Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Press (August 24, 2010)
Mockingjay plunges headfirst into the state of the districts in the aftermath of the events of Catching Fire. The districts have been bombed by the Capitol government for starting a rebellion against its oppressive leadership, and many lives and worlds have been lost. We again follow Katniss Everdeen, 17 years-old now, as she roams the ruins of her home, District 12, after a severe bombing which left many dead, some of whom lie in the streets as she walks. Most of the population, and the people she’s known all of her life, are dead, while the rest, including herself and her old friend, Gale, and her mother and younger sister, Prim, have been relocated to District 13, which we learn was never destroyed but has been tucked away for the last 75 years into the safety found underground, its people plotting a severe rebellion against the Capitol. District 13 has pinned their hopes on Katniss’ help to garner the support of the other districts in the war against the Capitol and ultimately in overthrowing the corrupt President Snow, and that Katniss will agree to become their rebel leader/poster girl and symbol of resistance for the war, to become their “Mockingjay.” At first, Katniss is reluctant to do so and isn’t even very good at taping rebel propaganda messages that will be broadcast to all of Panem, including the Capitol; but after visiting the hospital in a neighboring district and watching it be bombed and knowing that all of the wounded and civilians inside are dead, Katniss is stirred into action and is recorded in a magnificent message; truly, the slogans that Katniss comes up under the burning heat of rage are incredibly inspiring.
Peeta Mellark, Katniss’ partner in the Hunger Games in the first two books and also one of her possible love interests in the romantic triangle that she currently faces with Gale, has been captured by Snow and is being tortured in the hopes of weakening Katniss to the point of refusing to be the Mockingjay, thereby deflating the will of the districts and ending the districts’ uprising. Mockingjay does a spectacular job of showing what it is like for soldiers who have served active duty returning to the normalcy of home life and the struggles that they face and must learn to live with, for Katniss experiences all of these same trials. She manages to overcome them all, though, and becomes even stronger inside and out, and sharper and wiser about people and the world, as a result; and even though she doubts herself at times and has a hard time taking orders, especially as a soldier in this war, she is someone who we are truly proud to put our faith and hopes and trust in, and proud to have as our Mockingjay.
The book concludes with all of the questions that were brought up throughout the series resolved to a very satisfying end. The epilogue shows us an older, more mature and wiser Katniss, and we find out which boy she chose in the end and learn about the life that she ends up living. We also see that even in such a messed up world as the one in which Katniss was born into and lived through for the first seventeen years of her life, there is still hope for a bright, happy future – or a future at all. There are shocks and twists throughout the novel, and some deaths are absolutely heart-wrenching, especially after having gotten to know certain characters better in this final installment, that you have to marvel at Katniss’ strength to continue with living.
Mockingjay is extraordinarily written, and it will pull you into Katniss’ world to the point that you will not be able to stop reading until you have finished the book and know the fates of the characters you have come to love and the fate of the world that you have come to hate. Intelligently written, never pandering down to a younger audience, always gripping and showing the true – and oftentimes horrific – nature of war and of people in desperate conditions, Collins shows that she is a genius storyteller. Definitely pick up a copy of Mockingjay – you will not be disappointed!
Mockingjay is released on August 24, 2010. You can purchase Mockingjay at Amazon.com
Thank you to Scholastic for providing the review copy!
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