MOCKINGJAY <small> by Suzanne Collins </small>

I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather. This is where the bed I shared with my sister, Prim, stood. Over there was the kitchen table. The bricks of the chimney, which collapsed in a charred heap, provide a point of reference for the rest of the house. How else could I orient myself in this sea of gray!

WooHoo, it's all back! The drama, the great characters, the relentless pacing and the delicious politics. It's all back with Suzanne Collin's Mockingjay -- the 3rd and finally installment in the "Hunger Games" trilogy.

And for those of you who didn't get a chance to re-read the series, don't worry, Collins does a great job in the beginning chapters of firing things up again. She ignited my own sense of loss for those who perished in the last book as well as brought up that old sense of dread -- the indecision of not knowing who to trust; who might be a traitor, or who just might collapse under the pressure.

And then there's the love interest, of course. Peeta or Gail. Gail or Peeta.

The book begins with Kat walking through the 12th, observing the damage and wondering what will happen in the future. The rebels still want her for their Mockingjay, but she's still resisting. We follow her back to the 13th where once more we are thrown into a world where we don't know where the next betrayal, the next surprise, will come from. Collin's does a great job of making all the characters human and full fleshed. It's never cut and dry. Those with weakness can still have positive merits, and the villains aren't cartoon characters you can dismiss with a wave of the hand.

At the crux of the book is Kat's dilemma with her power, and the aftermath of any action she takes. Not only are the ones she loves at risk, but mankind itself. So in this book she's perhaps more indecisive than before. Because more than any of them she understands what death means, and what war will mean. Those that like fairy-tale goody-goody endings where the heroine stands tall with a flag waving behind her at the end will probably like the book a little less than those who like more realism in their stories.

But I wasn't disappointed with "Mockingjay". If anything I thought Suzanne Collin's writing was even better. Kudo's to her. This is a well done ending to a well scripted trilogy. Prepare yourself for an emotional roller coaster. .

Pam
Somewhere in the X-burbs

ps-- if you care about the book, it's nicely done. The pages are off-white with smooth edges. (None of the ragged edge junk.) The cover we've all seen so I won't describe it. The book itself has a blue cloth cover with a silver bird image on it.

Mockingjay