Katniss has been a pawn in the Capitol’s game since her first Hunger Games, but every step of the way she resisted. After escaping from the Quarter Quell to District 13, we thought our girl would finally be free. But no. It turns out that District 13 has a lot in common with the manipulative Capitol it’s fighting against.

Both governments are up the same manipulative tricks, using Katniss and the other victors to their own ends. Both governments rely heavily on staged media and propaganda to gain support and control. In District 13, we’re back to the acting, the scripts, the costumes, the make-up, and the cameras that were so common in the Capitol. Neither the Capitol nor District 13 is televising the truth, they’re putting on a performance to sway their audiences.

At first, playing for the camera and using scripted words doesn’t seem to bad. Why? Because, unlike the Capitol, District 13 isn’t actively hurting anyone, right? But near the end of the book, Katniss realizes just how lethal District 13’s manipulations have become. The crafty people in the book cause multitudes of deaths, and they also make it impossible for Katniss to trust anyone, particularly anyone in a government role.

The war in Mockingjay is an extension of the battles in the Hunger Games arena described in The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. Before, the scale of war was much smaller, but just as lethal. The two tributes from each district were symbolic of their districts as a whole, creating a small-scale war in which each district fought the others, and each district also fought itself. Now the Hunger Games might be in the past, but the true battle is on. The Games arena has been replaced with the Capitol itself, and Katniss and her team have to employ the same kinds of strategies they relied on during the Games. More lives are at stake, though, and they have even more to lose this time.

Power comes in many forms. There are people who appear to have power, and then there are the ones who actually do. We see plenty of both in Mockingjay. Katniss is a great example, as the Mockingjay, she seems to have power because she’s the face of the rebel movement. However, it’s really President Coin, the leader of District 13, who has the actual power, which she uses to manipulate Katniss. Over the course of the book, though, Katniss slowly discovers that she has some real power and authority after all. Refusing to simply be a pawn in another authoritarian government’s game, Katniss kills President Coin.

Power comes in many forms. There are people who appear to have power, and then there are the ones who actually do. We see plenty of both in Mockingjay. Katniss is a great example, as the Mockingjay, she seems to have power because she’s the face of the rebel movement. However, it’s really President Coin, the leader of District 13, who has the actual power, which she uses to manipulate Katniss. Over the course of the book, though, Katniss slowly discovers that she has some real power and authority after all. Refusing to simply be a pawn in another authoritarian government’s game, Katniss kills President Coin.

Even though the characters are focused, for the most part, on waging a war, love creeps into the story. There are lots of kinds of love in Mockingjay: love for one’s country, one’s people, one’s district…for family, for friends, and for partners. There’s your average love triangle (two guys, one girl) in an anything-but-average situation. The Katniss-Peeta-Gale love story reaches its resolution here. In Mockingjay, romantic love is an uncertain thing. Feelings grow and change; circumstances get in the way. Katniss (not to mention us readers) is at times left wondering "what if…" In the end, romantic love seems to be based on trust, sacrifice, and friendship.

When going to war, it’s good to have friends to rely on; they watch your back, and when things get dark, they give you a reason to keep on fighting. In Mockingjay, though, Katniss starts losing her friends one by one. Many die in battle. Those who survive the fighting have been damaged in other ways: Peeta has been "hijacked," Haymitch has sunken completely into alcoholism, Gale has been morally compromised by his involvement in the war. The loss of these important friendships really hurts Katniss, and near the end of the novel, she completely loses her will to live. The good thing is, though damaged, some friendships can be rebuilt with time.

The entire Hunger Games trilogy is based on an act of sacrifice: Katniss taking her sister’s place in the Hunger Games. When Katniss wins the Games, it should complete the sacrifice and she should be allowed to go about her life again. But that clearly doesn’t happen. At every turn, Katniss is called upon to repeat her sacrifice, to encourage others to do the same, and to keep giving up lives to a war that grows increasingly larger and out of control. In Mockingjay, every character we meet has had to give up something big, whether it’s a home, a way of life, a career, or a loved one – and most of the characters we meet don’t make it to the end of the book alive.