Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

If you’ve read the reviews of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire on this blog, you already know that I love this series. The first day Mockingjay was available in bookstores, I bought it. Now I’m reading it aloud with some family members—which is a little slower than I’d like, but it’s fun to share the experience.

If you, too, are a fan, you know that Katniss has survived the arena twice, but that she was saved from her second experience when rebels based in District 13 (long thought to be destroyed in a nuclear war and uninhabitable) pull her, wounded, into a hovercraft. Now she is expected to become the ‘mockingjay’ of all Panem—that is the living symbol of rebellion against the Capitol. Once she agrees, she becomes enemy one and Capitol target. Ironically, she’s also gotten on the bad side of Coin, the leader of District 13 and head of the rebellion by making demands to favor both Gale, who is fighting with her, and Peeta.

As Peeta was taken prisoner by Capitol forces and has publicly stated that the two sides should reconcile, he’s considered a traitor to the rebel cause. Katniss insists that Peeta and other Hunger Games contestants be given immunity if the rebels win the war. So Coin needs to assert her authority over Katniss in other ways. She publically announces that she holds Katniss responsible for rebel outcomes.

So Katniss has to worry about being a target for both sides. She’s got some new, incredible weapons, including a bow that recognizes her voice—and she’s off to fight for the rebel cause with both Peeta and Gale’s lives in the balance.

A must read!