Review of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.

First of all, I want to talk about the cover. To the left, you see the British/Australian cover, and I'm unsure whether I like it better than the blue US edition or not. Your thoughts?






So, I want to let out all my non-sensical fangirl-type squees about this book before I write a serious review. Ahem.
ZOMG, BEST THING I'VE READ THIS YEAR, ZOMG, IT'S NOT WHAT I EXPECTED, ZOMG, I WANT TO DROWN IN ITS AWESOMENESS BUT NOT BECAUSE I WANT TO BE ALIVE TO READ IT AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN.

Mockingjay is, in case you did not know, the final installment in the Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins. I daresay it's the most anticipated YA release of the year.
I made my sister, who goes to school in the Melbourne CBD, buy the book for me on her way home. I wanted to read this book because I like finishing series'. I wanted to read The Hunger Games, the first book in the series, because the synopsis just drags you in and FORCES you to read it.

So, The Hunger Games trilogy is set in a dystopian time period, where Northern America has after revolution become Panem, which consists of a governing Capitol, and 13 districts. Well, 12, since the 13th was obliterated when the districts tried to rebel against the tyrannic Capitol. Each year, the Capitol, on the anniversary of the rebellion, reinforces its dominance over the districts by taking one boy and one girl from each district, and pinning the 24 children against eachother in an arena, in a televised fight to the death. This event, to the citizens of the Capitol, is like us to the Olympics.
The protagonist is Katniss Everdeen, from district 12. Her sister is drawn for the Games, and Katniss volunteers herself to save her younger sister. The first book is based around her time in the arena.
Catching Fire, the next installment in the series, is about Katniss' life post-Games, and her trying to find her place again in her district. And then, on the Quarter Quell, the 75th anniversary of the rebellion, a Games is held where the participants are drawn from previous victors, and Katniss is thrust back into the arena.

Mockingjay is...heartbreaking, is the only word I can think for it. But in the best possible sense of the word. It isn't concluded cleanly and easily, but difficultly, as only to be expected.
In Mockingjay, Katniss faces less physical battles, and more emotional and psychological ones. Nothing in the rebellion is as black-and-white as it is in the arena, where the objective is simple: Survive. Be the last one standing.

From all the fan discussions I've read on Mockingjay, I've found it's pretty commonplace to hate Katniss after Mockingjay. Admittedly, she did irk me at times, but the reader needs to stop and think: who would I become in this situation? I contend that Katniss' bad decisions make her a great protagonist, a realistic one, that you could relate to, despite the entirely different circumstances she and the reader face.

I give Mockingjay a 5/5, because it makes you laugh, cry, and question frantically "where are all the other pages?!" when you reach the ending.