The Hunger Games fans: What did you think of Mockingjay and the ending of the trilogy?

About the feelings: Being an author myself, I am in awe at the work Suzanne Collins did. It is incredible for an author to be able to write something so captivating and intense that the emotions cling to you and affect you. If you think about it from that perspective, the emotions are easier to handle.

But then again, you have the undramatic story line:

I agree with the person above me. Mockingjay was probably one of the slowest reads of my entire life. Hunger Games excites you and fills you with emotion. Catching Fire lets you down a little bit, but still gives you feelings about the Games and Peeta and everything. And then you have Mockingjay... It is like reading an educational book. 3/4 of the book is just Katniss. In District 13. Doing. Nothing. It took me 6 months to read the first part of it until it actually begins to get a little interesting. And then- BAM! It ends. And you wonder why you picked up this book in the first place... (then you read Hunger Games again and remember... but that is beside the point).

Suzanne Collins really gives us the opportunity to feel what post traumatic stress feels like (pretty much). She let us know what it would have felt like if we were Katniss (which again, is AMAZING!).

Just let your mind and body process it. Take a month. Think it through. Then read it again. Trust me- the second time is much easier the first and you are able to actually get into the story because the emotions are not as dominant.

About the overall Hunger Games. I am squealing right now because I am in the middle of re-reading Catching Fire and I just love these books so much.

I suggest you find a happy book that you like and have that around. I like to switch back and forth between Hunger Games books and Breaking Dawn because HG is kind of depressing, and BD is pretty happy in the second half. That way you get the happiness of BD but the amazing, incredible, unforgettable story written by Suzanne Collins.

It's been such a long time since I read Mockingjay, but there were some things that still stick with me.....

I was so, so heartbroken when Finnick was killed. There was something about his character that I loved from the very beginning. I was so happy when he and Annie were reunited, but that was all ruined when he killed off. It was so quick and out of the blue, too! And then the fact that they were going to have a child didn't help at all. Oh my goodness, I was so devastated. I had to put the book down and finish it a while later.

The whole ending just felt rushed. I was confused for a lot of it. Prim's death was unexpected, but to be honest I wasn't very moved. I'd just never felt any sort of connection to her character. It seems a lot of people didn't like that Peeta was hijacked, but I found it interesting. I've got mixed feelings about what happened in the end with Gale (or rather, the lack of what happened), but he was another character who I didn't care for much.

It was alright. I definitely believe that the first book was the best.

I'm sorry I don't have much more to say. Like I said, it's been awhile. :/

When I first started reading The Hunger Games I accidently read a spoiler online that basically ruined the ending of the whole series for me.

I really liked Mockingjay, but I feel like I would've liked it better if I didn't read the spoiler.

SPOILER

I didn't like that Finnick or Prim died; that made it very sad.

On a scale of 1 - 10 (1 being I hated it, 10 being it was the best book ever) I would rate Mockingjay a 7.

I actually didn't mind the ending of Mockingjay the only thing I hated were the people who died that made me mad but other than that I really liked it. It created suspense and I literally could not put it down.Also I know alot of people were mad about Katnisses mental breakdown, but I mean come on she lost half of the people she loved and went through so much of course shes going to have a breakdown at some point its realistic and that's why I like it. As for the rest of the series I thought it was the most incredible series I have ever read It was suspenseful, sad and at times extremely jaw dropping. Although the first book will always be my favorite book from the series and of all time.

I thought hunger games was the best series in the world :)

I liked the ending of mockingjay. Katniss went through so much and she was never going to be happy again. But I felt that her love for peeta was real. If it wasn't, then she would not have accepted him when he stopped by district 12 to plant the primroses. Plus, he and katniss knew how the games were, and they were both changed: katniss from prim's death, peeta from the dillusions the capitol gave him. It was just never gale for me. Gale was her friend, sure, but he wasn't her companion personality. He was too much like her. The book also mentions that while gale has a lot of hate, Peeta is the one who can calm katniss down and make her feel better.

I also felt that all the deaths were necassary. If i had to remove one death, it would be finnick's, but that's it. I think the book was realistic. it may not have been happy, but under those circumstances, it could not have been. it was realistic and frank.

Honestly, it was disappointing.

I loved the main message of the books - that you know war has gone too far when children are paying for their parents' mistakes. The Hunger Games and Catching Fire were both unique, emotionally demanding, and really had me thinking. But Mockingjay?! Really, SC, really?

Right from the beginning, there wasn't any real action. Even as the symbol of the rebellion, Katniss spends most of her time either sheltered in District 13 or traveling to the other districts as a figurehead. She doesn't even participate in *SPOILER* Peeta's rescue mission, which - since she was so torn up about it - I expected her to lead. Instead, she spent a good chunk of the book in the hospital becoming addicted to morphling while her friends fought for her cause. And when they did get Peeta back and realized he wasn't the same, Katniss just seemed to give up on him. Where was the badass heroine of the first two books?

I was also disturbed by the deaths in the last book. I get that Collins was trying to emphasize the point of "War shouldn't be glorified," but did that many major characters - who we bonded with emotionally - have to die in such gory ways? I didn't understand why Finnick had to go - it just seemed like a cheap trick right after he'd found happiness with Annie. And PRIM? She was the entire reason Katniss got involved in the Games. By killing her, Collins more or less said, "It was all for nothing." Plus, near the end, Prim was pretty much the only character worth rooting for.

The love triangle - ugh, don't even get me started. Gale indirectly killing Prim? He's spent the last three books protecting Katniss's family at risk to his own life, and this is how it's resolved? Don't get me wrong - I wanted Katniss to end up with Peeta. I just thought that it was a pretty underhanded move to turn the audience against Gale.

I like that Katniss got a realistic ending, without sugarcoating, although it was rushed. Her reconciliation with Peeta took all of two pages without explanation as to HOW they got back together. Also, Katniss doesn't seem in the right state of mind to enjoy it - but, after seeing all of the unnecessary deaths, I guess that isn't surprising. The ending also felt incomplete - what happened to Johanna? How could Katniss's mother not come back to District 12 to comfort her remaining daughter?

Yes, it needed to be realistic. Realistically, Katniss will never, ever recover from what she saw. I'm not saying that she should have had a fairytale after the war, but I think Collins forgot that she was writing a science fiction novel for YOUNG ADULTS. So many people kept reading, if only hoping that Katniss would find the happiness she deserved, but even the epilogue seemed like a reiteration of the theme that we've understood already - Katniss isn't truly happy, not even with Peeta and her children.

All in all, the plot dragged, the deaths came in too great of a quantity to be believable, and Katniss was barely tolerable. Collins has obvious talent and she could have done much, much better.

Mockingjay was very different than the two books. Because in the third book they get to fight against The Capitol. There was a lot that happened in this book. And when someone died i didnt cry like in the hunger games i even forced myself to read it again until i felt sad or devastated but no, there was no success in rhat. When i reach the ending. Well it didnt seem like rhe best ending the book deserve. I mean i get what Suzanne Collins are telling us, that not all books have happy endings, not every thing works out. But the ending was so incomplete to me. I hated it so much. But i was thankful i got to know the hunger games.

Thoughts on Mockingjay: I felt like this book wasn't a climatic or suspenseful read. The entire plot was, in my opinion, a falling action. I was so confused for most of the book and I had to re-read most of it. I was expecting an all out war, and a hunger games-like enviorment. It was nothing like I expected. But Mrs. Collins DID manage to round out her characters like Gale, Finnick (SPOILER: why is he dead? END SPOILER) and Haymitch. I guess it was meant to be more like a character study or something. And some of the deaths had no meaning, no impact. It just felt a little... disconnected, too, at times. And Katniss' sanity was on the brink in this book, too. Which is probably why I was so disconnected. But, after all she been through, what else should be expected?

Thoughts on the Hunger Games in general: The first book was amazing. The second dragged a little but it was good. The last book? Eh.... Suzanne Collins' a great writer, but the second and third books didn't showcase her talent in my opinion.

EDIT: I'm reading this review on Amazon and this person put my feelings very eloquently.

"All of that is bigger than a love story - than Peeta or Gale. And yet, Katniss' war does come to an end. And she does have to pick up the pieces of her life and figure out where to go at the end. So she does make a choice. But compared to the tragedy of everything that comes before it, it doesn't seem "enough". And I think that's the point. That once you've been to hell and lost so much, your life will never be the same. Katniss will never be the same. For a large part of this book, we see Katniss acting in a way that we can only see as being combat-stress or PTSD-related - running and hiding in closets. This isn't our Katniss, this isn't our warrior girl.

But this is what makes it so much more realistic, I think. Some may see this as a failing in plot - that Katniss is suddenly acting out of character. But as someone who has been around very strong soldiers returning home from deployments, this story, more than the other two, made Katniss come alive for me in a much more believable way.

I realize many out there will hate the epilogue and find it trite. At first, I did too. But in retrospect, it really was perfect. Katniss gave her life already - back when she volunteered for Prim in "The Hunger Games". It's just that she actually physically kept living.

The HBO miniseries, "Band of Brothers", has a quote that sums this up perfectly. When Captain Spiers says, "The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function: without mercy, without compassion, without remorse. All war depends upon it."

But how do you go from that, to living again in society? You really don't. So I'm not sure Katniss ever really did - live again. She just ... kept going. And there's not really much to celebrate in that. Seeing someone keep going, despite being asked - no, demanded - to do unconscionably horrifying things, and then being relegated to the fringes of society, and then to keep going - to pick up the pieces and keep on going, there is something fine and admirable and infinitely sad and pure and noble about that. But the fact is, it should never happen in the first place.

And that was the point, I think. "

I love the series. In Mockingjay I didn't like how Katniss ended up with Peeta though. I mean really??Gale's always been there for her and was one of her only friends and she chooses Peeta? A guy she just met over a year ago?? That just doesnt make since to me. I love Katniss and Gale together and I hate how he just leaves at the end. I want Suzanne Collins to make a book 4 and sum things up and have it so Gale and Katniss at least TALK to each other still..it irks me! Im not saying I dont like Peeta cuz i do but I like Gale and Katniss together more! That's what I didnt like about Mockingjay. I mean I liked the book and liked how it constantly kept you upbeat. In the end I'm glad they rebelled against the capital and won!

Ok friends. Some of you sound like you really hate Katniss. So here's a nice

Little list of people that she's lost by the end of the series.

Her father, Rue, Finnick, Prim, Gale (technically), more than likely Haymitch and her mother, Madge, Darius, Laviana, Thresh, Boggs, Castor, Mags.And Im sure I'm forgetting someone! So you guys

Need to shut up. If you answered this, then heaven knows your life is nothing like hers since you jave access to a computer. And Gale, i disliked him even before he killed Prim. He had little to no sypathy for Peeta's situation, and one could say he was grateful for it. And what type of person just says "whichever one she can't survive without" Who does he think he is? And he had the nerve to be worried that Finnick liked Katniss? He obviously didn't know Finnick, because even Helen Keller would be able to tell that was wrong. So yes, it was pretty pitiful to make Gale leave to District 2, but I say good riddance.