If you haven’t read my review of Mockingjay I should tell you that I wasn’t keen. This post is very subjective.

I was quite disappointed by the ending of the series. I thought that it would have been appropriate for Katniss to become president, or, better yet, Peeta.

This said, I did appreciate the ending. Katniss had always been a reluctant heroine and in that vein it was appropriate that she left the limelight. She had always just wanted to run away and live her life. She wanted to be a regular person and everyone finally saw that. It’s just a pity it took something so colossal to show them.

I think that in killing Coin, Katniss put paid to the possibility of history repeating itself, or at least I think this is what we’re supposed to take away. I think the mention of another games is enough to show that Coin was going to be another Snow, and Katniss saw that. I do think Snow may have been lying, that he died laughing because Katniss trusted him after everything that had happened (though I believe Coin did have the children and medics killed and at the end of the day Collins needed Prim killed in order to get the story to where she wanted it to be).

But I still think that the way the trilogy was set up warranted Katniss coming to power, and whilst the reluctance was always there, the games in books one and two were stronger – Katniss was broken by book three but else the pace dictated presidency.

My biggest issue, however, was that we never find out what happened to the government, not really. And that people in 12 carried on again as they used to put me in mind of situations described as after death, the way it was written put me in mind of books that end in a journey of that nature. I wondered if Katniss died and Haymitch’s collecting of her wasn’t ‘real’. I doubt it, very much, but I know I felt a little teary when it occurred to me that it was a possibility.

I don’t think Katniss truly got to choose between Gale and Peeta. They made the choice for her somewhat, albeit that we can assume Katniss wouldn’t have wanted Gale if he’d had a role in Prim’s death. I admit to not being too interested in Katniss/Peeta because I didn’t feel Collins gave us enough reason for them to be together, nor do I think she gave Katniss the interest required. But I would have believed it had she, Katniss, made the concious decision instead of things just happening around her, the boys making plans by themselves. It was sort of how I recently felt about Mansfield Park, the author tied things up too quickly and the story of the future was just that bit too cute.

Yet I do understand why Katniss had to end up with Peeta. She did need Peeta to survive, literally. In order to survive the Hunger Games, and to win, Katniss needed Peeta. She didn’t need Gale. And if Gale did play a role in Prim’s death then Katniss needed him to leave forever.

Similarly, Katniss was suffering mentally. She had been since the first games and she really just needed to leave the whole thing behind. Furthering the suffering from the games, she suffered from the effects of exploitation, a pawn in the game of war. (The war was effectively a third hunger game in that way, a hunger for power, a hunger for change, a hunger for freedom.) It’s interesting to think of Katniss in this way because although she is the heroine of the book, she is not the heroine in your usual sense. It’s more the case that she got ‘lucky’ once and people decided to watch her progress. A normal person who got caught up in the process of war. She needed to be left alone.

I suppose it’s right to say that I appreciated the ending but it was too quick. I found the addition of children a little unbelievable given Katniss’s refrains and I wondered if their existence pointed to the world repeating its mistakes – Katniss has children, what if there was another Games?

How did you feel about the ending of the trilogy?