Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Hunger games: Síla vzdoru

Mockingjay is a brilliant example of dystopian fiction. As a sequel, it draws on the previous books without replicating them, which is shockingly absent in much of YA fiction. It feels like a truly accurate representation of a true dystopia being taken down by a revolution, which is to say there cannot be a happy ending. And there isn't.

There's only the event, the grief that follows it, and the steady eventuality of learning how to live again, albeit not entirely happy.

Collins' expression of PTSD, through pretty much every character, is painfully accurate. No, the characters don't return home unscathed. It's a beautiful and necessary and heartwrenching book.

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dark emotional medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

This book is by far the hardest of the series to read; it's just so bleak and so sad. Every character is so horrendously traumatised. It's hard to watch Gale becoming more and more warlike, especially knowing how that ends. It's hard to see Peeta as a twisted husk of the lovely boy he was before. The expansion of Finnick's character is emotional but very well done.

His death is just so incredibly unfair, and I had forgotten it... because we, and Katniss, are never given a chance to properly mourn him. Prim's death feels like such an obvious metaphor - an effective one - but we spent so much time with Finnick and understood so much of his trauma. And then, we aren't given a chance to mourn him - which is why I'm sure I totally forgot that it happened! In my mind Finnick will be living a long, peaceful life with Annie by the sea somewhere.

Mockingjay is a war book. It's not my subgenre and reading it is stressful and awful. But, some bloated pacing in the middle notwithstanding, it's a very good book, asking young adult readers challenging questions of culpability in oppressive systems. That passivity can be violent was a massively influential idea for me when I first read this book in 2010 (and forever after).

It's wild that love triangle had the cultural grip that it did because it's actually so sophisticated and complex? The key relationships and characters are so fascinating. I will never not be thinking about Peeta Mellark and Haymitch Abernathy and Finnick Odair.

Some of the pacing in the middle was a little bloated but that ending was something to behold. Every decision.

The rebels win the war.... off page? Our heroine is unconscious for it? Such an interesting subversion of the Chosen One trope.

Excellent narration by Tatiana Maslany.

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Reread. Really good conclusion to the series. I feel it tied up all the threads that have been laid over the course of the books, while still acknowledging that life goes on, and though this conclusion might not be perfect, it was still worth fighting for. Definitely some painful moments over the course of the book- I cried a lot, but I think those moments were done really well and felt worth something.

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