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** spoiler alert ** :( I'm so sad to post this review. I wish I could say more positive things, but I'm genuinely disappointed.

I thought the first half of the book was good, but by the end, I was really, really disappointed. In fact, when I closed the book, I felt exactly the way I felt about Breaking Dawn when I finished. Literally, I closed it and said out loud, "What the hell was that?" This book was such a far stretch from what I thought the 1st 2 books built up for us that I was in shock for the last third of the book.

The first half of the book was good for me; I was really anxious while wondering about Peeta, and I enjoyed watching Gale's character develop too. There were many moments where Katniss and Gale clashed philosophically, and many people could throw that aside, but not Katniss. I thought that Collins was subtle about it, yet at the same time, I knew early on that Gale wasn't going to be her guy. I love that Katniss can love him in a sense, yet I don't think she could attach herself with a person who differs from her philosophically on something that is important to her. I love that about Katniss.

I loved Finnick and Boggs. I also really enjoyed the relationship that Katniss developed with Johanna. Midway through the story, I was still on the edge of my seat, and at that point, I was loving the book.

Just after the half-way point though, I started getting that "this is feeling as depressing as a book on the Holocaust" about chapter 23 or so when all hell started breaking loose. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting this book to be one with ice cream truck music playing in the background. (Thanks, Matthew for that ice cream truck music bit!) Still, it became so depressing to me that it wasn't uplifting for me at all. Again, don't get me wrong here; I believe you can have a book with depresssing issues that unsettle us, yet the story arc, events, characterization, etc. can be uplifting despite the harsh realities that are presented.

I just felt that it was doom and gloom with our characters struggling to survive rather than take matters into their own hands, kick ass, and piss some people off like Katniss did in The Hunger Games. I always admired her because regardless of how scared she was, she fought and fought and never gave up. She fights here, but it feels as if it's out of desperation, and it just didn't feel like our old Katniss to me.

Of course Katniss does survive and make it out, but I truly thought that I was going to feel uplifted here, and I didn't. Not once did I have this courageous or brave or kickass feeling like I did with the other two novels. In The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, I was inspired by Katniss, her bravery, her strength, and her ability to go with that "fall twice, get up three times" motto regardless of what hit her.

In Mockingjay, it felt like in the last third of the novel, we were just watching one doom and gloom event after another. They were fighting, but I didn't get any positive vibes or strength from any of them. Sure, Gale was wanting to kick butt, but at the same time, as Katniss pointed out, he just wanted to go around killing people for revenge. I completely saw the point Katniss was trying to make there. Peeta was fighting his craziness the entire time, so instead of thinking, "Peeta will get us through this," I spent my time worrying about him. And Katniss...I still love her, but I spent so much time feeling sorry for her in the end that I had nothing left in me. At that point, I had a hard time even feeling overjoyed about her life with Peeta because I was so overwhelmed by the outrageous number of terrible losses she had to suffer through.

This truly disappointed me because it almost started feeling like Collins just dumped a bunch of horrific possiblities for Katniss in a hat and started pulling them out at will. Here is Katniss who lost her father in a tragic mining accident, a lost childhood since she has to provide for her mother and sister while her mother is lost in a depression, lost Rue, the loss of Peeta's love and friendship for the entire novel up until the very last stinkin' page, TWO horrific experiences in the Hunger Games, lost her hearing in one ear, burned badly, watches her home and city get blown to bits, realizes her best friend has anger/"I am bomb crazy and want to kill people without thinking twice" issues, loses Finnick, and then...Prim. Well, that was when I gave up.

With Prim's death, I did not cry like I did with Rue, but I was so angry. I wasn't angry because I want a Mary Sue book with happiness and dazzling and sweet fairies twirling around, but Prim's death was unnecessary to the point that it genuinely pissed me off.

In addition to the arc of the story that disappointed me, I felt let down by the characterization here. The first 2 books showed a nasty government that did terrible things, but Katniss always prevailed and managed to beat them. In this one, it felt like she, the rebels, and any person in that book that we cared about was beat down again and again and again and again. They can be beat down again and again, but even they didn't seem to have the fight in them. To me, that is such a stretch from what I took from books 1 and 2. I didn't ever have a "Wahoo! The rebels are kicking ass!!!" moment. Instead, I felt like everyone and everything was destroyed, and even the end, although I was happy about Katniss and Peeta, didn't make me feel good. In that sense, because it felt so different to me than 1 and 2, I felt like Collins jumped the shark a bit, and that made me mad.

So...I am sorry because I know that a lot of you LOVED this book. Please don't throw any bricks at me. I did like many parts of it, and there were many scenes that had me in tears. I love the line Lisa referenced above, and I loved the moments with Peeta and Katniss talking about what was real and what was not real. Finnick and Boggs...loved them, and of course, I am happy that she is with Peeta in the end.

One other thing: the entire time I was reading this, particularly at the end, I kept thinking, "this book is Young Adult fiction. This book is Young Adult fiction. THIS BOOK IS YOUNG ADULT FICTION!!!!" I was really disappointed here because there are so many elements here that take it out of the YA realm, and I say that because yes, there are elements that may be realistic that we as adults can process and understand, but this book is labelled and marketed for readers as young as 12. Most 12 year-olds can't process or understand these issues, so instead, they get a flawed storyline that doesn't deliver for them. That's not to say that they can't understand, appreciate and love books with these elements. The Book Thief, for example, has all of that and more, and it's historically accurate. They can't avoid the issues presented because they were REAL. The difference here is the execution and delivery of the complete story arc, and in Zuzak's book, you still find hope for humanity because our characters suffer, but they also love each other and prevail in the end. Even in moments of sadness and horrific events that surround them daily, there are moments of hope, love, peace, strength, and courage presented. I didn't find that here.

All of that said, I did give the book 3 stars because of the parts I loved and out of loyalty to the series. In the end though, I was disappointed and wanted so much more.