Scholastic Mockingjay

the moment i opened up the book to start reading the pages starting falling off after turning them only once or twice!!

This is the third, and final, book in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. If you read the first two books, you will read this one. All I can say is to be prepared for one heck of a ride. A lot happens in this book and Collins doesn't hold off on killing off a lot of people. The book starts where Catching Fire left off. Katniss is in District 13 with Gale, her mom, and her sister Prim. The Rebel group based in District 13 is trying to get Katniss to take up the Mockingjay symbol and become the face of their revolution. Katniss is unsure if she wants to go this route or not. Peeta is still missing and presumed captured by President Snow and being held in the Capital. Katniss's journey eventually leads to the capital itself and a final face-off with President Snow. This is a hard book to review without spoilers but I will give it my best shot. The pace of this book is relentless. Collins does not pull punches when it comes to killing off large groups of people, as well as people we love and care about. This is a dark book, and that is putting it mildly. As far as characterization goes we begin to see even more of what defines Katniss as a character; she is not sentimental, she is a survivor foremost and that it what sets her apart from others. A lot of the decisions made by Katniss in this book are driven by that personality trait. In fact at one point Gale and Peeta are discussing Katniss and who she will "choose". Gale sums it up perfectly when he says something to the effect of "Katniss will choose whoever she can't survive without." On to other characters. The ruthlessness we saw in Gale at the end of the Catching Fire is built upon in this book. Gale is ruthless and practical to the point of dislike at times. He begins to look like a character that likes what Katniss stands for, rather than who she is. At the end of book two I was Team Gale all the way. I thought that Gale and Katniss had more in common in survival instincts and could pull off a good relationship based on those characteristics. As this book starts and continues, we see a side of Gale that is more ruthless and dispassionate than ever before. In order to avoid spoilers I won't say much about Peeta, except that he is back in the story for the second half of the book. Collins does an excellent job at showing both sides of the story. You get to see both the good the rebel forces do, and the harm they cause in rebelling against the Capital. As Katniss and team enter the capital, Collins relates the Capital takeover as yet another type of dome just like previous "Hunger Games" this is an interesting idea and ties the three novels together well. In each of them we see our teams of characters struggling to stay alive, doing things no one should have to do. In each book there are brutal deaths. There's quite the twist at the end of this book. People may be surprised at who Katniss kills. All I have to say about this is that I was satisfied with the choice Katniss made, and had actually been hoping that Collins would have it play out that way. Katniss's actions at the end seemed like the best way to follow Katniss's beliefs, while trying to ensure the best ending for humanity as a whole. The epilogue was interesting. It was kind of nice to get a definitive ending to everything that played out before. It wrapped things up nicely. Still, I didn't think the epilogue was necessary and I think the book would have actually been a bit better and more thought-provoking without it. As with the previous books the writing style of this book was incredibly readable and engaging; no matter people think of the plot, you have to admit Collins is one heck of a great writer. Overall I thought this was an excellent conclusion to the series. Readers may not like how some of things play-out; but I thought they played out realistically and I liked the decisions Katniss made at the end...I thought her decisions really stayed true to the core personality trait of her character, which was to survive. I am eagerly awaiting whatever Collins comes up with next.

Esta serie de Hunger Games atrapó a mi adolescente, muy recomendable para que tengan el hábito de la lectura.

Just as like my Catching Fire review, this book is magnificent. People can argue about the ending, how it was "rushed" but I find she made it perfectly. She gave the reader a sense of what happened, how the "Star Crossed Lovers" ended up, and give freedom to the reader for some specific things. Not so much that it feels rushed, but amazing. The book is just as long as its predecessors 391 pgs. The book comes with many twists and turns, and has an extremely realistic ending. It is not your typical love story. Twilight is baloney, this is extremely well crafted, and a successful ending only adds to the experience. The ending is true to the characters, and very great. Like Catching Fire, the quality is amazing, nothing wrong with the pages or hard cover, slip cover was also not ripped. The book gets 5 STARS.

Guzel seri

Zweimal hat Katniss die grausamen Hunger Games nun schon überlebt. Doch der Preis dafür war hoch: die Rebellen konnten zwar Katniss aus der Arena befreien, nicht jedoch Peeta, der vom Capitol gefangengenommen wurde. Da ihre Heimat, District 12 zerstört wurde, werden Katniss und die restlichen Überlebenden von den Rebellen in den District 13 gebracht, wo man sich gerade auf den entscheidenden Kampf gegen President Snow und das Capitol vorbereitet. Als Leitfigur der Rebellion soll Katniss das Volk von Panem vereinen und für den Krieg motivieren. Doch solange Peeta von Snow gefangengehalten und gefoltert wird, kann Katniss einfach nicht für die Rebellen kämpfen. Als es ihnen schließlich gelingt, Peeta zu befreien, ist er nicht mehr derselbe, sondern hält Katniss für den Feind... Zum letzten Mal habe ich nun mit Katniss gelitten, gekämpft, verzweifelt, neue Hoffnung geschöpft und geliebt. Die Hunger Games sind beendet, Panems Schicksal entschieden, Katniss' Geschichte zu Ende erzählt. Und ich? Ich hänge in der Luft, muss mich erst noch damit abfinden, dass es vorbei ist. Denn die Reihe um die Hunger Games zählt für mich zu den besten Jugendbüchern, die ich in den letzten Jahren gelesen habe. Teil 1 hatte mich sofort zum begeisterten Fan gemacht und so waren die Erwartungen an den Nachfolger natürlich immens. Kann man ein so gutes Buch noch toppen? Suzanne Collins hatte es bewiesen: ja, man kann! "Catching Fire" war großartig, für mich noch besser als der Vorgänger, und hat meine Erwartungen an den Abschlussband der Trilogie erneut angehoben. Zwar konnte sie sich meiner Meinung nach nicht noch einmal steigern, aber wir befinden uns hier eh auf einem Level, bei dem man eigentlich nicht meckern kann. Während die ersten beiden Bücher sich um die Hunger Games drehten, bei denen Kinder jedes Districts auf Leben und Tod gegeneinander kämpfen mussten, beherrscht der Aufstand gegen President Snow den dritten Band und fühlt sich so beim Lesen etwas anders an als die Vorgänger. Etwas weniger aufwühlend, etwas weniger dramatisch, aber auch weniger hoffnungslos, denn jetzt schlagen die Rebellen zurück. Was Fans vielleicht ein wenig murren lassen könnte, ist der Fokus auf die Kriegsvorbereitungen und weniger auf Katniss Gefühle für Peeta und Gale. Aber keine Sorge, auch der Liebesgeschichte wird noch genug Raum geboten, denn letztlich wartet immer noch die Entscheidung auf Katniss, wem denn nun ihr Herz gehört, Peeta oder Gale? Bei einer Buchserie wie den Hunger Games kann man natürlich kein klassisches Happy End erwarten und Suzanne Collins speist uns auch glücklicherweise nicht mit einem klischeehaften Ende ab. Gerade deshalb finde ich den Abschluss der Trilogie sehr gelungen. Wie auch schon in den beiden ersten Büchern müssen wir uns von einigen lieb gewonnenen Charakteren verabschieden, die dem Krieg zum Opfer fallen und Katniss fast verzweifeln lassen; und ihr doch auch immer wieder verdeutlichen, warum President Snow's Herrschaft endgültig beendet werden muss! Wer die "Hunger Games" (dt. "Die Tribute von Panem") noch nicht kennt, sollte das schleunigst ändern. Denn Suzanne Collins liefert hier eine Jugendbuchserie, die so schnell keiner mehr überbieten kann.