Honestly [SPOILERS]
I read the entire series in a week. Considering that I'm a college sophomore who also happens to be an English major, this wasn't a difficult feat. Especially since this was one of the most captivating, enthralling series I have ever read. The plot line is fantastic. Many people have serious complaints considering the second book's return to the Hunger Games. However, it makes logical sense. The leaders who created the Quarter Quell WOULD include this challenge. And if the Katniss had not gone back in, she never would have been recruited by District 13.
But there are some gaping holes. First, the character development is awful. I cannot think of a single character, excepting perhaps for Peeta, who was any type of dynamic. Even though this series is written in first person point of view, Katniss NEVER changes. She never has a problem with simply being a figurehead for the rebellion and manipulated by the camera crews/District 13. She has no logical reasoning for assassinating Coin. And she never, NEVER believes in the rebellion itself, that the world can actually be changed for the better. Isn't that the whole point for the leader/figurehead of a cause? To believe in it? Of course, she would be completely susceptible to PTSD, but if she had believed in the cause itself, she never would have been as manically depressed as she was, wouldn't have been content with being shipped to District 12 at the end, to spend the rest of her days withdrawn from the politics of the new government she helped establish.
Secondly, the ending of the series. Just as Katniss is reaching the President, just as the climax commences, our heroine is hit by a bomb. And her sister Prim, the entire reason why Katniss has been fighting, unnecessarily dies. The entire falling action is horrendous and seemingly thrown together, as though the author didn't feel like writing out an extra 100 pages for a good/closure-ridden ending. Collins NEEDED extra pages. All the loose ends are tied up, sure, but in too rapid a pace, like she was rushing just to finish the novel. Katniss killing Coin, drudging about her home in District 12 for months, finally falling in love with Peeta...it all happens too quickly, doesn't give the readers the closure they deserve. For three books, we have been waiting to discover how the rebellion would end, where Katniss would end up--and especially who with. And it's suddenly over in twenty quick pages.
Third, the epilogue. Unnecessary as well. Very cliched. Truly not much to elaborate on.
And yet I give this series three stars. Because it did have me on the edge of my seat, ignoring homework, dying with anticipation for an entire week. Though the ending was a let down, though the heroine was the epitome of static and a nonbeliever, though the love triangle of the three books is brought to a too-rapid close, I want to buy the series. This series has an amazing concept, one that has been untried before, and is not too inappropriate yet just gory enough for middle school through adulthood. I recommend it.
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Overview
The stunning Hunger Games trilogy is complete!
The extraordinary, ground breaking New York Times bestsellers The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, along with the third book in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay, are available for the first time ever in a beautiful boxset edition. Stunning, gripping, and powerful. The trilogy is now complete!