Review Detail

MAJOR SPOILERS!

Where to start?

I've sat for so long trying to answer that question. And I suppose there isn't really anyway to truly answer it well. So much happened, so many feelings altered, in fact right now it seems almost wrong to enjoy the book, wrong to have longed to read it so much. Wrong to have been so fixated on the love triangle. All of that is gone now. I don't care about it at all. What truly resonates in my mind is sacrifice. So many people died for Katniss, but not really for her, for what she represented, as the Mockingjay, the freedom and peace they all so longed for.

Finnick really stood out to me in this book, the pain he went through daily when Annie was captured by the Capitol, the joy he found when she was saved and they married. And the sacrifice he made, knowing she wouldn't get on well without him, and still giving his life so Katniss could make it to the President's home to kill Snow.

Prim. Even as I think of her I can feel tears forming in my eyes. My heart yearns for it to have been a mistake in the book, for her to still be alive and laughing. When Buttercup came back I had to stop reading and just cry, this was worse than when Rue died.

Peeta, his transformation was absolute. And terrible. I was so thrilled when I heard he had been brought back from the Capitol safely, then shocked when he tried to kill Katniss, and horrified when I learned what President Snow had done to him. Sweet, loving, wonderful Peeta. It was so hard to keep reading, but it got better as he slowly, recuperated and began trusting Katniss again, and Katniss him.

Gale is hard for me, I can't decide if I hate him, or love him. On one hand he did help Katniss through many hard times. But as she realized, he was motivated with hate and anger, and many times felt that killing innocent people was all right, as long as they were on the Capitol's side. And with his hand in Prim's death, and his abandonment of Katniss, I can't really appreciate him as I once did.

Haymitch is the one character that I never stopped liking. He brought humor, and a fatherly figure to Katniss. I was touched when they were facing up to the fact that they had both failed at their vow to protect Peeta.

Cinna, I still can't believe he is dead. It can't be...I so wanted him to live, but though I hated to admit it to myself, I knew he would die. Yet I still can't accept it. Though I am glad that his memory lived on in the amazing Mockingjay costumes for Katniss, even though it often tricked me into thinking he could be alive.

District 8 Bombing. I was crying and had chills during that whole chapter. The fact that so many innocent people died, combined with Katniss's rallying speech made that chapter unforgettable, probably one of my favorites in the whole book. It was the first time I really wanted her working for the rebels.

Speaking of which. I don't like most of them. I think they went about the revolution in the wrong way. Though I understand why they did it. Though I hate to admit it. I think they needed Peeta, not Katniss. To be their Mockingjay, maybe things would have turned out differently, not so tragic. Even so, I did not like the television promos when they were at the Capitol. It seemed to much like the Hunger Games, the very thing they were supposedly fighting against!

As for the Hunger Games, I did not like that either. In fact it made me quite angry that Katniss voted for them to have one last Hunger Games. After all her thoughts and words on how wrong it was to kill innocent, people. Or even guilty people who had truly reformed or hadn't understood what they were doing. And her anger at the Capitol for the Games and she still voted for them. If they really wanted to show the people of Panem that they were going to be different from the former government, the first thing they should have done was banned the games forever. I still can't believe they allowed one more to be enacted.

Katniss.....not quite sure about her. I felt for her, admired her, hated her, mourned with her, and understood her thinking(most of the time). But I can't decide if the good things she has done outweighed the bad. I suppose she can't decide that herself either, which raises her a bit in my opinion, still I think I'll with that I loved and hated her.

I should have known this book wouldn't be what I expected. The first book wasn't, and neither was the second, so why would this be any different. I still liked it, but as I said earlier, I don't feel that it is right to love it, that being said, I thought it was a perfect end for the series. I didn't think it would be possible and at some points I had completely given up at even a semblance of a happy ending, yet Suzanne Collins succeeded in giving me the perfect ending. Bittersweet, poignant, and a bit happy.