Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins is the final book of the Hunger Games trilogy. Katniss Everdeen the teenage heroine is again at the center of the action. She is a guest of District 13 which is leading the rebellion against the Capitol of Panem. Panem is is a brutal country that rules harshly over the various districts that comprise the country. District 13 has stayed independent because they possess nuclear weapons and have also built their cities deep underground to withstand Capitol bombing.

Katniss finds out very soon that life is brutal in District 13 also. I learned a new word while researching this book: Dystopia. No it is not some sort of strange disease, it is the opposite of Utopia (and could be a good word for Words with Friends or Scrabble.) A Utopia is where life is great and everybody is fulfilled, a Dystopia is where from outward appearances everything is Utopian but where really life is repressive. So this trilogy is called Dystopian. So Katniss slowly realizes that District 13 may be no better than the Capitol in the way their citizens are treated.

The trilogy is marketed to teenagers but there is plenty of meat here for grownups. The choices that the characters make are complex and have consequences. There is lots to think about how social movements tend to be hijacked by those in control to achieve their own ends. (I’m thinking about how the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements have been hijacked by our two political parties)  The first two thirds of Mockingjay is much slower paced than the other books because it has to do with Katniss becoming aware of what is really happening. The last third of the book has plenty of fighting, killing, and gore.

I’m kind of a fan of many books marketed to teenagers. I’m no prude but I like the concentration on the story and characters and the absence of cheesy sex scenes and bad language. I guess I’m turning into a little old lady.

I rate the book four stars out of five.