Mockingjay

The review for the third and final installment of the Hunger Games Trilogy is here.  I admit that I have been dawdling on writing my review of this book.  I finished it over a month ago, and actually have read another book since...and am half way through my current book, but I've been dragging my feet.  Mainly, the burying the feet underground firmly feet dragging is because I gushe and loved and thoroughly enjoyed book 1 and book 2 of this trilogy, and I sadly can't say the same for this final book of the series.  

This horrific drawing of my enjoyment level through the trilogy should be rather indicative of my feelings towards this finale.

Without giving away any of the plot (Alexa I know you still haven't read it...so no spoilers!), I was just very much in the action mindset that Catching Fire ended with and you could cut the suspense with a knife.  They had just escaped the Hunger Games, Peeta had been captured by the Capitol, and my reading adrenaline was at an all-time high.  Then right from the start of this book, it turned from action and adventure to a psychological mind-game.  I found myself begging through the entire book for the storyline to pick up and my interest to be re-piqued, but it unfortunately stayed bottomed out for me.  They had two or three events where the intensity picked up, but within 30 pages it was right back to the psychological warfare and conspiracy theories. 

The ending of the book felt like the author didn't get the time she needed to adequately explain the choices Katniss made and the effects of all her decisions. Most specifically, you don't find out who Katniss finally chooses to be with between Peeta and Gale until the Epilogue which is the last 10 pages of the book.  The author has had her reader on the edge of their seats for almost 1,000 pages to find out who Katniss chooses, and she allots 10 pages (and it really wasn't even 10 pages because they Katniss talks about her life 20 years later) to it!  There's a little piece of me that is curious if she got a hard deadline from her editors and publishers for a release date, and while she could have used an extra few months to end the trilogy well, she instead stuck to their deadlines and ended it as best she could, but VERY abruptly.

(I'm harping, I know, sorry. I'm just trying to put into words what it was that made this book the least appealing and why in comparison to the others). The colors and the visual worlds through these books is another way of explaining why Mockingjay fell short.  The first book, while gray and dismal at the beginning as they are explaining the world they live in, turned vibrant and full of colors as they entered the Games.  The second book, again a bit dreary and muted at the beginning, became full of color, high energy and dramatic visuals from half way in through the end.  This third book was gray the whole way through....maybe slight variations in tone, but gray the whole way. 

Enough of being a Debbie Downer and probably turning all of you away from Mockingjay.  I think you could definitely love this book with the pre-understanding that it turns very deep and inward for the characters and that it is a very different feel from what you've read up to this point.  I would still recommend reading Mockingjay, and hopefully with this previous knowledge, you can have a better experience with it than I did.  I will still actively rave to anyone and everyone who is looking for a new books series to read that this HAS to be their top choice, but solely from my opinion, Catching Fire was the best from the trilogy.