I LOVE the Hunger Games series. My collegue at work introduced me to Suzanne Collins and I immediately became hooked! I started reading the series when Catching Fire came out and, needless to say, I have been anxiously awaiting the release of the final book in the trilogy.
I got the book the day it was released. Spenc and I had to go to two different stores to find it. I started reading at 8:00 pm and finished the next day at lunch. I'd read the first two books the weekend before so it was a joy to be reunited with the characters that I felt were my friends.
The first two books are centered around "the games," which made this book stick out like a sore thumbs. Although Collins tries her hardest to make the adventures of Katniss seem like another version of "the games," I didn't buy it. The entire book was based on action, horror, and violence. The character development that drove the first books was left behind and the characters that I so dearly loved became shallow and empty. Unlike the first books where each page offered a new surpirse, the plot was fairly predictable with few of the shocking twists that I have come to expect from Collins. The flow of the book was awkward and I felt my self wishing the plot would simply move on while at the same time acknowldeging that everything was far too rushed. To top it off, the ending was abrupt and unsatisfying.
Ultimately, I think that this should have been divided into two books. There needed to be more time to build the characters so that the plot could be based more on the story itself rather than violent epidodes of horror. This would also have allowed for a more complete ending.
I'm not saying that this book should not be read. It was still a very stimulating read, it just didn't live up to my expectations given the first two books.
The one positive thing that I can say for Mockingjay is that it made me want to be more proactive in our government. In fact, the day after I finished the book I registered to vote! The fact that this book provoked me to action made it worth reading, in my opinion. It made me wary of the personal agendas of politicians and reminded me that the lure of power is often too great for even the best of men to resist. It helped me to realize how fragile government is and emphasized the idea that the government should serve the people, not the other way around.
