★★★★★ 5
A beautifully haunting--and ultimately satisfying--conclusion to a brilliant series
Format: Hardcover
Alert: spoilers abound.
The overall pattern of the Hunger Games series is a familiar one to the genre: an ordinary individual (albeit one with some unordinary talents) is thrown into extraordinary circumstances, faces and overcomes an immediate threat to personal survival that turns into a much broader conflict in which this person plays a central part. Some of my favorite books or series follow this motif: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Dune, Ender's Game, Star Wars, the Hyperion series, His Dark Materials ... the list goes on and on. It is much easier to begin such a series than it is to end one. The beginning is easy, because the scope is smaller: a compelling mystery or situation, an enigmatic or charismatic hero or heroine, a seemingly insurmountable menace ... it all makes for good drama, pregnant with potential promise, with the details to be filled in later. A successful ending is much harder, and even amongst the works I listed earlier, some were able to achieve a successful ending better than others. This is because by the end of such works, the scope has enlarged, the world is bigger: for an author, it is easy for plot lines to spiral out of control (the post-Ender's Game trilogy and the finale of His Dark Materials come to mind) or for the ending to seem too implausibly 'pat', too "happily ever after" to do justice to the difficult journey trekked by the characters we grew close to. And yet, it is safer for an author to hew to the latter course, as there is something innately human about the desire to root for the "one man against the universe" who triumphs over all odds, beats the bad guy, and gets the girl (or boy) and the gold too, as improbable as it might be. That's why we love action movies, even though most deserve the caveat "as long as you don't think about it too much ..."
This is why I loved Mockingjay, and found Suzanne Collins' ending to this series to be a remarkably brave choice. The "easy way out" was starkly apparent: Katniss could have saved Peeta (in a unique twist on the 'damsel in distress' motif--I must say, I found the choice of a female protagonist to be remarkably smart on Collins' part and refreshing for the genre), killed the bad guy, and they all could have lived happily ever after (with the man of her choosing). On some level, that might have still been a satisfying ending. But Collins' aim is to raise questions, strip assumptions bare, and leave the reader burned and bothered about the fundamental nature of reality, and of war most specifically. Actions have lasting repercussions, wounds and fear do not simply fade away during the chapter break. For me, the fact that Katniss attempts to run away from her demons makes her extraordinarily real. She has been beaten, stabbed, shot, blown up, poisoned, and tortured; she has killed and watched her closest friends and family be tortured and killed, while bearing responsibility at least in part for these actions; she has endured the genocide of her people. If this did not break her, how could she still be considered human? I would ask the critics who wished for a more stoic Katniss what they would have done in her shoes. Particularly given that the weight of Katniss' burden becomes increasingly weighty as Mockingjay continues and it becomes more and more clear that the liberators are fundamentally little different from the oppressors; a new regime under Coin would be no better--and perhaps worse in some ways--than one under Snow. One might be able to tolerate the pain and death if one believed it would lead to a brighter future, but this does not seem to be true had District 13 become the new masters of Panem. The "mission to kill Snow", which would have ended in the predictable 'triumphant victory of good over evil' in the hands of a less-skilled author quickly became a brilliantly perverse mockery of this trite motif, as it quickly becomes clear that Coin has sent Katniss to die along with some other people Coin viewed as a threat (all while keeping the cameras rolling for usable shots of 'the martyrdom of the Mockingjay'). The manner of Prim's death is also particularly heartbreaking, as is the realization that the revolution is really just the Hunger Games on a larger scale--whether orchestrated by Snow or by Coin, there is only one winner (and it is most decidedly not the superficial "winning tribute" of the Games). Both Snow and Coin's manipulation of reality, through propaganda and the use of the Hunger Games and the revolution as "reality TV" was also chilling, resulting in the need for the main characters to constantly question what was 'real' and what was 'not real': made up for the games, or the propaganda, or the war.
As a reader, that moment when Katniss shifted her arrow, sending Coin to her death, was cathartic. She chose a 'third way' of sorts, a choice that meant true freedom and liberation for Panem (even if it potentially meant her own death). Even in this moment, Katniss has likely been manipulated (by Snow, and probably even more importantly by Paylor, whose decision to let Katniss speak to Snow set the final events in motion ... and resulted in Paylor assuming the presidency). Yet, at worst, this 'manipulation' served to fully reveal the truth, allowing Katniss to make a true, fully-informed choice. As if to validate the rightness of this choice, the book ends with the indication that a 'new normal' has been created, one more hopeful than could have been possible under either Snow or Coin. True to form, the wounds remain; yet, life goes on. Through her sacrifice and pain, Katniss has created a better world for the next generation; she has also chosen (wisely I believe) the partner with whom together they can make each other whole. The dynamic between Katniss and Peeta was one of the most important and interesting aspects of the entire series, so personally I found it gratifying to see them together at the end, starting a new family (although even this slight nod to convention was tempered by the need to explain their nightmares and roles in the days of Capitol rule to their children). A more subdued and melancholy ending than is typical for this genre, but one that is ultimately true to its characters and the situations they faced: "happy ever after" is for the 'propos' and Capitol newscasts, not reality. Not understanding this fact would make us little better than the viewers in the Capitol watching the Hunger Games for entertainment, seeing the individuals not as people but as 'characters' there to simply give us a good show. Collins expects and demands more of us.
After a long and painful journey, a satisfying, if bittersweet, ending to an emotional, intelligent, and wonderful series that I look forward to going back and re-reading at some point in the future. The Hunger Games series more than met my expectations and has gone down as one of my all-time favorite series that I can highly recommend to others. 5 stars, easily.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2011
