Review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

[Heather Olson]

 

"Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins is the third installment to "The Hunger Games Trilogy." Katniss Everdeen has now survived the Hunger Games twice. Although she has made it out of the bloody, competitive arena alive, she's still in significant danger. Her survival tactics have angered The Capitol and they want revenge for the uprising she has caused. President Snow has made it perfectly clear to her that she, her family, her friends and the citizens of the districts, including Katniss' own District 12, are in danger. Endangering everyone she cares about, and in the midst of a love triangle between her best childhood friend and her fellow co-survivor, Katniss must go through unthinkable acts to become what the people of the revolt are looking for – she must become their symbol of hope, their Mockingjay. (*dun dun duhhnn!!* :) )

This book is from the viewpoint of Katniss and focuses on her, Peeta (her co-conspirator/challenger in the Hunger Games), Gale (her childhood best friend), Prim (her little sister) and various other adult characters who are her family and friends. However, it is in first-person POV from Katniss and while she worries about and befriends adults, I would say this book meets YA criteria in being from Katniss' POV. Her mother and other adults are very involved in the novel. Some of her friends and advisors are adults and her mother is in the picture frequently. However, Katniss makes her own decisions, even if her decision is to take the advice of the adults. She often takes their advice just as she often goes against their advice! I think her accomplishments are largely her own, even as she achieves these accomplishments with the help of her adult friends.

Mockingjay is the third novel in a trilogy. In order to find out the culmination of the story you've been reading, I think that it is extremely fast-paced at this point. I was on the edge of my seat and read it in one night because I couldn't wait to see how the trilogy ends.

The YA fiction genre may be common but the subject matter is extremely interesting in that it takes place in Panem, or what used to be North America. It is about conspiracies by the government and a different life than young adults today are used to. In that way, it certainly adheres to the criteria of various genres/subjects. Given that each district within Panem and their citizens are different in culture and the people of the capital are very eccentric, Mockingjay also adheres to the criteria of different cultural groups. You learn about how the districts are different from each other and from the capital more and more in each book, with a great culmination in Mockingjay as the districts come together in a revolt against the capital and President Snow.

At many times in Mockingjay, the reader does not feel optimistic. Sometimes the characters feel hopeless which leaves the reader hopeless and mourning with them. However, you root for them in their revolt, dreams and individual accomplishments, big and small.

The emotions exhibited in Mockingjay include some that will not be as important or easily understood by young adults but are essential to the storyline, as well as emotions that are important to young adults. The main characters in the story are young adults themselves and experience different feelings within their actions and toward each other. The love, loss, terror, triumph and indecision the characters feel are ones anyone can relate to, but especially young adults as they are discovering who they are, what the best decisions for their own lives are and how best to relate to others.

I think http://mockingjay.net/ is a great fan site for anyone who likes the book/series. It includes a lot of fun extras that I think would get students more excited about reading it or discussing it in class. Even as a 25 year old "young adult" lover of this series, I find this site to be fun and educational, an extension to the novel itself. http://englishcompanion.ning.com has some amazing teaching tools for this series, as well.

This series was absolutely amazing and I couldn't stop reading it – I read all 3 in 3 days. Mockingjay, as the third and last book, was a great end to the story. Personally, I could see exactly why Katniss made the decisions she did, when she made them and her fierce love and loyalty to her family and friends was extremely endearing. I like books that are told in the first-person point of view because I feel you get the most information about the main character as you're able to see into their thoughts and feelings well. Suzanne Collins does a great job of this with Katniss. Mockingjay is absolutely an appropriate classroom read and I know these books are being taught in schools currently. I would have a hard time teaching just Mockingjay, however, as it is the third book and I can't see being okay with teaching the third book before the first and second. One would really need to read the 1st and 2nd before the 3rd to fully grasp the storyline and character development that occurs in those books. It is not a book that nicely summarizes the first two in the series for the reader. If I were teaching Mockingjay or the trilogy in the classroom, I would teach it to 7th-9th graders. I believe it is being taught in a lot of 7th grade classrooms at this point, from what I have read about it. I thought that was pretty young when I first heard that so I would probably teach it in the 8th or 9th grade classrooms. I feel the plot and character development, the themes and the imagery are all amazing for classroom use. If I were to teach this series in a class, I would use "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson (see a terrible grammar but complete version here: http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html), "Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell (again, located here: http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/danger.html), and perhaps "The Truman Show," or clips from it (IMDb page here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/). It also coincides quite well in a lot of ways with "The Giver" (Goodreads.com page here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3636.The_Giver).