Justine's Thoughts: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Just a note to everyone: this book was reviewed waaaay back during the time of its release! It just needed a little breather after the whole hype.

Mockingjay (The Hunger Games #3)
By Suzanne Collins

Source: Bookstore/Midnight Release Party
Pages: 390
A quote:

What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again.

Rating:

5/5

Any thoughts (*No major spoilers, only very vague*):

After months of anxious waiting for the final instalment in The Hunger Games, it’s finally here. And boy, was I ever excited for its release! So incredibly excited that I had to purchase it at midnight, stay up all night to finish reading it, pause and let it all sink in, and then re-read it all over again the next day.

It was such a scary ride, reading Mockingjay. Everything I thought that was going to happen -- well, they didn’t, although I was not disappointed. But all the while, my heart was racing so fast that it felt like I was having a heart attack. Especially during so many heartbreaking moments when I would sob while continuing to read.

I don’t know how Suzanne Collins did it with all the tragic occurrences, but I still loved every single bit of it. The pacing is perfect and I was surprised in the end to go over the numerous events that happened in only 390 pages. The action is fitting, given that Collins explores the topics of war and violence. Most of all, however, it’s the characters that have won me over. One of them is our heroine, Katniss. I adore her fearlessness, her willingness to rise above and her loyalty (and basically every single trait of hers). In Mockingjay, we really see how much she has grown, how much everything she’s been through changed her.

To quote Steff, this book will indeed “suck the soul out of you”. She and I read the first half of it together, pausing for a few moments to express our reactions. Mostly it was shock. It was just surreal.

I’ve never been sad over a series concluding. I can’t even believe that this is only the second series that I finished. The first was twilight, but I wasn’t included in the whole phenomenon at the time of its release. But now that I get to watch it end, it truly breaks my heart knowing that there won’t be another book. Suzanne Collins had made The Hunger Games series unforgettable and unpredictable. It will always be in the back of my mind, that I know for sure.