Plot Summary

However, Peter Mellark is at the hands of the treacherous President Snow and is being tortured for information regarding the rebels. Katniss tries to do everything in her power to overthrow President Snow and rescue Peeta.

‘Spoiler-free’ Summary of Mockingjay

Katniss has been rescued from the Quarter Quell by the rebels in District 13. Contrary to government statements, District 13 was not wiped off the face of the earth. It is now acting as an organizing force for the rebellion. The leader of the rebellion, Alma Coin, asks Katniss to become the face of the rebellion and unify the districts. Katniss agrees in exchange for a full and official pardon for the captured victors, including Peeta.

However, Katniss’s job as the face of the rebellion is not easy. She manages to unify some of the districts, but Peeta is still to be rescued. District 2, the loyalists, turns out to be incredibly difficult to capture, and President Snow is more threatening and dangerous than ever.

Mockingjay Summary

Spoiler alert: Important details of the novel are revealed below

Katniss has been rescued from the Quarter Quell by the rebels, who now have a base in District 13. District 13 is composed of tough and hardy people who have bounced back from several calamities including an epidemic that erased half of their population. They live underground and have developed a massive military base to counter the Capitol. 

Everyone in District 13 follows a strict regime, which includes the proprietary sharing of food and resources. For a while, Katniss is exempted from following the daily routine because she is damaged from the horrors of Quarter Quell. She spends most of her time in the hospital, and when she is discharged, she ignores her duties and tries to keep a hold on reality. 

However, the leaders of the rebellion, President Alma Coin and Plutarch Heavensbee, want her back in the action. Peeta appears in an interview with Caesar Flickerman, honestly denying his and Katniss’s role in the rebellion during the Quarter Quell, and calls for a ceasefire. He is deemed a traitor by the rebels.

The leaders of the rebellion ask Katniss to film a set of propaganda shoots, called ‘propos’ to unify the Capitol. Katniss only agrees to do this when she sees the state of her home district burnt to the ground. She sets forth a few conditions, including being allowed to hunt with her friend Gale, and a full and official pardon for the captured tributes. She also asks to be the one to kill President Snow. 

Katniss thus becomes the face of the rebellion as the Mockingjay. Beetee, a fellow tribute who was rescued from the arena, has developed a set of weapons for Gale and Katniss. Katniss arms herself with a technologically advanced bow and arrows and tries to shoot a propo. She does not act well and the plan is a failure. Haymitch suggests that she be thrown into actual combat. 

Katniss therefore goes, heavily guarded, to a safe zone in District 8. She encounters a hospital full of people wounded and dying from Capitol bombs. She tells everyone she lost her baby in a miscarriage and is back to fight. She leaves, and the Capitol bombs the hospital, killing everyone inside. Katniss and Gale help take out the enemy aircraft. She finally shoots a propo that the leaders are happy with.

Katniss comes back to District 13, where it has been decided to establish democracy if the Capitol ever falls. Katniss’s propo is broadcast to the rest of the districts, and Peeta comes on air once again. He looks thin and exhausted as if he has been tortured. He implores for a ceasefire once again and pleads with Katniss to use her influence to stop the fighting.

Katniss goes to District 12 to shoot another propo. She and Gale kiss in Katniss’s house. Peeta appears in an interview once again, but his broadcast is interrupted by Katniss’s propo. Peeta is disoriented and tries to keep going. At the last minute, he warns the rebels that District 13 is under attack, and Katniss will be dead by morning. He is beaten in front of the camera and the lines are cut off.

District 13 prepares for a full lockdown. Everyone goes further underground where they stay until the Capitol has finished bombing District 13. Thanks to Peeta’s warning, no one in District 13 was harmed. The military base was left untouched as well. Very soon, District 13 is up and running once again. However, Katniss has realized that Snow will continue torturing Peeta in order to break Katniss. She now understands that her every action results in torture for Peeta.

Katniss is unable to perform as the Mockingjay anymore. The rebels realize that the only way to get Katniss back in action would be to rescue Peeta. A rescue mission is organized, and Gale volunteers for it.

Beetee interrupts the Capitol’s airwaves to show footage of Finnick exposing the Capitol’s secrets. The rescue operation is successful, and Peeta, Annie, and Johanna are rescued. However, Peeta has undergone extensive fear conditioning by the Capitol and now views Katniss as a threat. He tries to strangle her upon sight.

Unsettled by Peeta’s reaction, and recovering from the wounds inflicted on her neck, Katniss decides to go to District 2 – the rebel’s final frontier. She discovers Gale’s enthusiasm for war and is disturbed by it. One of Gale’s death traps are used to capture the base in District 2, much to the chagrin of Katniss. Meanwhile, Peeta is being treated by the doctors in District 13. However, he still believes that Katniss is a killer and a mutt created by the Capitol to destroy the people in the districts.

As Katniss tries to reason with the survivors of District 2, she is shot and wounded. She goes back to the hospital, where she talks with Johanna Mason about various events. Katniss and Peeta have another encounter, but the exchange between them is cold.

The rebels plan to take down the Capitol. Katniss is not assigned to a squad, so she begins training with Johanna. Finally, she is assigned to the star squad with the military commander, Boggs, and Gale. However, the star squad will not fight, they will only shoot propos. In an accident, the commander, Boggs is killed, who transfers leadership to Katniss. Peeta joins as his replacement and is heavily guarded and cuffed. Katniss realizes that President Coin intends for Peeta to kill her. She knows that she is not useful to Coin anymore.

Peeta slowly gets a grip on reality, but he snaps at any disturbing trigger. The star squad goes on a mission to kill President Snow and escape underground to get to his mansion. However, they are chased by Capitol mutts, and Finnick is killed in the encounter. Half of their squad is killed too, and Katniss and Gale decide to head down to President Snow’s mansion, disguised as the residents of the Capitol. 

They are separated and Gale is captured by the enemy. Katniss reaches the mansion alone, where a bomb goes off, killing the people in front of it. Katniss realizes that the children from the Capitol are being herded into a pin in front of it. Just as rebel medics arrive on the scene, she understands that Snow is using children as a barrier. However, a second bomb goes off, killing the children and the rebel medics. Katniss’s sister, Prim, who was working as a rebel medic, is killed in the blast. Katniss is knocked out.

The rebels have won, and Katniss is rescued. Katniss reels from the death of her sister. President Snow has been captured, and Coin will allow Katniss to kill him. Katniss pays a visit to Snow, who tells her that the bomb that killed her sister was set off by the rebels. Katniss is gripped with terror, as she realizes one of Gale’s death traps at work. She is never able to look at Gale in the same way again. 

President Coin gathers the remaining victors and proposes a last Hunger Games with the children of the Capitol. Katniss votes in favor and the motion is passed. She then prepares to kill President Snow, but on the fateful day, she points her arrow at President Coin instead. She kills Coin to prevent another autocratic rule and is put on trial. The tribunal pardons her, and she returns home.

The book ends with an epilogue, where Katniss and Peeta are married with two children. The Hunger Games are no more, and democracy has prevailed.

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