Mockingjay: A really long, random, and spoiler-filled reaction post.

Here’s how this post is going to go…It’s going to be a ramble-ridden mess. However, I have no one yet to talk to about the third and final installment in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, so I will take to the blog. That’s what it’s here for after all.*

This is not a review of Mockingjay. I am way too emotionally overwhelmed to be capable of critical thinking right now. This does contain spoilers at random.

I read from 9:30am and finished at 4:58pm. I spent a lot of that time in anguish, freaking out.

And then I died a happy, happy (metaphorical) death.

I cannot even begin to tell you how pleased I was with the ending. That last page…it said it all and perfectly. Suzanne Collins via Katniss finally voiced why Peeta was the one and Gale never could be. I am so so glad she emphasized that Peeta wasn’t just who she ended up with, but who she was always meant to be with. And, oh, the way she voiced it:

“On the night I feel that thing again, the hunger that overtook me on the beach, I know this would have happened anyway. That what I need to survive is not Gale’s fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in spring. The bright yellow rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go one, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.”

Just let that sink in for a moment. And then, BAM, Suzanne Collins turns me into a sobbing ecstatic mess:

“So after, when he whispers ‘You love me. Real or not real?’

I tell him, ‘Real.’”

--Mockingjay, page 388

End game. I’m done. I’m jumping around my (thankfully empty) house like a crazy person crying from happiness and screaming like a mad woman.

(This even almost makes up for my precious Harry and Hermione not ending up together.)

Ok, now for some other stuff.

--Some favorite texts from friends while reading today:
“I peeked at a page in the far distance…and I shouldn’t have.” I knew exactly what page Lauren had meant when I got to it. 177, oh how you shocked and horrified us.
“Oh em eff gee. I will beat her over the head with her bow and arrows.” I’ll steal Finnick’s trident and help you, Katie.
“So, I’m on page 127 after Katniss sings ‘The Hanging Tree’ and I’m texting you so I don’t cry!” Kellie, The Hanging Tree part made me sob. I was mesmerized, too.
“Kate…Coin is shady.” Preach it, Lauren!
“I have to take breaks because it is so intense.” Um, word Sister.
“Just finished part 1!! PEETAAA :(” I spent most of the day crying “Peeta” the way Marci did.

--Page 64: “I still stand by what I said. Do you want me to lie about it?” he asks.
“No, I want you to rethink it and come up with the right opinion.”

I want to use that line on somebody! Love it.

--All the moments when Peeta repeats lines from previous books when he’s regaining his real memories… I was freaking out. Lamb stew. “I think…you still have no idea. The effect you can have.” (pg 325.) Etc.

--Page 314. I’m not even going to quote it for you. Just go re-read that daring and perfect and really really overdue kiss and melt all over again like I did.

--Page 244: “She got very squeaky. It was like someone stabbing a mouse with a fork repeatedly.”

So, I totally ended up loving Johanna.

And Finnick. Don’t get me started on the many ways I loved Finnick. I will start crying again. (Annie Cresta & Finnick O’Dair forever! And did you catch how they had a baby? *Sob*)

--Page 271: “You’re a painter. You’re a baker. You like to sleep with the windows open. You never take sugar in your tea. And you always double-knot your shoelaces.” Yeah, I cried. Peeta, come back!

--I’m really glad we got to know Prim a bit more in this book. It always bothered me that she didn’t have much of a voice when she meant so much to our heroine. I was heartbroken for Katniss when she died. And terribly terribly bothered when Gale made his comment: “That was the one thing I had going for me. Taking care of your family.” (pg 367) Reason #1000002 why Katniss was right to be with a good man like Peeta instead of Gale.

--Page 372. I KNEW IT. I hated Coin all along and the closer we got to this climax I felt sure Katniss would choose to eliminate Coin, not just Snow. Especially after the Hunger Games vote—when she voted yes I knew something was up.

A bullet point isn’t sufficient for my last thoughts. And honestly, I’m not in the right mindset to give praise to Suzanne Collins the way I’d like to and as fully as she deserves. But I do have to say how remarkably poignant her series is on the issues of war, rebellion, inhumanity, right vs. wrong, so on. I know I swoon a lot over Peeta and wax on about why he was the right choice and all the beautiful and heartbreaking moments we get between him and Katniss. However, far beyond all the romance, I appreciate and am astounded by the genius of these books to show that right and wrong is never clear, things aren’t quite black and white and that the enemy can be on all sides just as your friends can exist on all sides. She so critically portrays the battle within and without and the danger of violence and destruction no matter what cause you think you’re doing it all for.

Maybe this theme is why above all else I absolutely love Katniss. She is my homegirl, to quote my bestie Lar. She may not always make the wisest choice but she never ever ever allows herself to completely give in to the choices of others. She constantly reconsiders what role she’s playing and she refuses to be a pawn. She thinks for herself. She’s compassionate and she never dismisses the Capitol as all bad or upholds the rebels as all good. She protects those she loves, whether they be Capitol, Rebel, or Green (dear dear Octavia).

This is why, forgetting Team Peeta or Team Gale stuff, I love when she asserts at the end that “I have plenty of fire by myself.” She does. She certainly does.

So, when she chooses who she loves, she chooses somebody who can accept her, love her, and let her be herself. She knows she could be fine all on her own but she also realizes she has the choice to love someone else.

Sheesh, how long is this post? This, my friends, is what happens when I encounter a book that rocks my world and then have nobody to talk to about it.

I hope you all are reading and enjoying this series just as much as I am. Please tell me what your thoughts are!

{Cover of Mockingjay with the necklace I wore today on it. It's the closest thing I have that reminds me of the books what with the berries and the bird.}

*What it's here for: Whatever the heck I want it to be here for. Hehehe.