Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Book 3: Mockingjay

Many years ago, I taught The Hunger Games in a class on apocalyptic and postapocalyptic fiction. That was my first time reading the book, and periodically since then I've picked up the sequels. Quite a while later, that finally brings me to the third and final book.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Published: 2010
Acquired: September 2012
Read: August 2025

To be honest, I'm not really sure what I thought of it. Probably I'd have been more into it if I'd had more momentum carrying me into it; it's been six years since I read the second book and nine years since I read the first, and the three books originally came out across three years! To me, the interesting thing about the Hunger Games books has always been the tension between cooperation and isolation: what's the best tool for survival? Working with others or sticking on your own? Mockingjay pushes that further by putting Katniss amongst the rebels, who have to work together to survive... but in a very top-down authoritarian way. Katniss struggles under these strictures a lot.

Unfortunately, I found the novel a little tedious. Katniss's main role in the revolution—which continues one of the other big themes of the earlier books—is her image. But this is not always interesting to read about, and it seemed to me that having set up some interesting themes, the book spent a lot of time rehearsing them repetitiously rather than exploring them in a way where either Katniss or the reader is making progress.

I did like the last few chapters a lot. One Katniss joins the group storming the Capitol, and especially once the revolution wins, things get really interesting and bloody and complicated as this series has been at its best.