Maybe It’s Just Me: Why I Hate All Things Mockingjay

***While the book Mockingjay was released in 2010, this is your spoiler alert for both the book in its completion and the movie, Mockingjay: Part 1.*** Several years ago I was introduced to The Hunger Games, a new book gaining popularity as a young adult dystopian novel featuring a female lead. I borrowed a copy from the library and was introduced to Katniss Everdeen from District 12, and she was everything I wanted her to be. Clever, bold, and independent, The Hunger Games’ leading lady was instantly a crowd favorite, and the world of Panem made for a breezy thrill ride as I sped through it in 3 days of subway rides and bedtime reading. When the second book came out, Catching Fire expanded the world from the Battle Royale of the games, to the larger theme of dystopia and revolution. “Tread carefully,” I remember thinking. But most of my thoughts were still preoccupied with wishing Katniss would finally leave Peeta to die and ride out with Team Gale, so I was still a fan, to say the least. Before the first movie was even announced I tried to pre-order tickets by holding my Fandango app in my hands and concentrating really hard. All of that ignores the existence of Mockingjay.

THE BOOK Mockingjay genuinely makes me angrier than any book I have ever read, including Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue, Marvel’s Decimation, and Gym, Tanning, Laundry by The Situation. It’s worth saying that any novel evoking a reaction such as mine to Mockingjay must have done something right; the opposite…