the new President a lot better? It felt a bit wrong for Katniss to be sent back to District 12 in exile and live in disgrace. I liked that she went back there to live a quiet, happy life. But maybe just something about it was a good thing to do to kill Coin, and not just her being crazy.
Would I recommend The Hunger Games – Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
My book review of The Hunger Games – Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins is mostly positive, so I’d definitely recommend this book. If you enjoyed the previous two Hunger Games book, then I’d definitely recommend reading the final book in the series. It’s exciting, full of suspense, and definitely resolves a lot of the issues. There are just a few parts of the ending that I’d have liked a bit more explanation of. But overall, I was happy with how the series ended in this book.
If you like the sound of this book, buy yourself a copy for the weekend here! (affiliate)
If this book has inspired you to want to get on a long haul flight to start reading this book, it’s time to start planning your next trip! The UK is a beautiful place to travel, with beautiful scenery in Wales and Scotland. Or you could visit some of the amazing cities in Europe, such as Prague, Berlin or Vienna. The USA is full of amazing places as well, like the Florida Keys, San Francisco and the Olympic Mountains. Start planning your travels and live life with no regrets!
