Book Review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Rating: 4/5

The Hunger Games series goes down guns a’blazing with the third and final installment, which wasn’t quite as impeccable as the first book, but was still awesome and, as you can probably expect at this point, pretty freaking impossible to put down. 

Mockingjay felt like the darkest book in the triology to me, and it’s not like the other two were carefree romps or anything. The previous novels focused on an annual fight to the death among children, designed by the government to inspire fear and ensure obedience. The Games, although symbolic, are fictional. 

In this book, the conflict is a violent war between rebels and the regime. Although the setting and characters are sci-fi creations, the conflicts are very real and very applicable to wars that are being waged across the world today. Characters are forced to wrestle with moral dilemmas that are faced by any solider or commander in combat: How far are you willing to go to defeat the enemy? How much mercy should be shown to those who have shown no mercy to your own people? Can you ignore the fact that most soldiers, although they are technically your opponents, are still people with families and loved ones? Can you defeat evil without getting too close to it with your own actions? 

I’m a big fan of the series, and I wish there were more books like this for young adults. For the most part, they are really well written, help kids explore complex issues, and are super fun to read. YAY for READING