Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins

The finale, Mockingjay, written by Suzanne Collins, is a literary novel in the dystopian genre, with a fragment of romance. It is the third book in the tetralogy of the Hunger Games, and revolves around a 17 year old girl who lives in dystopian America.

It was one of the most highly anticipated books that the publishers worked tirelessly to print out and send to many people, and it was most definitely worth it, seeing the feelings on people’s faces as they read the book that concluded Katniss’ adventures in Panem’s districts and well-known Capitol.

The girl, Katniss Everdeen, has been sent to District 13 since her previous District was a bit too unfortunate in the series of events that occurred away from Panem… and along with her old district’s demise, she also has to deal with Peeta being captured by the Capitol, brainwashing all of his memories about Katniss, and warping them to make him think she’s really a bad person.

It shows very much when the disastrous interviews start from Peeta getting questioned by Caesar Flickerman, who feels quite pitiful during all of them, and it later keeps happening, with Peeta losing a drastic amount of weight and looking sunken in more and more every time that the interviews take place.

This is mainly a target at Katniss, who President Snow believes will take the bait and come to the Capitol and await her death trial, but there are also a few people from the Capitol who are on her side, like Effie, and Haymitch, who were Katniss’ trainers during the 74th Hunger Games.

But, the leaders of District 13 have a much different plan for her; they want her to be the Mockingjay, a (not quite) mascot for the Districts, and a face of rebellion for the Capitol revolt, and though Katniss didn’t think much of it first, it hit on harder than expected.

__

My favorite character would be, again, Gale Hawthorne, because even though he is in love with Katniss, he also knows that the time for that has passed, and is ready to risk his own life, so that Peeta and Katniss would have a happier life together, and that he would only be intervening in something good that would happen between the two of them.

He also helps Katniss with her list of demands needed to fulfill her role as the Mockingjay, adding on being able to hunt outside the boundaries, and also Peeta and the rest of the captured tributes’ immunities.

One very interesting plot twist was when the attack and offense team found Peeta easily.

A bit TOO easily for it to be acceptable.

Everyone agreed that the plan was a ruse, and it indeed was; like I said, when Katniss first tried to go near Peeta, he opened his hands as if trying to embrace her, but instead locked her throat into a chokehold, cutting off the air vessels, and later temporarily damaging her throat.

That was the trick that Snow implemented onto Peeta, because he knew one of the few ways he could hurt Katniss the most; letting one of her close ones feel betrayed by her.

My favorite part of the book was when everyone had to go down into the underground bunkers, mainly because there was a lot of hustling, commotion, and panic that made the scene even more real than just blindly shuffling down during the bombing and staying quiet. It was a real panic scene that probably was the most real scene I had read in the entire novel, and also the most exciting one.

This book, and altogether the whole sub-trilogy of the Hunger Games series, was one of the most outstanding books that I had read, in forever, with the bold, dazzling characters, the bright, brave, and chivalric actions, and the vivid, animated scenes really outlining on why people need to know the importance of reading the marvelous dystopian series that captured and won the hearts of everyone reading the book.