| Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games)   |  | Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Category: Book
List Price: $17.99
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Rating:  432 reviews
Sales Rank: 3
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.4
ISBN: 0439023513
EAN: 9780439023511
ASIN: 0439023513
Publication Date: August 24, 2010 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins’s groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 432
 Pacing Problems September 5, 2010
Ken C. (MA)
First of all, and in all fairness, I must say that writing a conclusion to such a juggernaut as the HUNGER GAMES series is a thankless task. And I must also credit Collins with giving this book new and different directions to explore. For that, I was thankful. What made MOCKINGJAY good but not great for me was the narrative pacing, especially during the climactic moments. I also had a few quibbles with characterizations and the way the many scores were settled at the end of the book. I'll avoid spoilers by speaking in general terms if you haven't read the book -- and I certainly endorse reading the book! Three stars ain't just gravy!
This book focuses not on any "games" but on the real thing -- a Civil War between the 13 Districts and the Capitol of Panem with President Snow at the helm. It draws interesting parallels with modern wars and the United States in the sense that it shows the role of propaganda and how the media can be manipulated to froth your constituency up. Thus, the character Plutarch is asked to exploit Katniss so that the Capitol's propaganda can be usurped by the Rebel's propaganda. For anyone watching the nightly news, it should give you pause.
The reader is patiently carried along as Katniss tries to work her way to the singular goal of personally killing President Snow. Unfortunately, she must also deal with the leader of her own cause, President Coin, a woman from District 13 (a nuclear state, like the Capitol) who has visions of grandeur or her own (and who knows a valuable chess piece -- namely, Katniss, when she sees one).
The book both takes off and sputters with the climactic attack on the Capitol. Among the obstacles for Collins are what I call "suspension bridges of disbelief." That is, the reader must be willing to go along (or "suspend disbelief") with plot developments and I, for one, was not so willing in the methods she used with Peeta, Katniss's love interest. To put it simply, his whereabouts first and his personality changes second occur a bit too conveniently. Also disturbing was the narrative pacing. There are beautiful and realistic stretches where Collins takes us door-to-door and block-to-block as Katniss & Company fight and claw their ways to the center of the Capitol. But then the intense and realistic necessity of such description seems to be forgotten. Gaps in time occur. Major events happen offstage. Anti-climactic resolutions happen too quickly to resolve plot issues that have been central to the entire book. And finally, Katniss's last dramatic act is not unforeseen, but rather foreshadowed in a hamfisted way.
This is why the book lost a few stars in my estimation, but as I said in the opening, bringing this beautiful series to a conclusion is no easy bear to wrestle. I recommend the book and the entire series, but believe that some readers may be disappointed in the climax and in the characterization decisions made by Collins -- especially regarding Peeta vs. Gale. A little more subtlety might have helped on that front.
Oh. And one final word. When you reach the two-page Epilogue, you may wish Collins had skipped it altogether. The gimmick here is sadly cliched and done in too many books and movies in the past. Nevertheless, HUNGER GAMES fans, keep your eyes on the prize! Three solid stars here!
 Unbearably painful and hauntingly beautiful September 5, 2010
Kelsey
I've never thrown a book before. I've never stared at a book that's laying across the room and viscerally hated it.
Then I read "Mockingjay." And now I've done both.
After hearing "The Hunger Games" series being heralded as "The new 'Twilight'" I made every effort to steer clear of it. Only after I had a friend whose opinion I trust implicitly tell me that they were nothing like "Twilight" did I go out and get a copy of "The Hunger Games. Then I immediately went out and got "Catching Fire." Then I immediately went out and got "Mockingjay."
And then I started throwing.
(Note: There are spoilers below).
I know many, many other reviewers have touched on the disappointments that are obvious in this book: The death of characters you come to love being tossed away without ceremony (I have to admit, when I finally let go of hope that Cinna would show up midway through the book, it was one of the things that hit me the hardest), the needless drawing out of the embarrassing "love triangle," the way none of the characters acted the way they should, the lack of a romantic flourish to leave us with a neatly wrapped relationship.
When I first read the ending, I have to admit that I skimmed along, skipping entire paragraphs in a frantic search for Peeta's name, inwardly counting down, "Okay, only seven pages left, SURELY she's going to have him pop up now and sweep Katniss off her feet and it will be business as usual."
And then five pages. And then three. And then the final page and the epilogue, and then the dramatic toss of my book into the wall.
Then I left it. I made myself not think about it, because for the first time ever I read a book and wished immediately not to have done so. I was so upset with the way the ending seemed tacked on, as if Suzanne Collins got to the end, realized that a decision hadn't been made, and said, "Okay aaaaaand.... Peeta! That's it! The end!"
But, against my best judgement, I went back to it. I turned to the ending and re-read it. And, although I'm not a sap, and although even as a nineteen year old I stayed dry-eyed through "The Notebook," I wept. The ending as it is is perfect. It's unbearably painful to not get the happy ever after epilogue that you want for characters that you've invested yourself in. You want to hear the romantic lines, the thrill of the proposal, the tears that dot eyes at the wedding.
But Suzanne Collins gave us those: We had their first kiss. We had their stories. We had the proposal (as anticlimactic as it might be). We had Katniss in her wedding dress and Peeta in a tuxedo. We even had their first child.
What was lacking was authenticity. And in that page in a half, in the return of the sweetness that was lacking for the entire book (and this was, really, a hard book, especially since the character that I looked to for empathy, for compassion, was missing for ninety-nine percent of it), we see what Katniss has become: that she has needed to become the girl on fire metaphorically, then symbolically, and finally literally, to become the pearl that Effie famously predicted she would be, that the layers she shielded herself with would burn off and what would be left would be the essence of her core that recognized her weaknesses and, more importantly, turned elsewhere for her strengths. At last we have a girl who is acting not out of need to provide for her family, or to keep a promise, or in return for something else. We have a girl who has lost most everything she holds dear and in her we find our heroine, in her we find an unbelievable character, and in her, we at last find the romance.
So don't take this book as is, because it is painful to lose character after character after character, it is painful, like I said, to lose the sweetness that Peeta brings, it is painful to see the devastating impact that the war has on every person we've come to love.
But in the pain is beauty. And the beauty is unforgettable.
The Others were better September 5, 2010
Trey (West Yellowstone, Montana, USA, 59758)
For this book, Mockingjay, one might think that it would follow the other two in that it has tons of killing, scary moments, and fake public love for the tv....not only does this book not have that....it is also kinda boring. Well first of all whats her face became so not memorable i literally cannot remember her name and Peeta is her every other thought even after he tries to kill her. I mean seriously if somebody tried to kill me I wouldn't forgive them. But back to the book it was mediocre I personally thought that it should have been more like the other two and have an actual Hunger Games to it and not just talk about how some situations remind her of the Games...booorrrriinnnnggg!
 still waiting for delivery September 5, 2010
theflyingscot
I ORDERED THE BOOK "THE MOCKINGJAY" FOR MY GRAND DAUGHTER IN NORMAN OKLAHOMA, SHE HASN'T RECEIVED AS OF SEP 8, ATTEMPTED TO TRACK DELIVERY, SAYS IT WAS DELIVERED AUG 26TH, I DONT WANT THIS TO A REVIEW, I JUST TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHERE THE DELIVERY IS. AMAZON PURCHASED
Wow! September 5, 2010
DDD
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love the fact that Collins lets the "gloves come off." It is refreshing to read a book that is unpredictable and does not follow a "cookie cutter" mold. And finally,boy, how our young people need to learn how media can manipulate and contol our thinking!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 432
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