When I finished reading Catching Fire, I was excited to dive into the MockinFirst read: 2011 My rating then: ⭐⭐⭐
First re-read: 2023 My rating now: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
When I finished reading Catching Fire, I was excited to dive into the Mockingjay, but, to be honest, I did not think that I will enjoy it more than the previous two books.
I was wrong.
When I read the last book in a series, I usually end up being disappointed. Most of the time things get rushed (or the plot is completely lost and gets ridiculous) and I, as a reader, fail to feel any satisfaction. But things were different with Mockingjay. It was not a perfect book (like,why was Katniss still jumping between Gale and Peeta? Who cared about her love life when Panem was in the middle of a civil war?), but I still felt satisfied when I finished reading it. Of course the happy ending is not there - I hope that no one expected it. I certainly didn't. All the characters got deeply scarred and it was something that they had to live with for the rest of their lives.
I truly admired Katniss as a character through the whole trilogy. I like the fact that she's not a forcefully badass character. She is a simple girl trying to do her best for the people she loves and for the place she had been born and grown up in. She's not perfect. She makes mistakes, she falls, she breaks down, but then she gets up and fights again. She's not someone who had been born to lead, but she still became a leader. Where president Snow used force and fear, Katniss used determination and kindness. She shown others how she cared about them, about their cause. She was one of them, someone who knew what they had gone through. Snow never had that. Coin never had that either. Katniss was simple. Katniss was natural. She was a girl on fire that inspired thousands of people to fight for their freedom.
While in the previous books I really loved her interactions with characters like Peeta, Haymitch, Prim or other tributes, I really liked the relationships she had build up with Finnick, Johanna, Boggs and even Gale. Especially the one with Finnick. If they had more time, they could probably become best friends. I wish that they had more time. The same goes for the beautiful relationship between Finnick and Annie. I wish that things were different, but I understand why they weren't.
Because there is no freedom without a sacrifice.
Did I mentioned how hard Mockingjay made me cry? I think that this time I cried more than when I read the previous two books. It was just so incredibly sad. Nothing much had happened through most of the book, they were just sitting around and watching the news, while chaos ruled over districts until later on, when the plot needed a showdown to happen, but I still cried. Not just because of all the deaths (it's a Hunger Games book so of course there was plenty of deaths), but because of other things, things that Capitol and Snow did to other people. To innocent people that never should've been used like this. They were their citizens and the Capitol should protect them, not use them, but what could I expect from a government that willingly send children to their deaths every year?
I have only one thing to add. The thing that Coin did and said before the ending - I did not remember that at all and it shocked me to the core. How could she thought that it would be a good idea is truly beyond me. We all thought that Snow was the snake, but it seems like the real snake was someone else all along.
This book was not as terrifying as book one, but despite thatFirst read: 2011 My rating then: ⭐⭐⭐ (3,5/5)
First re-read: 2023 My rating now: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4,5/5)
This book was not as terrifying as book one, but despite that, it still had captured me and didn't let me go until the very end.
In The Hunger Games Katniss had a very clear role: she was the only one who could provide for her family, so she did what she could for them and for herself. In Catching Fire there is no need for her to work hard anymore, because as a winner of the Hunger Games, she and her family had everything they ever needed (and more) to survive. She was supposed to live in wealth, freedom and security for the rest of her life. But after the visit of president Snow she had realized that she will never be either safe or free, because in the eyes of the Capitol she stopped being a nobody.
Instead, she became a threat, the center of a rebellion and all that had happened because of the berries.
So Katniss spend a bit of the book trying to convince everyone, especially president Snow, that she isn't a threat, that she's just a girl in love. But Katniss is not a very good actress. And she's not a robot. She can't switch off her feelings, because the Capitol wants her to. So things backfire and the possibility of a rebellion in the districts gets higher and higher.
My heart broke for the old man who just wanted to show his solidarity with Katniss and wanted to pay respects for the kids who died for the pleasure of the Capitol. I was glad to see that the people of Panem didn't lost their courage and will to fight for themselves, and I get that there is no freedom without a sacrifice, but it was still hard for me to read about it (I know that it will be even worse in the next book).
Katniss was awesome in district 11. She was awesome through most of the book. She's someone you would never want to be enemies with (it's something president Snow never learned, it seems). I liked how she reacted when she was called once again as a tribute. I liked when she plotted how to kill the other kids and then felt ashamed of herself when she realized that they were never her enemies. I liked how she decided to save Peeta at every cost (while Peeta did his best to save Katniss - this is true love, ladies and gentlemen!). When she fell, she got up and fought again. She felt like a true person, someone real, someone relatable. The only thing I could complain about is her sudden change in feelings for Gale. She saw him as a friend the whole time until another girl had shown up trying to help him. And then she had switched up to once again to Peeta. Why did we even need this love triangle for? It felt completely unnecessary and annoying.
Peeta had stolen my heart in book one and he still did not gave it back. I thought that my love for him could not be bigger, but I was clearly wrong. He's truly a perfect man. Gale can be all handsome and manly and whatever, I would still choose Peeta over him any day.
Finnick, Johanna, Beetee, Wiress, Mags and Annie were all an amazing addition to the series. I love them all. Such awesome characters. It's a shame that we couldn't spend more time with some of them (Annie was only mentioned). Finnick has my heart along with Peeta and Johanna is as badass as Katniss. I wish I could have at least half a brain like Beetee and Wiress had and at least half a courage like Mags had.
I will dive into book three immediately! I am truly excited and I wonder what my thoughts about it will be now after so many years :)
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