Mockingjay


 * This article is about the novel. For more Mockingjay pages, see Mockingjay (disambiguation).

Mockingjay is the third and final novel in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. It was released on August 24, 2010.

Book description
"Katniss Everdeen, the 'girl on fire', has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss' family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

"It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans — except Katniss.

"The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay — no matter what the personal cost."

Plot
After her rescue by rebels, Katniss Everdeen reluctantly agrees to become "the Mockingjay", a symbol of the rebellion against the Capitol. As part of a deal, she demands that the leader of District 13, President Coin, grant immunity to all of the captured tributes of the Quarter Quell. She demands the right to kill President Snow herself, and asks for her family to keep their cat, Buttercup. In a daring rescue, Peeta Mellark and other victors are rescued from the Capitol. The rebels must get District 2, the only district not on their side, to join the rebellion by "cracking the Nut". After convincing President Coin that she has done nothing to help the war, Katniss demands going to the Capitol to fight. Katniss and her team are sent to the Capitol to be taking camera shots for the propos until their team leader, Boggs, dies when he falls into a death trap. Katniss and her team flee further into the Capitol with the intent of finding and killing President Snow. Eventually Katniss finds herself pressing on alone towards Snow's mansion, which has supposedly been opened to shelter Capitol children (but is actually intended to provide human shields for Snow). Afterwards, bombs placed in supply packages kill many of these children and a rebel medical team, including Katniss' sister Prim.

President Snow is tried and found guilty, but he tells Katniss that the final assault that killed Primrose Everdeen was ordered by President Coin, not the Capitol. Katniss realizes that if this is true, the bombing may have been the result of a plan originally developed by her friend Gale. Katniss doubts this, but still realizes that she will never be able to look at Gale the same way, regardless of whether he was directly involved in Prim's death.

Katniss remembers a conversation with Snow in which they promised not to lie to each other. When she is supposed to execute Snow, she realizes that he was telling the truth and kills Coin instead. A riot ensues and Snow is found mysteriously dead, having possibly choked on his own blood or trampled by the crowd. Katniss is acquitted due to her apparent insanity and her and Haymitch return to their home in District 12. Peeta returns months after Katniss and Haymitch arrived, having recovered immensely from his brainwashing.

In the epilogue, Katniss speaks as an adult, more than fifteen years later. She and Peeta "grow back together" and though it is not indicated if they are married they do have two children together, a boy and a girl. The Hunger Games are over, but she dreads the day her children's innocent world will be shattered by learning the details of their parents' involvement in both the Games and the war. When she feels upset, Katniss takes to reminding herself of every good thing that she has ever seen someone do, "It's like a game. Repetitive, Even a little tedious after more than twenty years. But there are much worse games to play."

Part 1, The Ashes
Katniss takes stock of her new position as a rebel in District 13. She and a few others were extracted from the Quarter Quell (Katniss's second Hunger Games adventure), but Peeta wasn't one of them – he's still missing, under control of the Capitol. Katniss is still haunted by President Snow. After much angst, she decides to be the figurehead, the Mockingjay, for the rebel side. In return, she gets immunity for her friends and permission to kill Snow. Another Games victor, Beetee, makes Katniss a special weapon.

Katniss has to star in commercials for the rebel side, called propos. For one propo, she and a team that includes her old friend Gale are sent into District 8, where they see a hospital get destroyed. This inspires Katniss to call for justice. Because the rebels are gaining in strength, and because Peeta has sent out a coded message to the rebels warning them of an attack, the Capitol releases footage of Peeta being tortured.

Part 2, The Assault
When Peeta Mellark briefly warns Katniss of a soon to come bombing in 13, fighting off the tracker jacker venom, with the result of torture. He does this televised during an interview by Caesar Flickerman, when he is asked what he desires to say to Katniss, in which they are "still dragging out the star-crossed lovers thing," as Johanna Mason and the hijacked Peeta refer to bitterly later on in the novel.

A shrilling alarm sounds, to evacuate the upper levels into the bunkers. Katniss is modeled by the people, so she composes herself. She is one of the first to reach the bunkers, coming to reassure that Mother and Prim should still be relocating the hospital patients. As she waits, disturbed by the flecks of blood on the bunker sign, she grabs three packs of the instructions.

As time passes, her mother arrives, and they become wary why Prim hasn't arrived yet. She imagines herself as Prim, and suddenly grasps the situation. Prim, being herself, had rushed back to their compartment to get her beloved cat, Buttercup.

After much panicking, Prim arrives back to safety with Buttercup. Everyone waits in the bunker for several days until the bombing has stopped. Katniss finds out during the bombing that the Capitol is using Peeta and every time she says something against them, they hurt him. When she is looking above ground at all the wreckage after the bombing, she sees that President Snow has planted more roses. Katniss starts crying when her camera crew tells her to say a short line for the camera, to show that she is alive and still fighting. Finnick explains to the perplexed camera crew that Katniss knows the Capitol will hurt Peeta if she does so. They tell her that she can go. The next day, people tell her that they have sent a group to rescue Peeta, knowing that she won't do anything more until she knows the Capitol can't hurt him.

Part 3, The Assassin
After Peeta's arrival, Boggs makes a call to Coin about his being in the squad. When he returns, he says that he believes Coin sent Peeta personally to kill Katniss since after the war, a new leader will be chosen and Katniss, having a lot of influence as the Mockingjay, will be a threat if her vote doesn't go to Coin. To shut Katniss up, Coin sent Peeta to the Squad, hoping he would kill her. After a call from Haymitch, Katniss resolves to start trying to help Peeta remember his former memories. The Squad creates a game, "Real or Not Real", to help him separate the hijacked memories from the real ones. During this, Peeta reveals that when he was held in the Capitol, they forced him to watch the execution of two Avoxes, Darius and Lavinia, under the guise of trying to get information about the rebellion.

During a propo shoot, Boggs hits a misslabeled pod that blows off his legs. At the same time, another pod is activated, creating a black wave that is advancing onto the squad. While trying to move Boggs to an apartment to escape the wave, Peeta has an episode and nearly kills Katniss with his gun. When a member of the squad, Mitchell, tries to pin him down, Peeta accidentaly kills him by throwing him off of him, causing him to land in a mislabeled pod that encases Mitchell in a net of barbed wire. Inside the apartment, Boggs transfers the Holo to Katniss and dies after telling her four orders: "Don´t trust them, don´t go back. Kill Peeta. Do what you came to do." It becomes clear then, that Boggs wants Katniss to kill Snow.

Characters

 * For a complete list, see List of Mockingjay characters.


 * Katniss Everdeen — The Mockingjay. The symbol for the rebels. She fought her way into the Capitol and ended the Rebellion. Killed President Coin. Lives in District 12. She returns to District 12 after the war and she and Peeta "grow back together". It is unclear if she is married to Peeta but it is revealed that she loves him in a final game of "Real or Not Real" which is also how Part III of the final book ends. In the Epilogue, it is revealed that Katniss and Peeta have two unnamed children together, a boy and a girl.
 * Peeta Mellark — Was in the arena with Katniss but got captured by the Capitol. He has loved Katniss since they were little kids. After the war he returns to District 12 months after Katniss. The writer does not indicate if the two are married to one another only that they "grow back together" and they have two unnamed children, a boy and a girl.
 * Primrose Everdeen — Katniss's little sister. She helps Katniss keep sane when Peeta is not there. Prim worked as a healer in District 13, and died during a bombing by Coin's soldiers when a hovercraft with parachute bombs dropped on a herd of capitol children. Prim was working as a doctor in the explosion.
 * Gale Hawthorne — Katniss's best friend and hunting partner. He is in love with Katniss, but they don't end up together because Katniss associates him with the bombing that killed her sister and can't stand to look at him. Note: Gale helped in the creation of the bomb that lead to the end of Prim’s life, though he was not behind that specific bombing. Gale eventually takes up a successful position in post-war District 2.
 * Haymitch Abernathy — A drunken former victor from District 12 who used to be a mentor for the Hunger Games. He helped in the rebellion and then returned to District 12, where he remains a drunk. Victor of the 50th Hunger Games.
 * Plutarch Heavensbee — Used to be the Head Gamemaker for the 75th Hunger Games, but was secretly working with the rebels to overthrow the Capitol.
 * Finnick Odair — Victor of the 65th Hunger Games. President Snow forced him to sell his body to weathly people of the Capitol after becoming victor for his Hunger games by threatening to kill off people he loves if he didn't. Originally from District 4. Helped in the rebellion against the Capitol. He and Katniss help each other keep sane when Peeta and Annie aren't there. He marries Annie Cresta after she is rescued from the Capitol, but is killed by rose-scented lizard mutts during the mission to assassinate President Snow. He and Annie have a child.
 * Annie Cresta — Victor of the 70th Hunger Games, she went mad when she witnessed her district partner get beheaded. She is arrested by the Capitol after the Quarter Quell. She is Finnick Odair's love interest and later becomes his wife. She is widowed when he is killed by Snow's mutts during a mission, and later gives birth to his child.
 * Johanna Mason  — The female tribute from District 7. She participated in the 71st or 72nd Hunger Games, and participated again in the third Quarter Quell.
 * President Coriolanus Snow — The cruel President of Panem, who died from either choking on his own blood or being trampled. Katniss pointed out that no one cared and it didn't matter. He smells of roses and blood and poisoned people to come to power. He also drinks the poison when he poisons people as to not look suspicious. He takes an antidote after, but it does not stop open sores from forming in his mouth, which give off a bloody smell that he uses rose perfume to cover up.
 * President Alma Coin — President of District 13. She authorized the final bombing of the Capitol's children, which killed Prim. Katniss kills her for vengeance during Snow's execution.
 * Boggs  — Katniss's bodyguard and army captain. He is killed in battle, but not before transfering command and the Holo to Katniss so she can continue her mission of killing President Snow. His last advice is to kill Peeta, not trust anyone, and do what she came to the Capital to do, kill Snow.
 * Commander Paylor  — The leader among the rebels in district 8, and later became the president of Panem.

Book trailer
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