*Review first published on Amazon, June 2011* 
 When an author's writing is two for two, you start getting really excited about the third one. And then they do a belly flop like Mockingjay. As a writer myself, it could make me cry tears of frustration. 
 First things first: I wasn't looking for a fairytale or a happy ending. Mockingjay has a bad pass at the latter. 1984 and Brave New World were so much more powerful/satisfying at the close. 
 The pacing was very rushed, and many important plot points were relegated to narration. Characters died randomly with little impact, no one really seemed to care. I hope that's not realistic. 
 The over all message seemed to be "War is evil, but there's no escaping it, so fight if you want, or live in denial. Nothing you do really matters." How . . . inspiring? Who are we kidding. 
 Somewhere along the way, Haymitch and Katniss lost their humanity & character development. Worse, Katniss lapses into a passive heroine. As the characters droop, so does the point. War is evil and it destroys, war turns people into monsters and machines. We saw it better in Terminator. But conflict can also bring out the best in people, and make them do more than they realized- see Marcus Lutrell's real life "Lone Survivor." What ever happened to what doesn't kill you makes you stronger? 
 I always thought the love triangle was weak and annoying. Mockingjay made it a bigger deal, and used the pointless death of a character to resolve it. 
 *Spoilers* 
 Peeta is underused, and when Katniss gives in to him, it's exactly that: she passively assents to her "feelings." Gale is discarded like a dishrag, which annoyed me even if I didn't care about him. 
 The only character I did care about by the end was Finnick, and no one in the book seemed too affected when he died. I wonder if Annie read the outline? 
 Anyhow, it's not really worth a read. Buy "The Road," "1984," "Brave New World," or "Farenheit 451" instead.