The Final installment of the Hunger Games Trilogy – Mockingjay has turned out to be a phenomenal twist that I really didn’t expect. I thought there would be more war, more difficulties, more powerful blowing things up. But instead I was subjected to something more powerful in a sense.
The story restarts as Katniss Everdeen wanders through what was once District 12. She is damaged both mentally and physically, and Peeta is in the hands of the Capitol. District 13 exists run by President Coin, and the rest of the Districts are at war with each other. Katniss has lost her sister to one of Gale’s bomb traps, and she will never really be able to forgive him even though it wasn’t entirely his fault. He had no idea that the bomb would take out Prim. He merely planned to cause destruction enough to destroy a district and bring it to its knees.
Inevitably Katniss gets back Peeta, but not in the way anyone thought. He is no longer the Peeta we once knew, the young man who could bring audiences to their knees with his words and enchant armies to march against those they have so long obeyed. Instead Peeta has been programmed to destroy the one thing he has always truly loved. Katniss.
On release from the Capitol he almost kills Katniss during their first encounter. Heartbroken by the scene she becomes the Mockingjay, but in a new light. Not the just the girl from District 12 that became a tribute in the Hunger Games and later on the 74th Hunger Games Victor along with a second Victor Peeta, something that had never occurred in all the history of the games. Katniss reinvented the role and truly becomes what she has been set up to portray. She becomes a powerful character in the war to destroy the Capitol’s hold on the Districts of Panem by countering their already influential propaganda aired in the sky above almost every home. Katniss destroys this hold which the Capitol takes for granted for decades, by giving District 13 the video footage used to give the districts at war hope, a reason to continue the good fight, and a promise of a brighter future.
Along the way Peeta is able to regain a majority of his own self, but not without enduring further pain and torture, including being burnt alive along with Katniss as a result of more bombs. Gale realizes that in the end his future is as a rebel and not at Katniss’s side, and takes a job in District 2 once the war has been won. But its Hamish and Katniss who return to District 12 to begin a new life of solitude. There was no real place for them in the Capitol. Unlike many of the other Victors. But they made do.
Eventually Peeta, as recovered as he is going to get and eventually returns to District 12 which results in the happily ever after ending where Katniss and Peeta finally find their peace, if it can considered that. At least its more than many were able to experience in Panem. As Katniss says… “There are worse games that can be played.”
Overall I have to rate this installment to the series a 8/10 stars. I really enjoyed the ending to the novel even though I had expected something so different. I felt the author gave the characters more than just battle worn heroes and heroines who need saving. Instead Suzanne Collins has given us characters with hearts and souls, who feel pain and emotions, and she portrays this uniquely and captures an audience unlike what I am used to. I really hope to enjoy more of her writing in the future.
Eaving Shores 