Mockingjay - Fire Has Caught

*This Review Contains Spoilers*

- Read More Book Reviews and Follow my Goodreads Account: Maggie Rhoads -

Four out of Five Stars

Mockingjay, but Suzanne Collins, is the third and final book in the Hunger Games series. After the disastrous 75th Hunger Games, which ended in Beetee, Finnick, and Katiness escaping to District 13, but Enboria, Johanna, and Peeta is captured by the Capitol in order to find out more information about the rebellion. 

Although Katiness is an emotional wreck, she agrees to become the Mockingjay or the face of the rebellion, hence the title. Katiness, along with a team of people to protect her, such as Gale and Boggs, help her record her in action in order for people to make propos, or short videos to raise the morale of the districts. While Katiness is doing this, District 13 manages to capture the remaining victors from the Capitol. However, Peeta has been brainwashed by the Capitol and now believes that Katiness is evil. 

After District 13 has raised the morale of all the districts, President Coin decides it is time to invade the Capitol itself. Katiness wants to go and fight but is unable to because she is not a trained soldier. Therefore, she and Johanna decide to train together. A long time later, Katiness has passed her soldier test and is able to fight in the Capitol. However, Johanna fails her test and ends up in the hospital due to trauma from the Capitol's torture. 

Katiness is assigned to Squad 451 and they are fighting in the Capitol. The catch is, Peeta is also assigned here and Katiness, along with the rest of the Squad, is afraid he is going to hurt them. While fighting the Capitol, Squad 451 suffers through a lot of tricks from the Capitol, like hidden bombs in the ground and creatures found in the sewers below the Capitol. In the end, a lot of casualties are seen, such as Boggs, Finnick, and Prim. Later, when Katiness is executing President Snow, she instead shoots President Coin since she was the one who ordered Prim be sent into battle. This causes Katiness to be sent to District 12 where she a Peeta supposedly live for the rest of their lives. 

The first critique I have is the number of iconic characters that died or either suffered heavily, such as Finnick, Johanna, Peeta, and Prim. I found this very frustrating and it made me very sad. I understand the idea of how Collins is trying to get sympathy from her readers. However, now I am going to completely contradict myself by saying the Katiness should have been in the hospital less. The idea of Katiness becoming mentally weaker was very well done, but Katiness always being physically harmed was very annoying. It was a game of constantly going back and forth to the hospital.  

However, I have to say this was my favorite novel of the series, which is a way a book series should be. I felt in other series, some other young adult dystopian series we should leave unnamed, the first novel had a wonderful idea and expertly crafted worlds, but the other ones fall into a pit of below-average ratings. The last books in a series should always be the best ones in order to leave the readings satisfied. 

I need to say that Collin's writing has improved significantly since the first novel. In the Hunger Games, we saw a lack of character development among the other characters, but the characters in the Mockingjay were very different and had their own detailed backstories. Most importantly, the way the characters interacted with each other was in a very realistic way which left me happy. Also, I did see an improvement in the Mockingjay from Catching Fire because now I felt that every scene in the novel is there for a reason. 

I rated this book four stars because it did not change my life in any way. It was simply a very above average read and I would like to end by saying I enjoyed this series. 

- Read More Book Reviews and Follow my Goodreads Account: Maggie Rhoads -