Mockingjay
Well, I have to hand it to Collins, I expected an ending similar to the one that exists, but never dreamed it would come about in the way that it did.
In this trilogy, Collins slowly built up a conflict, black and white, good and evil, right and wrong, all moving more and more into gray areas with few clear options for our heroes with each installment.
'Chasing Fire' suffered from a slow start and an abrupt ending, but 'Mockingjay' picks up the story seamlessly from there. Katniss is still a little slow about some obvious things, but her character is still much more complex than most central characters in a popular series. Katniss Everdeen, whatever else she is or is not, is a strong female character as defined by her actions and decisions, as opposed to certain other heroines who are only labeled as such and the reader is expected to buy it.
The best part of this series is it's insistence that readers question judgments, witness the cruelties of both sides of an armed conflict and wrestle with literary heroes that are far from perfect, make costly mistakes and willfully cause harm, knowing their motivations.
That is rare in YA fiction.
Collins' may have her faults as a writer, but she's delivered fully on the promise of 'The Hunger Games' in my opinion. She wasn't afraid to raise difficult questions and situations, and she refused to offer up easy solutions, or to answer them all. It's up to the reader. Which, at this level, is what should be the case.
Hunger Games Trilogy
Previous: 'Catching Fire'
