The first time I read this, I was so angry with how it ended, that it dragged down my overall enjoyment of the book. It felt unfair and unjustified, and I wanted better for Katniss.

Those were the good old days.

Now that I'm older, I see how it couldn't have ended any other way. And I truly think that is part of the strength of this series. Katniss doesn't get a perfect life with a perfect happy ending, because that is not how life works. But she survives, somehow, despite everything. I think it's a rare series, especially when it comes to YA, where the characters continuously deal with the consequences of their actions. Too often the main character gets away with things by virtue of being the hero of the story, but Katniss isn't given that kind of slack, up to the very end.

Katniss has always struggled between what is necessary, and what is morally right. It's why she had such a hard time murdering other tributes during the games, and it's the central theme in Mockingjay. The Capitol commits one atrocity after another, and the resistance soon finds itself heading in a similar direction, fueled by rage and a thirst for revenge. Gale says that he's just following the rules of engagement set by the Capitol, but Katniss continues to push back against this narrative. There are lines she won't cross. All the decisions she makes can be tied back to that strong moral compass, including the relationships she fosters, and the ones she lets slip.

I don't even clearly remember what made me decide to pick this up when I did. Maybe I was looking for something dark to suit how I was feeling, and Mockingjay managed to fuel that in a way that felt good. There are so many sections in the book that felt increasingly relevant in October 2023. The bombing of a hospital, the way the Capitol treated its prisoners (tortured and starved) versus how the resistance treated theirs, the way the Capitol subjugated all the other Districts but still used them for labor. While I was reading about the Capitol doing all these atrocious things, I was watching Israel do the same things in real life. In October, and November, and December of 2023, this book doesn't much feel like fiction.