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Mockingjay: or Hunger Games #3

When the title and cover for the third Hunger Games book were announced late last week, I was underwhelmed. But as I thought about it more, I started to feel differently.

First. The title is Mockingjay, and this is what the cover looks like.

I still find the blue of the cover jarring. The picture fits the progression of the other three books. The mockingjay, a hybrid bird created from a mockingbid and a piece of government spy technology called a jabberjay, on the 3 book covers progresses from the enslaved characters of the first book to the characters fighting to break free, which is what it seems like the 3rd book will be about.

The cover makes sense.

So what's my problem?

Well, I have built up this series in my mind that any cover or title would probably disappoint me. She could have called it Super Awesome Super Book of Awesome! and I would have been disappointed. So it's probably my own excitement for the series that dampened this very exciting news.

Of course, online speculators guessed the book would be called The Victors, a title I find far more epic, but equally fitting. Both The Victors, winners of past Hunger Games, and the mockingjay have become symbols of resistance, a major theme of the series. Mockingjay is just a sillier word, for a series that is far from silly.

Like I said before, I am underwhelmed by title and cover, but wonder if anything would have lived up to my expectations. And as the old adage goes, "Don't judge a book by its cover." So I am still excited for the third book, but maybe a little disappointment now will increase my actual enjoyment of the book later.

So what do you think of the title and cover?