Mockingjay

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, 2010 Scholastic Press

     After she's taken from the Arena in her second Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen is spirited to the long-lost District 13. There she recovers and learns she is to be the face of the revolution. The only problem is President Coin seems to want to maintain the status quo rather than improve the lives of Panem's people.
      When Peta appears to be supporting the government, Katniss is hard-pressed to protect him from the eradication Coin has planned. Only by agreeing to be the Mockingjay can she save him, and so begins Katniss's activism.
      She disobeys orders and fights for the people of her nation, district by district her honest actions win over the people. When Katniss is nearly killed during the siege of the Capitol's final stronghold the people rise to defend her--she has not challenged them, but given the dissatisfied a point to rally behind.
     When the time comes to battle the Capitol within its own bounds Katniss is held back. Haymitch notes that she is a tool, one with an expiration date if she does not support the new regime whole-heartedly. When given the chance to defect and take matters into her own hands the Mockingjay takes her tribe into the heart of battle and fights for the future.
     Like the books preceding it, Mockingjay is a bloody battle for supremacy, rather than subtle maneuvering and manipulation with the Hunger Games Panem breaks out into full-blown civil war and rebellion. The story is not meant for young children or readers who are uncomfortable with gore--it is more suited to older teens and young adults with its graphic violence.