Mockingjay is much more interesting and satisfying than Catching Fire, the second book in the trilogy, which inexplicably and boringly became a replay of The Hunger Games.
Instead of heading back to the arena again, Mockingjay instead does what the second book should have done: take the story to its logical conclusion and into the cultural revolution we've been wanting to see from the beginning.
There are things to complain about: the constant and needless comparisons of the pod weapons in the Capitol city to the Hunger Games arena; a "surprise" ending at the climax that was telegraphed long before; and an ending that feels like it was written in a sloppy rush.
There are good, unexpected, things here, too, though, such as the haze Katniss is in that subtly carries over from the last action scenes to the epilogue; so life-transforming are the events in the raid on the Capitol that the Katniss we knew from the story thus far is gone for good fifty pages before the book is over.
Some readers hate the epilogue, claiming it's a downer. Spoiler Warning: Katniss is alive, as well as can be expected and free to live out the rest of her life as she sees fit with her new-found family. Collins killing all the main characters in battle - that would have been a downer.
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