It’s been an odd week and I always knew that I wasn’t going to get much reading done. So, I had to turn to this trilogy in order to get a second review up this week. I listened to it over the last couple of days once the heat had calmed down a bit. I don’t think I could have concentrated on it at the start of the week. I know this book isn’t universally loved like the previous 2. I also know that a lot of people have a problem with the ending. So, I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel. I really had to find out for myself.

I enjoyed the previous two books in this series. I had issues with them but I enjoyed reading them. This one? I don’t really know what to think. It’s a very ambitious end to the trilogy and it had an awful lot of work to do. There are plenty of loose ends to tie up. There’s also the fact that Katniss is in a pretty dire state after everything she’s been through and is struggling to keep going. This is all a bit bleak and, considering the previous two books, that’s saying something.

The book picks up where the previous one ended. Katniss and the rebels are hiding out in District 13. Peeta is being held at the Capitol along with the other captured tributes. The uprising against the Capitol is about the get into full swing so, to get what she wants, Katniss agrees to be the rebels’ poster girl. In her role as the Mockingjay, she must star in propaganda films to encourage the other districts to join the fight. Will she be able to lead the fight to President Snow and finally end it? Or does she need to worry about who she’s allying herself with?

The third book in this series isn’t terrible in any way but it does have a pacing problem. So much of the narrative drags unnecessarily and we spend way too much time on less significant things. I don’t think we needed quite so many scenes of Katniss making propaganda videos. When the rebellion really kicks off, things tend to get a little chaotic and the narrative can’t really keep up with the action. For me, it just came across as messy. I understand that this was probably making a point about the chaos of war and being stuck in the middle of a dangerous situation. However, that doesn’t make it a pleasant reading experience.

I just don’t think I ever really connected with this book in the way that I did with the previous ones. It’s just a neverending sequence of terrible things happening to one teenage girl. We’ve been building up to this point over the past few months and the final payoff just isn’t that great. It just didn’t feel satisfying and I wasn’t engaging with the story. I think there are some interesting points about the consequences of war and the aftermath of violence. However, I think these could have been executed better. On its own, this possibly would have felt like a more rounded book. As the final book in a trilogy, it fell a little flat.