I thought Mockingjay had a fitting and well-resolved ending. The thing that impressed me about the series was that despite reading the book jacket summaries and accidentally learning the major twist in Catching Fire, they still surprised me.

Perhaps because I'm not in the YA age category anymore, or maybe because we're over a year into the war in Ukraine, Katniss's character development felt real. I even wondered for a moment if Suzanne Collins had been in combat at some point. Certainly, she understands what it's like to have life throw your mind into a cocktail shaker and turn it into an ingredient in a sour drink.

To reviewers who have expressed rage at Katniss's being manipulated or not being a perfect invincible hero: her misjudgement of other people's motivations has been part of the character since the beginning of the trilogy. It's what makes the novels convincing. Katniss's trajectory in Mockingjay seems like a perfectly fitting continuation of that trait under the circumstances in the novel.

Collins's major strengths are character development and story, not gorgeous prose -- at least, not in these books. Don't expect the series to develop your SAT vocabulary, unless "repudiate" is still missing from your arsenal (no judgement; I had to ask my husband what it meant. English as a second language struggles, i guess?) Collins used "so" as an embellishment to her descriptors more frequently here than in the first two novels. That felt like a pointless word, making it as if Collins herself was an adolescent expressing her feelings to an older audience. Then again, this is written in the voice of a sixteen-year-old with a limited education. It didn't feel 'so' out of place. Perhaps even intentional.

I don't recommend this if you are hoping for a rosy ending with every character you love finding their personal paradise. And yet, I wouldn't say this was a sad ending to the series. I didn't shed a single tear, and i often shed a thousand at the end of a favorite read. ( )

If I were rating this book by just the story, I'd give it 5 stars like I did the previous books in the series. But the gratuitous violence and death that I feared when I started reading the first book came in full force in this book. Much more death and much grislier deaths than necessary were spread throughout the latter portions of this book, but especially in part 3. And the pods, though of course they had already been in the first two books, but to a much smaller degree, reminded me a lot of the bizarre methods of attack in The Maze Runner series—over the top and completely unnecessary.

The story itself, including the ending, though, I liked. I can understand why some people didn't, but I totally got it. I always knew this wasn't going to end in rainbows and sunshine for Katniss after all the horrors she'd been through and the terrible things she'd been forced to do. Her PTSD would have to be more extreme than anything most of us can imagine, which is exactly what I saw in her in those last chapters. Add to that the fact that she still wasn't really free, and it's really no wonder she had no real fight left in her. I was still hooked, reading it as often as I could come back to it, which has not been as common for me in recent months, so that must say something.

I still think it's funny that I was adamant I'd never read this series, yet I ended up loving it. I haven't watched the movies yet...I suppose I will try to get to that soon. I am already looking forward to reading the series again though. ( )

8.5/10 ( )

Well that left me utterly devastated. ( )

{SPOILERS KINDA} Well. So much for subtle subtext. In Mockingjay, Collins toys with hitting us over the head with the themes underlying the previous two volumes....but still, they are worthy themes and I couldn't stop reading until I got to the last word (so much for earlier bedtimes in the new year.) ( )