Reviews From an HBN (Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins)

Third and final book of the Hunger Games trilogy

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what's worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss's family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins's groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

MY RATING: 4 STARS

I put this review off for a week, but it's time to get down to business. *cracks knuckles* Where do we start?

OH MY GOD, SUZANNE COLLINS, YOU F***ING B***H I AM GOING TO HUNT YOU DOWN AND RIP YOUR LUNGS OUT HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO MEEEEEEEEE???????!!!!!!!!

Whew, glad I got that out! A book hasn't caused me to suffer so much since Phantom! I was so snagged I couldn't stop, but in so much anguish I couldn't bear to keep going! It's a miracle I made it through alive and intact!

Bad stuff first. Collins was ruthless in concluding her saga and pulled no punches, but there were a few deaths that just felt...well, pointless. I can't name names without giving anything away, but there was one in particular I had to go back and reread a few times before I understood that this character had just died. The whole scene felt wasted to me! Why spend so much time on this person and fleshing them out so well just to have such a lame send-out? Why? If this person had to be killed off for the greater good, then why not make an impression? Make it mean something? Make it hurt, damn it! She hasn't had a problem doing it throughout the series!! And then the small matter of Effie Trinket...I liked Effie so much in the first two books, and then she was only in one scene here! Why bother with it, then? And for the rest of the series to be so well developed (minus the first few chapters of Catching Fire, which felt a bit rushed), the last few chapters of this just...fell flat. It was like Collins realized she had come to her allotted twenty-seven chapters per book and decided she'd better wrap things up as fast as she possibly could, regardless of how coherent and sensible it may or may not end up after all. Ugh! It just felt so unresolved!

And allow me an entire paragraph to lament the whole freaking Katniss/Peeta/Gale love triangle. What the mother of crap?! All it did for me was remind me of how immature and selfish Katniss really is, despite such a strong start in The Hunger Games. Why does every teen/YA book NEED to have a love triangle? Sure, there are some good ones out there, but it's become an epidemic! And what purpose does this one serve, except to shake Twilight's hold on the whole Team A and Team B thing? Really? In my opinion as a reader, Collins could have gotten more mileage if she had left out Katniss's confusion over Gale (which only cropped out sporadically, when all things are considered) and focused on her conflicted feelings towards Peeta. Why did she give him the berries in the arena, out of love, desperation, or defiance? Is she so self-centered that she only cares about him because he cares about her? Was she really playing her role as star-crossed lover for the cameras, or was it as real for her as it was for him? *sigh* I hope this isn't as murky in the movie...

Now onto the good stuff! Once again, the action is fast-paced, the language is direct, and the story is brutal and powerful. If I have to complain about how Ms. Collins handles some of this one, then I still can't fault her for going after the rest of it as she did. She didn't hold back, and she freaking killed me, I swear she did. I died over two dozen times while reading this, and I read it about two nanoseconds away from tears and tantrums, I was so strung out over it. It was agony, but it was so good! I just...I can't even...holy crap! 

Your humble book nerd,
Angels