Mockingjay--**CONTAINS SPOILERS**

Permalink Reply by Jackie Tee on September 30, 2011 at 9:33pm

Oh my gosh. I just finished this series half an hour ago.

I honestly loved the book but I wasn't very proud of the ending..

They should of included Gale more into the ending but she only ended it when Katniss was in her room with her prep team and Katniss tells them to go in the washroom or something then Katniss is thinking that President Coin made it a plan to kill them and it was Gale's bombs. The one he was working with Beetee so secretivley from her (Just guessing). Gale asked her if she forgave him, she just stood there then he left. That was it. So I'm guessing he knew she wouldn't forgive him or something.

BUT in the middle of Catching Fire (Sorry not related to Mockingjay) I thought Madge and Gale would somehow be together. When Gale was whipped Madge brought some medicine from her mom's cabinet for him and stuff. Katniss was jealous and stuff thinking they had some secret friendship or something. AND I also thought Peeta and Delly might be together because she randomly popped out of nowhere in Mockingjay, although she was mentioned in The Hunger Games when Peeta covered Katniss when she's seen the Avox girl before saying "She looks like Delly!". Anyways when Delly was telling him stuff about their memories when they were children I thought they would have some connection of some sort.. that apparently didn't happen.

What about Madge? Or Haymitch? OR GALE?! Gale should atleast been icluded in the epilogue. Telling how his future is like "He's still working in District 2, but never stopped thinking about his and Katniss' relationship" or something to let us know he's okay or that him and Katniss keep in touch.

Haymitch is probably dead from all that drinking and his old age.

When they mentioned Annie had a baby I was like "Aaaaaaw!" But then I thought of Finnick. WHY FINNICK HE COULD'VE LIVED. HE WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITES! :(

And Cinna.. All they said was that he was beaten to death. Not technically declaring his death.

They only thing confusing to me is the whole Coin planting the parachute bombs.. and the whole Gale attachment to it. Someone clarify it for me. Cause I'll be stressing to figure it out.

I hate the fact the the chapters always end in the cliffhangers. I always have to keep on reading it. Lacking of sleep -.-

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Permalink Reply by Jamie Linde on October 1, 2011 at 7:54am

It is not directly stated that the bombs were Gale's, it is only assumed by everyone (characters and readers). I am pretty sure they were though. Of course Coin would use the bombs. Her only concern was winning the war, and nothing could interfere with her goal, even innocent children.

The reason why Gale isn't included in the epilogue is that, contrary to what we want, Katniss and he do not keep in touch. Both of them have gone their separate ways, and Katniss clearly wants to stay as far away from what happened as possible, although she really can't.

I may be wrong (I read the book a year ago), but I think Haymitch, in the end, is living his life like he always did. Drunk and alone.

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Permalink Reply by Abbyhatch on October 1, 2011 at 9:33pm

Mmm, I agree with a lot of what has been said so far. I adored the first book, and just because I was keen to have more of the characters, I read the second and third books. While the plot isn't *that* strong throughout the trilogy, I would read it a million times over for the characters that you just fall in love with.

But I think it was because of this that I found the end of the series so unsatisfying. I remember reading Mockingjay, getting panicky as I had less and less pages towards the end. I was concerned that there wouldn't be enough time for everything to wrap itself up. And I guess I was kinda of right. For a book of not-inconsiderable length, it kind of just felt that they had gone "We need to cut pages somewhere... let's just remove the whole conclusion". In the end, I just felt like the characters, and the readings, deserved an ending that was more thoroughly considered and in tone with the rest of the story. Peeta deserved better than 'Well, I can't be with Gale so I guess I'll be with you..." and Katniss deserved more than a boy who very slowly discovered that he didn't really hate her. I don't know... I think I just felt it was a fry cry from the intense romance and strong characterisation of the first book.

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Permalink Reply by Jessie on October 2, 2011 at 12:32pm

It was CRAZY!!! The ending was something no one could figure out. It blew my mind! I was happy to see that Katniss ended up with Peeta, I was hoping they would be together. I cried a lot tough, like when Finnick died and Prim, that was so hard for me.

Anyways this series has to be my favorite, it really makes you think about life in general.

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Permalink Reply by Stephanie Richardson on October 4, 2011 at 2:40pm

1. Team Peeta or Team Gale? I LOVED Gale from the start. Not entirely sure why, perhaps because he was painted with a very likeable personality (minus all the "destroy the capitol!" stuff) and he kinda reminded me of male friendships I have. However...I had a feeling from Catching Fire that Katniss would end up with Peeta. I know she faked her love in the Hunger Games, but she kinda had to...it's excusable. I wish Collins would have elaborated more on Gale - hey, maybe that's a book idea. Rewrite the story from Gale's point-of-view (because that's hasn't been done before. :P) Seriously though, Gale and Katniss had YEARS of friendship and it's all destroyed because his bomb *may* have killed Prim? bringing me to my next point....

2. Who detonated the bomb that killed Prim? I know Gale was involved in the creation of it with Beetee, but can you really blame him? He didn't know it was going to kill Prim. Plus, killing Prim off was stupid. They might as well just have put that in the first book then - "oh hey, Katniss is really selfless by appointing herself in her sister's place, but she ends up dying anyway, so it doesn't really matter..."

3. Is the epilogue too much like The Deathly Hollows? I don't think so. DH's epilogue frustrated me because it meant that I couldn't imagine the rest of the story for myself, with no way for the story to progress...but it was still a tidy way to end the series. In contrast, Mockingjay's epilogue was CRAP. Seriously? I would rather have sat through a whole 'nother book that respectively ended the story versus this stupid epilogue. There's just so many loose ends. What happened to the rest of the characters (Gale, Haymitch, Katniss' mother, the families of all those killed, the restoration of the districts/Panem, etc)? Peeta and Katniss end up unhappily together and have babies who don't have to have tessarae. Cool. I just summarized the epilogue for you.

4. Did Finnick have to die?! No! Unnecessary death. Why didn't he just end up in the aforementioned list of people who we don't know what happened to? He didn't have to die. That was dumb.

5. Did the Capitol HAVE to kill off everyone associated with Katniss? Especially Cinna! Seriously! Cinna was one of my favorites! I cried when he said "I'm still rooting for you" and then got beaten. Someone should write a list of deaths, there were SO many, especially in Mockingjay. (Like the group of schoolchildren...)

6. "My vote is yes....for Prim." DUMB DUMB DUMB. "My sister died, so let's all just get back into the Hunger Games AGAIN so that more people can die." I'm sure that's what Prim would have wanted.

...I promise, I LOVED this series. I realize all of this sounds super negative. That's because it was a great series with a terrible ending.

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Permalink Reply by Eli V on October 7, 2011 at 1:18am

1. I don't see why the romantic sideplot should be number one question, but if I had to pick I'd go with Peeta because he has a personality outside of periodically refusing to talk to Katniss and being pissed off when someone doesn't like the way he goes about killing people. Of course, that personality gets replace with Frankenpeeta for most of the book, but he's back by the end.

2. It was almost certainly Coin, and the bomb was definitely of Gale's design. Sure, he had no hand in its implementation, but he designed it specifically to prey on the humanity of combatants, something Katniss expressed disgust with many times.

And while Prim's death means that everything Katniss had been fighting for was in vain, that's kind of the point. Senseless deaths are necessary if you want to emphasize the senselessness of violence.

3. Aside from ending with her having children, no, it isn't like DH. It leaves loose ends, but ties up the novel thematically, which is enough for me. Honestly, the whole book was a bit of a mess plotwise, but I can't really say I'm surprised that in telling the epilogue Katniss, as narrator, would focus on how the new Panem they created affects her and her family.

Peeta and Katniss end up unhappily together and have babies who don't have to have tessarae. Cool. I just summarized the epilogue for you.

...what? I think you might be projecting a bit in defense of your ship. Sure, they don't live happily ever after, but the series refutes the idea of that kind of ending from the beginning. They clearly live happily, despite having to deal with severe PTS. The idea that extreme violence is psychologically damaging is reinforced repeatedly throughout all three novels, and it would be disingenuous for them to gloss over that. Katniss has bad day and still has nightmares, but she's happy with Peeta and happy with her kids.

4. Did he have to die? Of course not. That said, I'm not so much upset that he died as I am upset that the death wasn't handled all that well. Making readers love characters and killing them off in heart-wrenching ways is what makes a good tragedy, and this trilogy certainly had tragic elements. Still, his death was not as poignant as it could have been.

5. Cinna's death happened in the second, didn't it? That was a death done well, in my opinion. He knew his actions would lead to his death when he made that dress, and he did it anyway because he had total faith in Katniss. It was a great scene. As for the sheer number of deaths, meh. The number of well-developed characters that die in Mockingjay isn't all that impressive, and it would be disingenuous to make a book about war in which no beloved characters die.

6. I think Katniss said that more out of a combination of disgust for humanity and as a gambit to ease Coin's anxieties to make the assassination go smoother than out of a genuine desire to take revenge on the Capitol.

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Permalink Reply by Eli V on October 7, 2011 at 1:29am

The book is thematically complex and compelling enough to hold my interest while reading it, but on reflection the plot is a bit messy towards the end and I would have liked to see some more character development for Gale and Boggs. Also, Peeta's highjacking seemed contrived and superfluous, and there were frankly way too many mental breakdowns in the book; that kind of plot device is best used sparingly, but this book was drenched in it. There were also some scenes that should have hit me much harder than they did, but were poorly written. Finnick's death, for example, barely registered with me even though I love Finnick's character.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on April 6, 2012 at 10:54pm

Well first off, I loved reading the series. While I am in a state of somewhat disarray at the moment having just finished Mockingjay a few hours ago, I am happy once again to be getting some sleep at night instead of incessantly reading on and on...

That being said, this was my least favorite book. This is to be expected, as there has to be a lease favorite, and the first and second duke it out constantly for first place anyhow. More tragic for me is that this is my least favorite, and I have a few issues with it.

There were excellent parts of course- lots of the beginning where she is "becoming the mockingjay" is great; who can forget her visiting the makeshift hospital near the beginning? That was touching, and made the reader feel connected to the story. I liked the twist with Peeta being hijaked, with seeing her mother and Prim blossom in 13 and become important in the hospital. Finnick's character undergoing two different incarnations as Katniss calls them ( though I can't think of Finnick now without almost hitting my keyboard). Collins describes 13 in high detail, and we are left thinking with Katniss, after Peeta's warning, that she doesn't know these people to trust them. Which we all should have immediately understood as a strong foreshadowing of the events in the very end.

I was extremely happy she chose Peeta. I think Collins let whatever chemistry she built up with Gale fizzle in this book rather obviously to make room for Peeta, which is ashame b/c there was that part of me when reading book 1 who was soooo about Gale and Katniss. Peeta, like Annie did on Finnick, crept up on Katniss. Whenever she kissed Gale, it was for comfort, hers or his, and never resulted in that "hunger" she felt with Peeta. The hunger talk is when I knew she couldn't possible choose Gale over Peeta, cause that's love baby. Plus, it was almost like Peeta could be inside her head the way those two were connected, and how they complemented each other.

Ok, here are my IRKS, in no particular order

1) The killing of Finnick. I would have been extremely sad but ultimately ok if he had died if the death itself were more fitting of his character. He was awesome in so many ways, and to get lost in this long line of deaths by these half human, half lizard like beasts who chewed him into bits before I even remembered he was on the mission was like a slap in my face. Beautiful Finnick being ravaged by these ridiculous looking monsters. Not cool. And they might as well have killed poor Annie then, poor creature.

2) The plotline. It seemed a bit unfocused at times, and I think it would have been best if we had seen her take more definitive charge. Throughout this book, she is out of her mind a lot of the time, and when she is back to her old self, there was this unshakeable stigma that others had of her as unable to lead or do much good. Apparently they did not watch the 74th or 75th hunger games to know she was a true warrior, and sadly it felt that Katniss forgets this all too much in this book.

3) Killing Prim. Can I just say that this was the saddest, most pointless death in this whole series? The one person Katniss loved above all others, whom she mothered as her own child, took places for in the games... who we saw turn into this wonderful girl with "all the good qualities of the family", and was on her way to being an extraordinary healer and human being. Katniss would have killed Coin with FAR FAR less provocation. Also, how much tragedy can this girl TAKE without killing herself already? Really. Truly. How did she manage to get on with her life in any way?

4). The mumbo jumbo capital traps and those damn lizard/human mutts. I couldn't wrap my head around almost half of the things going on, and it was sickening having to imagine what these mutts looked like. Haven't I proven a faithful reader by now to not have to read this?

5). The ending. Things turned to crap when Prim died and Katniss was burned and then once again lost time. Then things neatly wrap up while she's passed out, her mother never appears again, PRIM DIES, after Katniss' umpteenth return from near-death she gets to be badass and we have that scene where she realizes the hunger games will go on and on under Coin now, and she slyly gets her confirmation from Haymitch that confirms Snows revelations. But then she goes and kills Coin, only to be again locked up some place, disoriented, while the unnerving PLOT keeps going on outside her cell/room. Perhaps it was better Collins kept her in the rooms or unconscious those times, since I don't know if I'd be much happier living out that plotline. Finally, though I love Peeta, it was a great disservice to both Gale and he the way the default situation came about. Moreso to Peeta, with the intensity of he and Katniss relationship and how it built throughout the first 2 books, and being deprived of that for most of this book, only to get a few measly pages in the end about them back together. I was so so looking forward to even the smallest of moments between them, nothing big, but enough to satisfy me as a reader knowing that their love was sound, validated, and Gale was happy too.

Katniss is an awesome heroine, and I loved reading these books. Just wouldve liked some things going differently in this last one.

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Permalink Reply by Lauren Corrigan on April 7, 2012 at 2:19pm

OMG! I loved Mockingjay! I am SOOO happy that Katniss married Peeta, because Peeta has been my fav character throughout the books. I wish she (Suzanne Collins) would have put more effort and detail in their love at the end, though.

I am really confused about why in the world Prim had to die. I mean c'mon! She was a precious little child! And her Mom didn't really say anything about it!!!! She could have at least helped Katniss get through it!

By the way, the reason Peeta's my favorite character is because..... JOSH HUTCHERSON (Hottest guy ALIVE) played him in the move!

I totally thought that Peeta would win Katniss over in the end. Gale and Katniss had too MUCH in common and were always getting in arguments. Peeta was always the one to calm her down. He was always supporting her. Plus, the boy with the bread and the girl on fire sound so cute together. I also loved that Peeta felt like he always had to protect Katniss, even when he was hijacked. Super cute.

Epilogue= CRAP! they didn't say anything about Gale, or Haymitch, or Effie, or ANNIE, or even the PREP team. And I thought they should have made it sound like Peeta and Katniss were in love more ( I know, I should shut up about them being in love, but....).

Another thing. What happened to Annie after Finnick died? It always seemed like he was the only thing that kept her sane, so did she go mad (or maddER) after he died?

Then, I thought it was funny that, in District 13,when Katniss was saying what she wanted if she was gonna be the mockingjay, President Coin made a bigger deal about her keeping the cat that anything else! Then i figured it was probably because of the extra food. Still funny.

Okay, another funny thing : Peeta and Gale's discussion about "who Katniss couldn't survive without." I was giggling through the whole thing when I was reading it.

I loved that Suzanne put such detailed lyrics. make up little tunes to them and sing them all day :) Especially the Hanging Tree.

I finisd this book 2 days ago, and yesterday, I was literally moping around all day, because I was so sad that Everything was done. I hope Suzanne makes a little extra book like Twilight did, because there are so many unanswered questions.

I know it was long, but LOVED THE BOOK ( and Peeta/ Josh Hutcherson ♥)

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