Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Over the summer I read the third book in the Hunger Games series Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. The series takes place in the future and out of the ruins of North America a country named Panem was created. In this country the evil Capitol controls the twelve Districts. There once were thirteen, but when the districts tried to rebel, they allegedly destroyed District 13. Now every year each District is forced to send one boy and one girl to fight to the death in the

sadistic Hunger Games.

In the first book Katniss’s younger sister Prim is called upon to be one of the sacrifices. Katniss volunteers to take her spot. By the end of the book Katniss and her 'friend' Peeta are crowned the victors because of a plan that would force them both to be crowned or there would be no victor.

In the second book Katniss and Peeta go on a victory tour of the districts. It is then when Katniss fully sees what her defiance to the capitol has done to the districts. Then Katniss has to go back to the arena where she will have to fight to survive. While there she again defies the Capitol, and turns the spark of rebellion into a fire. Just as thing go terribly wrong, district thirteen hovercrafts appear and takes Katniss and a couple other survivors to the ‘ruins’ of District 13.

In the beginning of Mockingjay, Katniss is told that District 12 (her home district) was destroyed by the Capitol. She is now asked by the president of District 13 to become the face of the rebellion, the Mockingjay. Katniss accepts because she had already defied the Capitol in the previous two books, and she sees that this is her change to help cripple or possibly destroy thing she despises most. Soon after she is whisked away to many Districts to help the troops' morale (I think that Collins should have spent more time on this). Later in the book, Katniss and her friends are able to invade the Capitol itself. I personally think that this part doesn’t focus enough on the battle scenes and it doesn’t flow well from a high tension scene to a low tension scene. I can’t really tell you more about the story, because it would just ruin it; but I can tell you that I’m not a fan of the ending. I thought it was too abrupt and it didn’t really blend well with what was going on at the time. But I do agree with the moral of the story, sometimes the 'good guys' aren't as 'good' as they apper. Even thought the ending wasn’t the best, I would recommend Mockingjay and the whole Hunger Games series to anyone.

By Dalton Smith