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dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The final book in The Hunger Games trilogy. This book was definitely better that Catching Fire and an acceptable end to the series if not a perfect one.
I'm afraid to say that, like Catching Fire, this book had major pacing issues. Like Catching Fire this book had a slow first third which thankfully felt less tedious than the one in Catching Fire. The middle third was honestly forgettable. The rest of the pacing felt messy. There were chapters and chapters where nothing seemed to happen followed by a few chapters where everything moved so fast it was difficult to process everything. I felt like this weakened the impact of some of the more violent parts of the book, especially as we weren't given the opportunity to dwell on their impact in the slow chapters.
Once again the romantic relationships were one of the weakest parts of this novel. With the twist that both options in the love interest were kind of bad in this book. Katniss has clearly developed an unhealthy co-dependency with Peeta from their shared trauma and due to the trauma of losing district 12, Gale is filled with toxic anger and hate. I wish we'd gotten more focus on the platonic relationships in this book, especially the one between Katniss and Prim. The few moments we had of them together were lovely and Katniss grieving over Prim with Buttercup genuinely made me cry. The romantic relationships didn't make me nearly so emotional.
In addition I found it hard to care about a lot of the secondary characters introduced in this book let alone remember their names. They were underdeveloped which majorly reduced the impact of their violent deaths which I especially felt when they seemed to impact Katniss a lot.
On a more positive side, I appreciate how Collins continues to explore how the trauma the main characters have suffered and how it affects their mental states. Unfortunately one place where this is not as well handled is the sexual trauma one secondary character has experienced. I thought the way the discussions of his trauma and experiences of sexual assault and trafficking were poorly done and would probably be triggering for most survivors, this is exacerbated by the character in questions violent death later in the book.
Overall I'm not sure how I feel about this book. It definitely isn't as good as the first book but I do not regret reading. I'm glad I can now say I have finally finished reading this trilogy. (And, no, I will not be reading A Ballad of Song Birds and Snakes.)
Content Warnings: addiction (alcohol and drug addiction), body horror, child death, confinement, drug abuse, drug use, gore, grief, gun violence, medical content, panic attacks, police brutality, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, violence, animal death, excrement, references to genocide, medical content, mental illness, references to miscarriage, sexual assault, trafficking, torture
I'm afraid to say that, like Catching Fire, this book had major pacing issues. Like Catching Fire this book had a slow first third which thankfully felt less tedious than the one in Catching Fire. The middle third was honestly forgettable. The rest of the pacing felt messy. There were chapters and chapters where nothing seemed to happen followed by a few chapters where everything moved so fast it was difficult to process everything. I felt like this weakened the impact of some of the more violent parts of the book, especially as we weren't given the opportunity to dwell on their impact in the slow chapters.
Once again the romantic relationships were one of the weakest parts of this novel. With the twist that both options in the love interest were kind of bad in this book. Katniss has clearly developed an unhealthy co-dependency with Peeta from their shared trauma and due to the trauma of losing district 12, Gale is filled with toxic anger and hate. I wish we'd gotten more focus on the platonic relationships in this book, especially the one between Katniss and Prim. The few moments we had of them together were lovely and Katniss grieving over Prim with Buttercup genuinely made me cry. The romantic relationships didn't make me nearly so emotional.
In addition I found it hard to care about a lot of the secondary characters introduced in this book let alone remember their names. They were underdeveloped which majorly reduced the impact of their violent deaths which I especially felt when they seemed to impact Katniss a lot.
On a more positive side, I appreciate how Collins continues to explore how the trauma the main characters have suffered and how it affects their mental states. Unfortunately one place where this is not as well handled is the sexual trauma one secondary character has experienced. I thought the way the discussions of his trauma and experiences of sexual assault and trafficking were poorly done and would probably be triggering for most survivors, this is exacerbated by the character in questions violent death later in the book.
Overall I'm not sure how I feel about this book. It definitely isn't as good as the first book but I do not regret reading. I'm glad I can now say I have finally finished reading this trilogy. (And, no, I will not be reading A Ballad of Song Birds and Snakes.)
Content Warnings: addiction (alcohol and drug addiction), body horror, child death, confinement, drug abuse, drug use, gore, grief, gun violence, medical content, panic attacks, police brutality, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, violence, animal death, excrement, references to genocide, medical content, mental illness, references to miscarriage, sexual assault, trafficking, torture
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Current review, written in July of 2025:
This concludes my reread of the original books after reading Ballad and Sunrise earlier this year.
This is a devastating book. It's amazing in retrospect that we were reading this as kids - it just genuinely did not land the same way back then, at least not for me. (As you can see from my original review below, preserved for posterity and accountability. I was big mad about this book for a very long time.)
Collins really aimed so much higher than the other dystopian YA novels of the day, and this holds up much better because of that. This isn't a "teenage girl kicks ass and runs a country" book, this is a "teenage girl is used as a disposable pawn by forces much larger than her, and she and her companions have to come to terms with the horrors of war as best as they can" book. And it's a powerful exploration of trauma, grief, propaganda, and war. The "love triangle" isn't really a love triangle at all; it's just a way of exploring two very different approaches to just war theory, and both Peeta and Gale have important roles to play. (I am still solidly "team Peeta", possibly even more so all these years later.)
I'll admit I still don't understand why Katniss voted yes. Some kind of subterfuge to maintain the President's trust? But why would that be necessary? Why risk it? It bothers me that this still niggles at me all these years later. Reading back through my other complaints from back then, though, I mostly conclude that I just wasn't quite able to *get* it yet. (Not that I would be against getting more details. If anything, Ballad and Sunrise have made me realize just how eager I am to find out what else is going on in this world, outside of Katniss's head or before her time.) But I'm still torn up over Finnick. Give that poor man (barely more than a kid himself, to my current eyes) a little more respect on his way out, will you?
Original review written in January of 2012, when I was myself 17 - I think the first actual book review I'd ever written:
I read The Hunger Games Thursday. I read Catching Fire Friday. And I read Mockingjay Saturday. It was okay. Not as good as Catching Fire, which was not as good as The Hunger Games. But seriously…what was that ending? That was the most anti-climactic thing Collins could have done.
This concludes my reread of the original books after reading Ballad and Sunrise earlier this year.
This is a devastating book. It's amazing in retrospect that we were reading this as kids - it just genuinely did not land the same way back then, at least not for me. (As you can see from my original review below, preserved for posterity and accountability. I was big mad about this book for a very long time.)
Collins really aimed so much higher than the other dystopian YA novels of the day, and this holds up much better because of that. This isn't a "teenage girl kicks ass and runs a country" book, this is a "teenage girl is used as a disposable pawn by forces much larger than her, and she and her companions have to come to terms with the horrors of war as best as they can" book. And it's a powerful exploration of trauma, grief, propaganda, and war. The "love triangle" isn't really a love triangle at all; it's just a way of exploring two very different approaches to just war theory, and both Peeta and Gale have important roles to play. (I am still solidly "team Peeta", possibly even more so all these years later.)
I'll admit I still don't understand why Katniss voted yes. Some kind of subterfuge to maintain the President's trust? But why would that be necessary? Why risk it? It bothers me that this still niggles at me all these years later. Reading back through my other complaints from back then, though, I mostly conclude that I just wasn't quite able to *get* it yet. (Not that I would be against getting more details. If anything, Ballad and Sunrise have made me realize just how eager I am to find out what else is going on in this world, outside of Katniss's head or before her time.) But I'm still torn up over Finnick. Give that poor man (barely more than a kid himself, to my current eyes) a little more respect on his way out, will you?
Original review written in January of 2012, when I was myself 17 - I think the first actual book review I'd ever written:
I read The Hunger Games Thursday. I read Catching Fire Friday. And I read Mockingjay Saturday. It was okay. Not as good as Catching Fire, which was not as good as The Hunger Games. But seriously…what was that ending? That was the most anti-climactic thing Collins could have done.
We don’t see the Capitol actually being taken over, we just hear afterwards that, oh, yeah, by the way - the Capitol got taken over while you were asleep. I actually thought for a while that she was still in her drug-induced dreamland when this happened, because the last few chapters of the book were all shrouded by that foggy depression that robbed everything of its importance.
The actually really good plot line of Coin killing the children and blaming it on Snow felt really rushed, and like Katniss’s final action on the matter was a result of manipulation more than her actual realization of Coin’s evil - I mean, she basically just killed her for killing Prim, right? What about the many other reasons she should have had? Obviously Prim’s death was a horrible thing, but there were other, more horrible things, too, surely? The war? The needless killing she sanctioned? The continuation of the Hunger Games?
Why did Katniss just get shipped back to District 12? Can we have some reasons for that? Can she have some kind of reaction? Can she do something other than lie there catatonic while Greasy Sae cooks for her?
I was on the Peeta side of the whole Peeta vs. Gale thing (though by this point I was just really tired of hearing about it, and of her going back and forth between them, indiscriminately kissing without worrying about how this will affect them), but WHAT A HORRIBLE WAY OF RESOLVING IT. Katniss didn’t even make a choice - like every single other aspect of her life - Gale just goes to District 2 (again - details? Can you take some initiative in your writing and explain this for us?) and Peeta’s the only thing left. Their “romance” at the end was the least romantic thing they’ve had together. He’s mentally unstable, she’s horribly depressed, and they get stuck being neighbors again, so eventually end up producing offspring. Okay. How exciting. I would have liked to have seen some remnants of old, first-arena Peeta and Katniss returning. Their time in the cave. Something that makes you really want them to be together again. Which brings me to…
I get the emotional scarring - really, I do. I would be really annoyed if there were not some kind of repercussions of the trauma they’d endured. But…well, just because it’s realistic doesn’t make it interesting, does it? The biggest part of what makes a story good is a cast of strong characters who have the ability to overcome. The characters from the first two books would easily have accomplished this. But by the end Katniss had kind of just…given up on everything. Completely. While reading everything following Prim’s death, I felt kind of dizzied by the haze of depression and indifference lying over everything. I thought things were going to pick back up when she finally encountered Snow, realized Coin’s deception, and acted on it - but nope, that was immediately followed by her trying to kill herself, then yet again waking up in her room and being drugged senseless. That will only win my sympathy so many times, and by the end of Mockingjay, that storage of sympathy has long been depleted.
And the deaths - okay, yes. People have to die a lot in these books. I accepted that before I even started reading them. And with a lot of these deaths, it made sense. Rue. As sad as I was, I got it, and it was necessary. The victors in CF. The generic sets of war casualties. But the deaths of the Star Squad felt kind of…well, extremely pointless. They could have been handled better. Boggs, I got. That worked and it carried sufficient impact. It gave Katniss the ability to lead the soldiers on, to take on her own plan - though, really, I thought everyone followed her a little too willingly. The background rebels we didn’t meet until now (Jackson, Mitchell, etc.) - those deaths didn’t bother me so much because we don’t even know those characters. But Finnick? Finnick, the victor; Finnick, who had just been married after what is possibly the worst imaginable existence - and then he dies? It’s not even that he died, but more how it happened - along with a host of others so that it loses all of its meaning, only making a momentary impression on Katniss and not earning much time in the novel. That really irked me. By this point, four of my five favorite characters are dead - can you at least have the decency to devote a little more energy to his death? Because that’s just it - I cried when Rue died. I panicked when Cinna was dragged away. At least there was a moment when Katniss realized the impact of Boggs’s death. But Finnick just…dies. And the slap in the face of his kid later - UGH, it was such a Teddy Lupin moment that I wanted to scream.
And the biggest thing at all - KATNISS VOTED TO CONTINUE THE HUNGER GAMES. KATNISS, THE PERSON WHO, POSSIBLY MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE, HAD REASON TO HATE THE HUNGER GAMES AND CAUSE THEM TO STOP, VOTED TO CONTINUE THEM. And then very soon after went on a rant about how stupid humans are for allowing the Hunger Games to happen and how everyone’s better off without them. WHERE WAS THAT WHEN YOU VOTED YES? It was awful and out of character. The Katniss from the first two books - no matter how distraught she was over Prim’s death - would not have voted yes. Prim would not have died if it weren’t for the Games. None of those people would have. No amount of grief should have enabled Katniss to inflict that on others.
Obviously there is the possibility that she voted yes in order to gain Coin’s trust, and that’s why Haymitch voted with her - and that would be a really good plan (though I’m still not convinced Coin would have slaughtered her for voting no - I mean, she didn’t kill Peeta, Beetee, or Annie, which she could easily have done since none of them were particularly stable), and perhaps that’s even what is supposed to have happened, but the writing just doesn’t support it. We aren’t given any glimpse into her reason for saying yes, other than “for Prim”. This can be argued, I guess, but it felt like she hadn’t made up her mind to kill Coin until she had her bow trained on Snow and thought about what he had said about agreeing not to lie. Besides, after her vote, how could she have any way of knowing that the government wouldn’t go ahead with the council’s decision? She voted yes and then planned to die. So what, then, is stopping more Games? It worked out in the end, which probably makes my whole tirade on it a bit moot, but this is still driving me insane. If nothing else, Katniss turned down an opportunity to make her stand. She could have spoken up for what was right, but, instead, killed Coin and promptly reentered delirium while everyone else took up for her (and we didn’t get to hear a word of any of it).
Obviously there is the possibility that she voted yes in order to gain Coin’s trust, and that’s why Haymitch voted with her - and that would be a really good plan (though I’m still not convinced Coin would have slaughtered her for voting no - I mean, she didn’t kill Peeta, Beetee, or Annie, which she could easily have done since none of them were particularly stable), and perhaps that’s even what is supposed to have happened, but the writing just doesn’t support it. We aren’t given any glimpse into her reason for saying yes, other than “for Prim”. This can be argued, I guess, but it felt like she hadn’t made up her mind to kill Coin until she had her bow trained on Snow and thought about what he had said about agreeing not to lie. Besides, after her vote, how could she have any way of knowing that the government wouldn’t go ahead with the council’s decision? She voted yes and then planned to die. So what, then, is stopping more Games? It worked out in the end, which probably makes my whole tirade on it a bit moot, but this is still driving me insane. If nothing else, Katniss turned down an opportunity to make her stand. She could have spoken up for what was right, but, instead, killed Coin and promptly reentered delirium while everyone else took up for her (and we didn’t get to hear a word of any of it).
The book was really alright up until the last few chapters. And this makes it seem like I dislike the series, which is not true at all - I loved the first two books. That’s why I had nothing to say about them - they were good and I was not annoyed. I just felt that this was a horribly anticlimactic and fairly disappointing ending to a series that had so much potential to be epic. Even such events that I appreciated were not written well enough. We deserved more activity, rather than watching Katniss sitting passively by while the world changed around her. And we deserved a better heroine. Katniss deserved to be a better heroine - where even did her personality go? PTSD aside, a book is no longer interesting when the protagonist becomes a hollow shell. Coming off the high intensity of the first two books, Mockingjay was a disappointment.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Animal death, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Miscarriage, Vomit, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol