“What Could Become of our
Current Fixation with Reality TV?”

A Review of

Mockingjay.
By Suzanne Collins.

Reviewed by Jeni Newswanger-Smith.

Mockingjay.
Suzanne Collins.
Hardback: Scholastic, 2010.
Buy now: [ Amazon ]

Throughout Mockingjay, the final book in The Hunger Games Trilogy, Suzanne Collins delivers a fierce, believable and engrossing end to a series that introduced a new level of unflinching violence in the Young Adult (YA) market.  Collins delves into the issues of war and peace, as well as the wisdom in questioning what is “presented for our viewing pleasure” as truth.

The Hunger Games, the first book in this series,  shocked some and delighted others because of its graphic storyline.  Pandem, a future country made up of 12 Districts and a Capitol is a place of tyranny and oppression.  Every year the people of each District are reminded of their inferior positions by being forced to participate in The Hunger Games.  Two young people from each district travel to the capitol, where they are made-over and glammed up, only to be dropped into a stylized, horrifying arena, where they must fight to the death.  The winner is the one who survives.  All people are forced to watch; everyone must see the children kill and be killed.

In the first book, Katniss Everdeen learns to play the Game, providing the pampered, oblivious people of The Capitol with the entertainment they desire, while still surviving.  She achieves something so shocking that she becomes a hero of the whole District, a symbol of their ability to fight back.   In Catching Fire, Katniss must deal with the fallout from winning the games.  She must face head on the hurt of both Peeta, whose love she took advantage of in order the win the game, and Gale, her best friend and hunting partner, who took care of her mother and sister during her absence.  She also must deal with the anger of the President, and a vengeful act that catches the entire nation by surprise.  After again thwarting the desires of her President, Katniss’s District is destroyed and in her rescue, she is forced to leave Peeta behind.

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