I read this entire series back to back this week. I liked Mockingjay it just didn’t have the same exciting action as Hunger Games and Catching Fire.

I did feel the Gale situation was just brushed aside and we didn’t really get any closure on her relationship with him. And the Peeta thing with the capitol seemed a little over the top. I think I would have preferred her to just rescue him.

The ending/epilogue was pretty awesome

The brush-off with Gale at the end was weird. She felt he had something to do with it, but didn’t argue? Sorry, Katniss likes to say things (often bluntly and at the wrong time). I thought it was odd that she didn’t voice her concerns at the end either, prior to the “surprise” target of her arrow. We never get that resolution of her voicing her concerns. Sure, what she did apparently made everything OK and kept Panem from repeating some past issues, but the idea that she would just then keep her head down in District 12 thereafter and it magically would come together cheapened the closure for me.

I think Collins was trying to keep things honest. In reality lots of political stuff does happen behind the scenes and maybe that’s how it needed to be to avoid additional revolts. I don’t know. I just know that while I’m glad I read Mockingjay, it didn’t leave me feeling the same as the earlier titles.

Admittedly, I was surprised that they put Katniss in another role of being manipulated and she didn’t really fight it. She noted it mentally, but never told them she wouldn’t be a pawn. It fits with the other books, but I had expected a bit of growth there.

Though, I’m with KC in liking the epilogue.

Also, I liked the way she worked The Hanging Tree throughout.

In some ways I agree with your review, but I have to say that my conclusion is quite different. I don’t know if I can go into everything, because I’d probably end up writing an essay , but here are a few things:

You said you felt that the deaths were unnecessary, that there was no real point to them. I agree, but unlike you I feel that that was actually the actual point. Real deaths in real wars don’t make sense. They don’t happen to prove a point in the bigger picture. They just happen.

Yes, I think that the “big” death is what finally breaks her. With that death, she lost her hope of a better future, a reason for the sacrifices. (That’s my interpretation anyway.)

I don’t think that that particular death was the entire reason for what happened between her and Gale. There wasn’t any closure for her and Gale, because there couldn’t really be. They’d grown apart and discovered how different they both really were. When they were hunting together in the woods, and Gale was talking about a rebellion, it worried Katniss. But it was never more than just talk. When it became more, when she saw what he was capable of doing, and what the war had actually brought out of him, he was no longer the person that she knew. And he knew it when the breaking point came.

And I wouldn’t say that the situation with Peeta was neat and tidy. Katniss was out of it for months. When it comes to what happened with the country and everything else around Katniss being fixed when she wakes up. I don’t think it is. It’s just that Katniss doesn’t care. She’s never wanted to be a a leader, and she still doesn’t. She just wants to be able to live her life the way she chooses. One leader replaces another, and the people hope that it will be different this time, but you can never be sure.

I probably agree with you that this book had a different feel than the other books, but at the same time it’s in this book that the real war starts, so I’m kind of expecting a different feel to it.

Anyway, those are a few of my thoughts. Thanks for a great review. It made me go through my own thoughts about certain parts of the book, and how I felt. I’m still waiting for my friends to finish the book, and for me, I’m finding I have more thoughts about the book the more time that passes.