Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me begin by saying I adored the first two books. I've been waiting eagerly for months for Mockingjay, and now that I've read it I'm disturbed and disappointed. This book casts a pall over the first two, and much as I loved them I don't know that I can read them again now that I know how the characters end up. Mockingjay goes in a completely different direction than books 1 and 2, but it's a direction no wise author should have taken. SPOILER ALERT In the first two Hunger Games books, it was always worth giving your life if it could make life better for those who come after you. In Mockingjay, people--good, kind people whom we knew for hundreds of pages and loved like friends--die left and right IN VAIN. Katniss's mission to kill Snow ends with most of her friends dead (in horrible ways) and Snow still alive. Snow eventually dies and Panem is free--but life's not a whole lot better than it was. Peeta, whom I think everyone loved (I know I did), becomes a monster who's been stripped of the sweet, devoted love he had for Katniss, which is what made him so completely charming in the earlier books. Katniss is impatient with him, cruel to him, and at several points coldly considers putting an arrow through his brain, which doesn't ring true given their relationship in books 1 and 2. He recovers some, and marries Katniss (who doesn't seem terribly excited about that), but HE'S NEVER THE SAME. She's never the same. She's estranged from Gale, and her mother, and Prim's dead. (I couldn't believe this; I kept turning pages thinking it had to be a terrible mistake, Collins couldn't be foolish enough to destroy the last pure, good person in Panem.) The final point of the book seems to be, "Well, life sucks, but it could be worse." Yeah, thanks, I'm so glad I read 900 pages to come to that conclusion. The book feels rushed, and there are many passages that are unclear. For instance, why does Katniss vote in favor of a 76th Hunger Games? Does she really want revenge for Prim, or does she just want Coin to trust her enough to let her onto the platform? Was she thinking of killing Coin at that point, or was it an impulse she got later? This is crucial information that says volumes about Katniss's character, and IT SHOULDN'T BE SO VAGUE. I'm all for subtlety, but not for downright obscurity. Ultimately, I FEEL BETRAYED. The first two books were wonderful, but they'll never be the same now that we know the grim, depressing fate to which Collins condemns her characters (those she doesn't kill off, that is). Mockingjay is dark and disturbing, with no redemption for the characters or reward for the readers. War is an atrocity, life can be terrible--we know that. That's why fiction exists: to be different. To tell stories, not to send messages. I would rather have been left hanging after Catching Fire and never have known what happened in what was one of my all-time favorite stories than to have it end like this.