'Mockingjay' by Suzanne Collins - Book Review

There’s not much else I can say. Mockingjay is bloody brilliant. The end of The Hunger Games is dark as midnight with a faint spark left from the smoldering fire.

Was there any other way to end this story? I don’t think so. That’s the highest compliment I can give Suzanne Collins for writing the deeply satisfying finale to The Hunger Games.

However, that doesn’t mean it’s a happy ending. In fact, the guttural punch she gives the reader in the final chapter of Mockingjay (before the epilogue) still stings two weeks after I finished the trilogy.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to read this series again. It’s the only way to revisit the so many beloved characters Collins has created, most of all, Katniss, frustrating and beguiling, a refreshingly authentic heroine. Tragic and conflicted, her determination, or stubbornness in most cases, held to the end. And sadly, so many had to sacrifice everything for her in the end.

Was it worth it? This is the question that haunts Katniss, those who followed her into the war against Panem as well as the reader who is left to sort through the ashes while the Mockingjay’s song echoes on and on.