Book Review: Mockingjay (warning: SPOILERS!)

TITLE: Mockingjay
Book 3 in The Hunger Games
AUTHOR: Suzanne Collins
PUBLISHED: 2010
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: science fiction, adventure, trilogy
PREMISE: The rebellion against the capital is in full swing and the rebels of District 13 are using Katniss as their figurehead. Only she's not sure if she trusts them, not sure if she wants to lead, is not even sure about anything really.
MY REVIEW: First (in case you missed it in the title) this review has some spoilers so don't continue reading if you haven't finished it yet. For those that have, take a moment to squee with me. Because Collins has seriously done a fantastic job on this trilogy. I love when authors do things that are not neccessarily the popular route and Collins did that with Mockingjay. For instance, she easily could have made this book all about the love triangle but she didn't (yay!), she easily could have made it so the rebels were obviously in the right, make everything black and white so to speak but she didn't. In fact, there's a big question mark if the rebels in charge of things will be better then the Capital.
Basically, this book doesn't really go the route you expect it and as I said I love that. I also highly approve of what Collins did. I'm sure people were expecting battle after battle and lots of loving with Katniss and the two suitors. But instead most of the war ends up being political and to me that makes since because really wars mostly are political (I mean look at the wars going on now if you don't believe me) and I think people forget that a lot. I also love how Collins handled the love triangle. If you must have a love triangle plot device in your books, please do it this way. I'm sure a lot of Gale fans are extremely disappointed but it could have been a lot worse. She could have totally assasinated Gale's character or Peeta's character in order to make the choice easier for Katniss but she had them both be reasonable and actually leave the choice up to her. Thank you. Granted, Gale was a bit more of an ass in this book, but considering the stressful situations they were in and whatnot...it's understandable where he's coming from even if I (and Katniss) didn't agree with it. For you Team Gale fans, I'm sorry but hey if you want a new person to ship Gale with how about Johanna? I kind of found her to be a little awesome and he did go to District 2 after, right? Just throwing that out there for all you fanfic writers to play with ;)
I would also like to take a moment and mourn some of the deaths in the book: Finnick (big sob for me there, I kind of loved him), Madge, Prim (another big sob because she was turning into an awesome person and her death just royally sucked), Cinna (still bummed about that),and even some minor characters that we got to know in the third book (I found Boggs kind of cool for instance). I would also likewise take a moment to whoop about President Snow and President Coin (who I despised by the end, particularly after she suggested another Hunger Games for the Capital children WHO HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT, sorry about the rage caps).
So to put it bluntly: this book is awesome. Very much worth the wait (though I still kind of feel this trilogy is a tad overhyped sometimes, but I feel that way about my equally beloved Harry Potter so please don't take offense to that) and an excellent trilogy all around. Can't wait to see what Collins has in store for us with whatever she writes next. While I wait, I'm going to check out her other series, The Gregor series which is a childrens series apparently.
WHO SHOULD READ: Those that have read and loved the first two books, anyone inclined to pick this trilogy up.
MY RATING: Five out of Five bow and arrows

FOR THE FOLLOWING CHALLENGES:
12 by 12 in August
One Hundred Plus Books
YA Challenge