Mockingjay

By the third and last book of the Hunger Games trilogy, all 12 districts (what’s left of them, at least) of the dystopian country of Panem are in outright rebellion. Seventeen-year-old Katniss Everdeen now lives in the previously unknown, underground District 13. Known as the Mockingjay, she has become a sort of mascot for the rebellion, with all of the burdens and responsibilities that implies.

Mockingjay chronicles District 13’s fight for freedom from the Capitol, with the goal that no one will ever again have to answer to the Capitol or send children to fight in the Hunger Games. For Katniss, this means finally facing up to President Snow, not to mention staring down everything else that has crossed her path along the way. Choosing between Peeta and Gale. Protecting her mother and sister. Learning to preserve her sense of independence while dedicating her existence to serving the greater good. And just plain staying alive.

Collins keeps one-upping herself, putting Katniss in increasingly dire circumstances.

Mockingjay was re-recorded and released in 2019 with narration by Emmy Award-winning actress Tatiana Maslany, who does an amazing job. The earlier narration by Carolyn McCormick received mixed reviews online, so make sure you get the updated version.

The Hunger Games trilogy is one of those series whose closing moments you dread, because you know you will have to leave the characters to their own devices and move on to the next story. All throughout the audiobook, Collins keeps one-upping herself, putting Katniss in increasingly dire circumstances that made me regularly stop and wonder, How will she possibly get out of this one? only to find in the next scene that things had somehow gotten worse. When the end finally came, however unexpected, it was so organic to the story that it almost felt like a letdown. Or maybe that was just my own strange sadness that Katniss would now go on without me, and I without her.

Want more of Panem? The prequels The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (read by Santino Fontana) and Sunrise on the Reaping (read by Jefferson White) return to the world decades earlier.