Mocking Jay – Book Summary

After her rescue by the rebels, Katniss willingly agrees to become “the Mockingjay”, a symbol of the rebellion against the Capitol. As part of a deal, she requests that the leader of District 13, President Coin, give immunity to all of the victors of the Hunger Games. She also demands the right to kill President Snow herself. In a fearless rescue, Peeta and other victors are rescued from the Capitol. However, Peeta has been brainwashed into hating Katniss, and tries to kill her upon their reunion in District 13.

The rebels take control of the districts and finally begin an assault on the Capitol itself, which Katniss is a part of. However, an assault on a “safe” Capitol neighborhood goes wrong, and Katniss and her team flee further into the Capitol with the intent of finding and killing President Snow. Eventually Katniss finds herself pressing on alone towards Snow’s mansion, which has supposedly been opened to shelter Capitol children (but is actually intended to provide human shields for Snow). Afterwards, bombs placed in supply packages kill many of these children and a rebel medical team, including Katniss’ sister Prim.

President Snow is tried and found guilty, but he tells Katniss that the final assault that killed Prim was ordered by President Coin, not the Capitol. Katniss realizes that if this is true, the bombing may have been the result of a plan originally developed by her friend Gale. Katniss realizes that she will never be able to look at Gale the same way, regardless of whether or not he was directly involved in Prim’s death. Katniss remembers a conversation with Snow in which they promised not to lie to each other. When she is supposed to execute Snow, she realizes that he was telling the truth and kills Coin instead. A riot ensues and Snow is found dead, having possibly choked on his own blood or been trampled in the crowd. Katniss is acquitted due to her apparent insanity and returns to her home in District 12. Peeta returns soon after as well, having largely recovered from his brainwashing.

In the epilogue, Katniss speaks as an adult, more than fifteen years later. She is married to Peeta and they have two children. The Hunger Games are over, but she dreads the day her children learn the details of their parents’ involvement in both the Games and the war. When she feels upset, Katniss has taken to reminding herself of every good thing that she has ever seen someone do.

Readers Review

With two books down and one more to go you might wonder if the third book is going to be as special as the first two. A lot of times as a writer progresses through a trilogy or series a book loses it’s steam. If you are concerned about that, then you are worried about nothing. In the third installment, MockingJay you’ll not only be pleased to find more action and suspense, but you’ll find that all the characters are still growing, changing, and developing all the way to the end. As you read through book three you’ll find there is more then one bad guy and with things not getting better there is only one way to solve the problems of their society. Katniss does what it takes to bring peace for her family and friends and you’ll find yourself loving her even more because she has the strength to fight against the whole world. I did enjoy this book as much as the first two, but if you were interested in the love triangle as I was, then you might find it is kind of a disappointment. If you were reading in hopes to find Katniss choosing Gale or Peeta, you’ll find that Gale pretty much just drops out of the running by living somewhere else. As much as I love these series, Katniss never really picks and there is pretty much only one page in the third book dedicated to saying that Katniss is with Peeta in the end. It kind of feels like she never really admits why she even wants to be with them. It feels like Collins didn’t think the relationships between Katniss, Gale and Peeta were of much importance to the trilogy because as it comes to a close there really isn’t much of anything to the relationships and she abruptly closes with Katniss and Peeta being together then it’s just the end. I love these series, but the only thing I didn’t like was how she ended the last few pages of the final book. But hopefully with the movies coming out she’ll be able to redeem what she didn’t include in her ending in the book, in the movie.