Book Review: Mockingjay

If the first entry in the Hunger Games trilogy sought to showcase the spark of defiance and the second entry sought to define the rebellion that defiance would ignite, then it seems appropriate the third and final entry would take great pains to show the depressing realities of the war that rebellion would entail.  Titled Mockingjay, the concluding chapter in Katniss Everdeen’s hard-fought journey against the tyrannical grip of The Capitol puts the main character at the very heart of the rebellion she has tried so hard to avoid.  Where we left Katniss at the end of Catching Fire, she found herself being saved from the Quarter Quell Hunger Games through the aid of her mentor Haymitch Abernathy along with fellow tribute Finnick Odair.  Despite their victory in escaping the Capitols deathtrap, Katniss cannot find solace in her escape knowing Peeta Mellark is now an unwilling captive of the regime.  Finding herself a refugee in District 13 along with her mother and sister after the Capitol firebombed District 12, Katniss soon realizes if she has any hope of saving Peeta and helping bring down the Capitol, she must embrace the role she has long resented; she must truly become the Mockingjay. Despite the hardships she’s faced throughout her time in the last two Hunger Games though, Katniss soon realizes the hard and depressing realities of the war she has helped fan the flames of when she comes to blows not only with the Capitol on the front lines, but the moral and ambiguous leadership of the District 13 leaders. Not knowing who to trust and feeling ever more lost, Katniss must face more hardships than she has ever before as she struggles through each and every day.

The density and scope behind the final entry’s narrative cannot be overstated.  Suzanne Collins has smartly built upon the immense foundation of the prior two books to give the final entry the magnitude and weight it truly requires.  Throughout my time reading this book, my heart continuously broke for Katniss as a central character.  She had already been through so much but to see the trials and tribulations she faces at the heart of the war against the Capitol makes you empathize with her plight on a truly intimate level. As the conduit for the narrative, she is defined on so many levels and you’re led to produce a lot of the same emotions and feelings as she struggles to figure out her place in the war and who to rightly trust. While I do feel the setup and events which follow the course of the book are appropriate in their own right, I will produce a small criticism in the lack of meaningful developments in the first half of the book.  A lot of the first half feels dedicated to setting up the new environments and characters with little to no momentum. I get the idea that Suzanne needed to give the setup of these elements the necessary exposure to work, but it feels like a major and sudden stop in the wake of the prior book’s climatic conclusion.  It helps then in this case that Suzanne hones in on her star qualities when it comes to defining key character relationships within the confines of the narrative. With the war never being more real, it really helps add extra definition to not just Katniss but a lot of the supporting cast around her as everyone struggles with the compromises the war is forcing them to take.

With so much of the first half of the book dedicated to setting everything up once again, it’s easy to feel the pacing drag itself considerably for nearly two thirds of the book.  I feel Suzanne does her best to try inject more action-orientated moments sporadically throughout the course of the first half, but everything ultimately falls back on the slower moments for a majority of the books page count.  I get the idea of needing to take things slow to really flesh out Katniss as a character and the relationships she shares, but I think the prior two books had a much better balance and knew when to move the narrative forward when appropriate. In Mockingjay’s case, a lot of the major action-orientated momentum is saved for the latter half of the book. In retrospect it’s easy to grumble about the slow setup of the first but I would be lying if it didn’t make the dire stakes of the 2^nd half of the book much more compelling.  You feel a lot of emotion when key characters are impacted by the high-stake events because of how much time you spend understanding them throughout the course of this book. I really want to show major appreciation for how much emotion Suzanne writes into this story in particular.  I think with how much more real and intense the stakes are here; you feel the core weight of the story as you see the turmoil Katniss and those around her suffer through in hopes of a brighter future. You can argue a lot of the heavy lifting was done in the prior two books potentially, but the payoff here is duly worthwhile with how much Suzanne nails the severity of the situation everyone is a part of.

I’m rather sad my time with this trilogy is now over upon reflection.  For the longest time I dismissed this trilogy on account of if its teenage demographic and letting myself believe it had nothing of actual substance to say.  I’ve never been more happier to be completely wrong however.  Mockingjay, like Hunger Games and Catching Fire before it, shows a world brimming with depth with characters you cannot help but grow attached to and fear for when they are put in true danger.  It’s the sign of an excellent writer when they are not only able to craft a unique and intricate world, but invite the reader to inhabit it on such an intimate level.  While Mockingjay isn’t without its flaws, it’s ultimately a fitting conclusion to the series which has thoroughly captivated me from start to finish.