Mockingjay--**CONTAINS SPOILERS**

[Runa]

Hey, just thought we needed a place for nerdfighters who have finished Mockingjay to safely discuss what happens.  So...what did you all think?  

[Haley]

It would be Finnick Cinna and Prim Rue. Or any number of names really, the death count of these books is depressing.

[Sydney Rose]

hahahahahhaha i hadn't thought of it like that :)

[Nicole Wilwerding]

Bleck. Albus Severus. The two most awkward names in the history of awkward names, and one kid gets stuck with both of them.

Not getting the names was fine--it reemphasized that Katniss is kind of detached (and maybe a little bit like her own careless mom), but the even splitting of Katniss' and Peeta's features between the two kids was irritating. 

[anum akram]

what really bugged me was that katniss was everyones mockingjay people followed her they believed in her so it doesn't make sense that she ends up living a normal life in district 12 i mean it wouldn't be that easy and to just write her off as a lunatic after she kills coin.
i always believed she was goin to end up with peeta because of how she describes her kiss with peeta as a hunger growing but when she kissed gale it was to forget about other things i think tha said alot but yeah gale i think deserved a better ending than that i just cant believe after twenty years katniss would still blame gale for prims death.

[PRINESS KE$HA]

PERSONLY AFTER ALL THE CRAP KATNISS AND PEETA WENT THRU SHE EMOCIALLY HAD TO CHOOSE PEETA. IT WAS LIKE GALE WAS JUST THERE.I AGREE WITH YALL SHE DID ALL OF THIS TO SAVE PRIMROSE AND DIES ANYWAY I DONT LIKE THAT PART.AND I TWO THINK HAYMICH DIES HE JUST DRANK TO MUCH.GALE JUST DISSAPARS. AND IM PRETENDING THE EPILOGE DOSENT EXCISE JUST TO WILD

[April]

I just finished about an hour ago and have mulled over some things. Here they are:

1. The question of team Peeta or team Gale? I really liked Gale from the beginning. However, we all knew deep down that she wouldn't choose him in the end... Katniss and Gale were too alike, for example- Katniss and Haymitch were exactly the same (well, not exactly, but in mindset, yes) and they hated each other even though they understood each other. Since Katniss and Gale are so similar, they would be unhappy and she would still live with the question, "What if I chose Peeta?" just as she now lives with the question, "What if I chose Gale?" At least with Peeta, she will alway have someone who understood what she's been through, even though he would not completely understand her nor would she him. 

2. Who detonated the bomb that killed Prim? I don't know. The book makes me lean towards the Rebel forces being the ones who did it. Even though the latter is probably true, Katniss really didn't have a right to blame Gale. He didn't know what they were going to to with what he and Beetee created. But just as it "makes for good tellevision," it makes for a good book. ...Don't get me wrong- I miss Prim as much as the rest of you, after all, she was the whole cause for Katniss being involved in the games.

3. Is the epilogue too much like The Deathly Hollows? Nah. Not for my taste anyway. Although the two are quite similar, I think it was good to include it because it answered the questions about her having children, were they happy now, could she survive without him, etc. But I am very dissapointed that she didn't mention Gale or Haymitch...but I guess Katniss didn't know about them anymore so how could Collins tell us about them?

4. Did Finnick have to die?! NO! He and Annie were so happy! Gah...

5. Did the Capitol HAVE to kill off everyone associated with Katniss? Especially Cinna! Some people yes, like...um...well....THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO KILL CINNA!!!! He was such a warm part of the book (Do you know what I mean by that? Like when Katniss was narrating parts about him (not in Mockingjay) how she would just make you love him and just the idea of him would make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? No? Well, I guess I'm weird...)

6. "My vote is yes....for Prim." Yeah right!!! Like Prim would want her to do that! Gale maybe, but not Prim!!!!! Gah...I could've punched something when I read that...

And thus ends my mantra....

Oh and also- here is a link to an AMAZING rendition of the Hanging Tree: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54_LE1YuMRc

[Runa]

1. Haha, how did you know all along she'd choose Peeta?  I didn't see that at all...

 

3. No comparison.  DH was a happy, "all was well" epilogue, and here, certainly not all was well.  Super dark, but I loved both the DH and Mockingjay epilogues, I felt that each suited their individual series.  

 

4/5. Yeah, Finnick's the only death I would argue. As sad as Cinna's death was, it really drove that point that nobody was safe home, and added a lot of tension to the plot.  

 

6. Agreed.  I do not think Prim would want her to do that either, and it seemed extremely OOC.  

[MaddhouseKB]

Mockingjay was a bitter sweet reading experience for me. On one hand, I loved it because Katniss is one of the few consistently strong female character's I've come across in literature, though she's not always the smartest and the character's surrounding her are brilliant as well. I loved the plot twist with Peeta, and I loved that the book was not centered around Katniss and Peeta's relationship, which is something that a lot of YA authors fail to do. This is one of the few books where the plot comes before the romance, and I have huge respect for Suzanne Collins for that.
  What I didn't like- and this is really odd coming from me since I love dystopian books, and I love tragic endings, but I hated that even when everything is done and over with, Katniss and Peeta weren't happy. They never reached a happy point in their life, and they only seemed to be with one another (at least on Katniss' end) because they needed someone who understood their situation rather than out of love. It was a little disappointing that after all that tragedy, there still seemed to be so little light in their life.
  I know this is a little naive, considering that war effect people in the real life just as it affected Katniss and Peeta, but it still kind of sucked.
   I also felt like the ending was extremely rushed, and incredibly anti climactic. It was all of that build up for a bullet to the head. Again, it was realistic, but it could have been better I think.
 I hate complaining about both a book and series that I enjoyed, but there's my two cents anyway.

[Jamie Linde]

Mockingjay was the most unpredictable book I have ever read. I could not wait for it to end because I was in such an emotional wreck after Finnick and Prim died. They were two of the best characters in the book, in my opinion.

 

I was so happy when Katniss killed Coin. I hated Coin from the beginning. I am also really glad Katniss ended up with Peeta and not with Gale (love Gale) in the end, because I could see, throughout the series, Katniss falling in love with Peeta and never with Gale. I think maybe she felt like she owed Gale something, but they could never be together.

 

A fantastic end to an amazing series. Suzanne Collins has surely became my favorite author because of the Hunger Games.

[Luke K]

It was a good story, oddly unbelievable that the Capitol didn't do much to stop the rebels. The whole things seemed to go like a knife through slightly hardened butter, but certainly nothing like through the impenetrable substance that the Capitol description in the original book hinted at. Sorry, weird metaphors. It did, however, keep me reading it...in fact, finished it in one day....

Onto the subject of Katniss. She's not likeable. At least, she's to be admired initially, for her courage, her love of family, and her feelings of protectiveness for them. However, as it goes on she becomes obsessed with a vendetta against Snow, and it blinds her to so much that's happening around her. She seems to forget that this isn't all about her, and spends her time worrying, not about the war and all the deaths SHE caused, but instead over who she'll spend the rest of her life with. Doesn't seem to prioritize, does it?

On top of this, she will quickly kill innocent people, including a Capitol woman purely for being in her way. The woman could have been gagged, or at least knocked out, but no, she just shoots her. She despises the Capitol, and I suppose rightly so...when she's lived under their oppression for so long. However, she has had enough experience of Cinna and other Capitol citizen to realise they're not all savage monsters. Unfortunately, she doesn't...and kills a woman who's only crime was screaming at the sight of intruders. Such a small scene tells so much about her.

She despises the Hunger Games, but at the same time it seems she lives for them. I can't see how people can feel sorry for her, when she is so willing to resort to violence. It's true that she sees violence as the only answer, and she can be excused for that. After all, Rue died at what she sees as the Capitol's hand, she's gone through hell, and emerged on the other side. However, the horror of the games doesn't seem to matter to her when it comes to one ore Games involving Capitol children. A child cannot be blamed for the crimes of their parents, but in Katniss' eyes, this isn't the case. She's blinded, or perhaps not blinded, by a hatred towards what the Capitol authorities did to her and the districts. She doesn't seem to be totally blinded to the innocence of children though, seeing as she refuses to have children that might take part in the Games....or is that just so she doesn't have to face it.

Sorry, long piece, but this is what burns in my mind most after reading Mockingjay. And by the way, I liked Katniss' character well enough until the events I just described happened.Also, sorry for any grammar mistakes...

[Nicole Wilwerding]

I hated the end. 

Most of the tension in this book was dependent on Katniss deciding between Gale and Peeta, and then the  decision is ultimately made for her because Gale instigated (it's been awhile since I read this, but he played a major role in that last attack) the attack that killed her little sister Primrose (who, despite being very important to Katniss, is never fleshed out enough that she is important to the reader, so Primrose dying just made me say, "Oh, really? Really?" whereas the unnecessary murder of a Weasley twin caused me to shake my fist at J.K. Rowling, demanding, "Why him? Why not Percy? No one likes Percy!"). She cannot be with someone who killed Primrose, even though Gale is smarter than Peeta, more socially concerned than Peeta, has known Katniss longer, is a better fighter than Peeta (I just mixed structures there so this sentence won't be entirely correct), Katniss chooses Peeta because he didn't kill anyone and they went through a lot of hard times together.

Also, does it bother anyone else when, in epilogues, the children have evenly divided charcteristics of each parent? Like one's a boy, one's a girl, one has Katniss' hair and Peeta's eyes, and the other has Katniss' eyes and Peeta's hair? 

There were a lot of problems that were tied up a little too quickly. We could've used a couple more chapters, I think. 

[Contradiction]

Either my judgment was clouded by how unbelievably irritating Katniss is, or I really disliked the plot of the book, too.

 

Every plot twist seemed random, and sudden with no buildup or foreshadowing. And, like I said, I really, really could not stand Katniss's narration.

 

I can't even remember most of what happened, because I really didn't like it and forgot most of it as soon as I was finished. I know I liked her killing Coin; that's about it.