In Defense of Mockingjay

Spoiler alert: There are spoilers for the entire Hunger Games series (particularly the last book) in this post.

For whatever reason, Mockingjay has received a lot of flack since it was published. I can't say this for sure, but from my experience, it seems to be everyone's least favorite of the Hunger Games books. For me, on the other hand, it's my favorite, which isn't surprising considering final books usually are. I know I've talked in the past about how I tend to love endings.

There's something satisfying to me about seeing where the characters end up and how the story actually ends. I think that for a lot of people endings wind up being disappointing if they diverge too far from what that person had imagined in their head. Sure, I've had that problem before, but most of the time it's not something I struggle with.

I think I'm really good at suspending any expectations when I go into things and staying optimistic about whatever's actually happening. I think that's the same reason that I don't usually feel as upset about movie adaptations are other people sometimes are. For whatever reason, I just go along with the flow with that sort of thing. If something happens with a character that doesn't entirely mesh up with what I imagined, I just accept it. If a movie changes something from the book, I just accept it.

There are exceptions to that, of course, but most of the time I'm okay with things even if I'm not ecstatic. I rarely get angry or all that upset. I don't know why that is. It's like it's just a natural reaction to me, not something I'm trying to strive for.

With Mockingjay though, I kind of feel like it may be more than that. I didn't just settle for what happened in Mockingjay, I was quite happy with it. Well, as happy as I could be when my favorite character as hijacked and lots of other characters died or were hurt. Sure, that wasn't great in a certain sense of the word, but the entire book felt exactly like what needed to happen to me.

I've always felt like each of the characters reacted to things how I would expect. I love (again, only in a certain sense of the word) that Katniss' PTSD was dealt with and not pushed aside. It wouldn't have been right to have her be entirely okay, in my opinion, and I like that she wasn't. Same with other characters.

And I know a lot of people are frustrated about the suggestion of another Hunger Games at the end of the book, but I thought that was a realistic option that would have been brought up in those circumstances. Others are mad that Katniss agreed, but I've always seen that as her gaining Coin's trust in order to shoot her later, not because Katniss actually wanted another Hunger Games. I also don't think it's far fetched that the other characters who did vote yes would do so for various reasons. It wasn't right, but people do things like that after what they'd been through.

The entire book was just great to me. People are completely entitled to hate it, but I'm always willing to defend it. To me, it was the right way for the series to end.