Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plains--except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay--no matter what the personal cost.

As the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy, I knew this installment would pack a punch, and I wasn’t completely disappointed.

Katniss, as always, makes a wonderful heroine, with enough attitude for two people and a storage of strength that gives her a place as one of the best young adult protagonists that are out there today. The rest of the characters take a second place to her, even Haymitch in this book. I loved him in the previous ones but we don’t get to see too much of him in this one. Gale makes absolutely no impression on me whatsoever, making me wish Collins had developed him as well as Peeta or Katniss, or even Finnick. Speaking of Peeta, he does become much more interesting in this book. Although, I do have to say that the whole *SPOILER ALERT* hijacking thing is resolved too quickly and too easily.

Actually, that was my main concern with the book. I will be mentioning a few spoilers here, so if you haven’t read it, skip to the last paragraph. Everything truly important in the plot feels a bit too rushed. We spend an inordinate amount of time in District 13, when many parts of that could have been skipped, yet we do not see more of Peeta’s recovery, or even much of the final few scenes. How was the Capitol truly dismantled? We don’t know because Katniss was being held prisoner. To me, that feels like the writer took the easy way out. Same thing with the very end. Why was it so rushed? I’m not speaking of the epilogue, since that had a nice flow to it, but the two or three pages before. After building up such a wonderful story in three books, why rush the very, very end? It just felt odd.

Other than that, I do recommend this book and the whole series for pretty much everyone.