It took a while, but I finally got to the end of Mockingjay, the third book of the Hunger Games Trilogy. To be straightforward with it, I’ll be honest, I didn’t enjoy this one. People say that the third book is their least favorite, but this book became so much of a chore to finish, that I ended up resenting it for putting me through it in order to finish. The adventures of Katniss Everdeen have long worn me down with her whining and essential uselessness, and the finale of the war for Panem through her eyes is so boring and disappointing that it kind of put a sour taste in my mouth regarding the whole series. And I find it even harder to believe that this is the movie they’ll be splitting up into two parts. Below, my list of both my distastes and liked moments of the Hunger Games Trilogy Finale. Spoilers below.
Katniss, a Once Fearless Surviver, Becomes a Whiney Tool
I loved that in the original Hunger Games, Katniss was a small town hunter, pitched into a survival game where she was forced to kill others. She had to rely on her survival instincts and her natural tendency to be socially stoic to outlast everyone else. In Catching Fire, we didn’t see as much of that as she was essentially following the whims of others. But in Mockinjay, she’s become effectively useless and is used as a tool for propoganda. I really disliked that she wasn’t in control of her life anymore, that she was constantly told what to do for the sake of a ‘greater picture’ that we didn’t really see. Majority of the book, she goes into closets and hiding places to be isolated until she’s called to ‘action’ where she becomes awkward on camera and something else has to be triggered to bring out the fire in her.
Those moments of fire are really cool, like when she tells of Snow and shoots down a bunch of aircraft with a bow and arrow, but they’re quickly extinguished with pity party moments and restraint from her superiors. And even towards the end, where it seems as though she’s going to infiltrate the highly guarded castle, her plan essentially is rendered useless by a more successful attack made by the rebel forces. They’re the ones that caught President Snow and crushed the regime. All Katniss did was get some of the better leaders killed for a failed mission.
The Love Triangle Meant Nothing to Me but the Hysterical Drama of a Teenage Girl
I did not buy into the Peeta, Gale, Katniss romance. I’d say about a fourth or more of the book was Katniss racking her head back and forth between who she would choose with each of them doing stupid things to make her reevaluate her choices. Peeta went off the deep end, Gale is a cold blooded murderer, Peeta needs Katniss’s help to get better, Gale saved her whole family. I personally don’t see what they like so much about her. But her constant back and forth on who she values more was more annoying than adorable, and it’s what I’d expect out of an average 16 year old teenage girl, not the heroic and larger than life Katniss Everdeen. If I wanted the love triangle drama and thoughts of a hysterical teenage girl, I would’ve chosen to read a different book (Twilight maybe?). Maybe this is truly the definition of a young adult novel…
A Lot of Cool People Died…for No Reason
The final stride to the capitol resulted in a long list of deaths, many of which I was upset with: Finnick, Boggs, Prim, Jackson etc. I actually liked all these people. Finnick and Annie were way more adorable than the idea of Peeta/Katniss or Gale/Katniss and we didn’t even get to know them that well. Boggs was a successful tactician and leader, Prim was the idea of pure innocence in this book and she got blown up [I admit, the duck tail passage was rather emotional]. This supposed super sniper team was supposed to be the elite task force. They got put in a bad spot, but they managed to come up with a plan to assassinate President Snow [Katniss’s fake idea, but still a plan that I actually supported in this book]. The thing was, the team didn’t even successfully carry out the mission. Instead of following orders and returning to base, they go into the Capitol and infiltrate enemy lines. But during a failed attempt to raid the President’s mansion, [and even failing to do their rather awesome fallback plan of Katniss turning herself in {which I think would’ve been a hella better ending}], the legitimate rebel forces essentially end the war with no help from this supposed elite super team. Which as a result, ended in the not so glorious deaths of some of the better characters in the book.
The Ending is Pretty Awful with No Sense of Closure
The ending was very unclimactic. Even the end’s hook, the killing of President Coin [which took me by both surprise and unsurprise, a complicated emotion], didn’t even have a decent follow up, like as though it was unfinished and rushed. That was incredibly unsatisfying. And then, Katniss’s pity party continued as she contemplated suicide over and over again. When she finally gets to ‘live life’, she supposedly ends up with Peeta and they have kids. The epilogue covers her supposed happiness weakly and doesn’t really give any satisfaction. And then there’s even smaller coverage on Gale’s supposed happy ending, Annie and her baby, President Plutarch Heavensbee Paylor, Beetee, Haymitch, Katniss’s mom and other loved characters. What a jip. So upset with this.
The Usual Fast Paced Nature is Still Not Very Welcome to Me
Both of the previous books, I had issues with the fast paced nature, especially coming off the slow paced Song of Ice and Fire series. This book is still suffering the same fast paced nature. Before, I had put it on the change of pace, but by this third book, I feel as though these fast paced sections are a result of a rushed nature and leave the world of Panem undistinguished and bland despite 3 full books being written on it. Whenever Katniss is full injured, she goes through a matter of recovery and training in the length of 3 or 4 pages. Things like this don’t let us connect with this supposed pain Katniss is going through, which makes her whining and complaining even harder to bear.
Is It Bad that My Favorite Character in This Book was President Snow?
Lionsgate
A tough opinion. But I think my favorite moment in the entire book was when Katniss confronted President Snow. The section was short, but it held so much weight that I absolutely enjoyed the delicious aura that President Snow emitted. I must have reread that section a couple of times, just because it was such a good scene. And seeing Donald Sutherland in that position painted that picture so much better. Despite his position and condition, he still manages to keep his calm and even intimidating demeanor in the face of his mortality. And then during his execution, the shock [or should I say lack of shock] of Katniss’s decision to shoot Coin instead was even more delicious. I heard that laugh he did when she shot Coin better than any other imagery presented in the book. And I think that’s why he’s my favorite character. I could also bring up the argument that just about every other character was either more unlikable or unjustifiably dead that Snow was literally the only character left to call my favorite.
Overall
So many mean words. I stand by them. Finishing the book left a bad taste in my mouth. And I’m writing this review about a week after finishing it and the bad taste is still there. Like I said above, I can’t believe they’re splitting this book into 2 movies. It’s the least deserving book to do so, and the search for more money make me hang my head in sadness. I do want to hear more positive reviews on this article, so I strongly suggest my fellow bloggers who also did a review on this book to link me their reviews so that I can possibly be converted with an overall message or theme that I missed. Otherwise, I will badmouth this book to anyone who asks me an opinion on it.
Banana Scoop 
I always though HG should have been a stand alone book. It would do well without any continuation.
President Plutarch Heavensbee? Was that ironic or something? Well, I agree with some of what you said, but definitely not all. What do I agree with? Snow is truly delicious, and that is a horrible thing, but he is. His line “Miss Everdeen, I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other” is probably the best in the series. And I can also see and hear Sutherland say it. Can’t wait.
Now, I do think you are being a bit unfair to Katniss. She has made it quite clear that she is not larger than life; she’s a seventeen year old who feels truly awkward being the leader of anything. She carries the wounds from the 74th and 75th HG; she’s terrified of what Snow may do to her family. She is damaged and scarred. And really, I can see a 17-year-old behaving like that. Thankfully, in the movie we’ll have a chance to see the things she didn’t see… I do agree that I don’t see why they would divide the book in two movies, but I can safely assume that part 1 will be the Peeta-less part, and part 2 the Peeta-mutt and his return to her.
The deaths. Oh, the deaths. Boggs, FINNICK, Prim, Finnick, Boggs… why????? I would have liked Gale to die, but if he had, Katniss would have never been able to have a life with Peeta, because she would have felt guilty forever.
I think this book stresses what we may have forgotten: that it was KIDS fighting to death, and Katniss is just a kid. She didn’t really have a good female role-model, and she is doing her best. But, she’s just a kid. A child being used and manipulated by older people.
Good review, Patrick!!
Thanks for the correction of who the President was, I forgot about that Paylor from the hospital became President. I corrected it in the article.
Snow truly was delicious, I’m glad, I thought I would catch fire [get it? lol] for that one.
I did expect to get flak for the Katniss bashing. But I do get your point. I personally like my women in novels and fiction to be strong and fearless, but I guess Katniss Everdeen and Lisbeth Salander are just two different people in different scenarios. I was just accustomed to her growth into a strong survivor and fighter in the original Hunger Games, that I was truly expecting her to continue her growth rather than some-what regress. I suppose I was just upset that this being young adult fiction that she would be romanticized in a such a fictional environment and situation and it turned out that she was just an average teenage girl.
I’m still not over the deaths. It’s upsetting just thinking about it. When I see Finnick on the big screen, I’m just going to be upset that he won’t have a justified ending.
Thank you so much for the detailed response. I was truly afraid of putting my strongest opinions out there, but having someone keeping me in check is always a great assurance! Thanks again!
I live to serve; you know that. And as I said, I understand… but imagine you are her: you are 16, you go to the HG to protect your sister, you win. You think you’re safe, only to discover that you have to go to the HG again because some mad lunatic wants revenge. You have to be strong again, fine. But then you discover you’ve only been a piece in someone’s game, and you have to be the leader they need, even if you just want to go home. And they take the one that you love, and they make him hate you… wouldn’t you be broken too? Maybe it’s just that I always feel empathic towards the characters; that’s why I enjoy movies so much and cry, and cry, and suffer… I’m not saying she’s perfect; faaaaar from it. She’s just a girl who has suffered and suffered and suffered.
I suppose so. She’s remarkable for making it that far, yes, I can’t even begin to understand all she has been through and it would certainly dampen the best of us. I just got upset when she got caught up in some of the dumber drama [I still don’t buy the love triangle] and when I’m reading a young adult fiction about war and with a story as tragic and Panem’s, I expected more feel-goody cliche romanticism with tales of heroism and survival that was really prevalent [and what I really liked] from the first book. I guess I’m upset with how a little misled I was, and it didn’t help that there were more interesting characters than Katniss in the second and third books. But maybe I should be more empathetic towards her character, but I didn’t really think that was what the trilogy was about. I’ve read several sad-sad novels: The Glass House and Angela’s Ashes, and I knew what I was getting into when I read them, which set me up for my expectations. The Hunger Games trilogy didn’t peg me as that, so I suppose I was let down..