Mockingjay

Mockingjay!  The long-awaited finale to Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games trilogy!

And....!

I didn't love it.

Katniss Everdeen returns as the rebel's icon: the Mockingjay.  In an effort to overthrow the Capitol, the rebels have banded together to take back Panem, district by district.  Katniss' only request is that she herself wants to be the one to kill Snow.  Peeta, Katniss' fake lover, was captured at the end of the last book, and it is evident in this book that he has been tortured.  In a desperate rescue attempt, he is saved but his mind has been hijacked and perceives Katniss as a threat and tries to kill her. 

In theory, the storyline is good, but Katniss herself is angsty as she still waffles between Peeta and Gale.  And to make matters worse, both guys are aware of her struggles;  they even come to an agreement that she will choose the guy that she can't survive without.  Katniss also strikes me as sulky for most of the book; while others are going about their business (going to classes, etc), Katniss wanders off and does what she pleases, when she pleases.  It isn't until near the end of the book that she accepts authority, but it is still for her own purposes: to sneak off and kill Snow.  Katniss also spends a large majority of the book in the infirmary, so it seems like much of the story is happening behind the scenes.  And it seems like Katniss doesn't care.

I also found the writing style to be jarring.  I don't know the proper term, but it is written in first person present tense; meaning that it is written as it happens.  However, I didn't like that style and I'm surprised I didn't notice it in the other books.

Even the ending was anticlimatic: Katniss assassinated the wrong person (the correct person in her thinking) and then tried to kill herself with a poison pill.  In the end she was exiled back to District 12.  There's an epilogue included as well: a 20 year look into the future.  Which would've been fine if it wasn't written in the present tense. 

Like I said, I was disappointed by the story.  Maybe I'll re-read it in the future, this time with the books back-to-back (instead of reading the third book several months later) to see if it makes a difference. When I read them before, I really enjoyed the series, so I'm rather surprised that I didn't care for this one.

So, read it if you want.  And let me know what you think.