Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

This is the last Suzanne Collins book in the popular "Hunger Games" series. The series is an enormous hit at school, and paperback copies were circulating there for weeks before I could get my hands on the edition from the library. As hard as
it was to get the book, I find Collins' style to be an easy read, although not as easy or as pleasurable as the 2 books leading up to the point.

I must say that the beginning of the book was very disorienting. Compared to the other two books, which Collins puts in chronological order, this book jumps ahead of the action and finds Katniss Everdeen waking up after her injuries in
and rescue from the special Hunger Games anniversary edition she had to endure. The importance of that Games, the Quarter Quell, is that many champions from past years have to fight each other. Katniss and her partner from
District 12,Reeta Mellark, study the films of the past winners so that they are familiar with their strengths and weaknesses before choosing their allies. But the
Games don't go as the Gamemakers plan; many of the previous winners are out to defeat the government of Panem, and not each other, due to the cruelty of the Hunger Games system.

The book opens as Katniss recovers from her concussion, and we only slowly find out how she has ended up in a District 13 hospital ward, and what happened to her friends, family, and fellow competitors. It is interesting to find out about life in this District which was supposed bombed to the ground during an earlier war, but in which the inhabitants have moved to underground tunnels many layers deep. There is however, menace from the start, as Katniss tries to figure out who
cares for her and who is trying to use her for their own political ends.

I enjoy reading about how Katniss endures each challenge, physical as well as mental. She has moments of weakness as she watches her old boyfriend Peeta being paraded on Panem lV in weakened condition, or sees her new Mockingjay costume designed by her friend from the Capitol, Cinna, who was killed before her eyes right before the Quell started. While she is mainly ignorant and often ambivalent about the political movement brewing behind her, she agrees to become its symbol, "the Mockingjay," in order to make a better life for her family and friends. There are many twists and turns and opportunities for her humanity to shine before everything resolves itself satisfactorily when Peeta rejoins her at the end.

While this is the weakest of the 3 books for me, Katniss uses her skills to triumph in the end, leading a squadron of rebels into the Capitol to witness the death of President Snow and the birth of a new government before returning to District 12.

Submitted by Stephanie