{"id":160,"date":"2011-01-24T07:30:40","date_gmt":"2011-01-24T15:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=160"},"modified":"2011-01-23T15:52:55","modified_gmt":"2011-01-23T23:52:55","slug":"mark-reads-catching-fire-chapter-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/01\/mark-reads-catching-fire-chapter-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘Catching Fire’: Chapter 26"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the twenty-sixth chapter of Catching Fire<\/em>, I realize that these little third-person introductions I do are utterly pointless because there is no way I can ever summarize what the fuck just happened. My god. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re intrigued, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for me to read Catching Fire<\/em> and then pass out.<\/p>\n

The anthem begins, but there are no faces in the sky tonight. The audience will be restless, thirsting for blood. Beetee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trap holds enough promise, though, that the Gamemakers haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sent in other attacks. Perhaps they are simply curious to see if it will work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I seriously can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. This chapter and only one more left? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s left in Catching Fire<\/em> and somehow, Collins is going to resolve all this? I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T. HOW IS SHE GOING TO DO THIS?<\/p>\n
There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a finality to the tone, a shift in the underlying feeling of the words on these pages, as if the characters also realize that this is the last time they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll do most of this. Beetee begins to unroll the wire and Finnick helps him wrap in an intricate design around the tree that gets struck by lightning every twelve hours. Katniss can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figure out why the design has to be intricate, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no sense to questioning any of this. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s simply no time.<\/p>\n
I suppose time is now the real thing that we have to worry about, not only because we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re so close to the end of the book, but because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6well, think about it. The arena is a clock and the dangers are based on hourly segments, and the pace of the Games has slowed far too much. Something has to happen. The Gamemakers can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allow this to get too<\/em> boring.<\/p>\n
This is when Beetee reveals the rest of the plan. Since we move most swiftly through the trees, he wants Johanna and me to take the coil down through the jungle, unwinding the wire as we go. We are to lay it across the twelve o\u00e2\u20ac\u2122clock beach and drop the metal spool, with whatever is left, deep into the water, making sure it sinks. Then run for the jungle. If we go now, right now, we should make it to safely.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Unsurprisingly, Peeta isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t too happy about getting separated from Katniss, especially since he couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t convince her to abandon her plan to keep him alive. Again, time factors into the plot: Beetee insists that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no time to debate this. Katniss and Johanna are the fastest and they can easily get to the beach and back before midnight.<\/p>\n
And then they are off. Johanna and Katniss move down the beach, one of them uncoiling the wire while the other keeps a look out. When Katniss asks to switch and take the wire, it just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.i can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6my god.<\/p>\n
Both of our hands are still on the metal cylinder when there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a slight vibration. Suddenly the thin golden wire from above springs down at us, bunching in tangled loops and curls around our wrists. Then the severed end snakes up to our feet.<\/p>\n
It only takes a second to register this rapid turn of events. Johanna and I look at each other, but neither of us has to say it. Someone not far above us cut the wire.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
WHAT. ALREADY. WHAT.<\/strong><\/p>\n
My hand frees itself from the wire and has just closed on the feathers of an arrow when the metal cylinder smashes into the side of my head. The next thing I know, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m lying on my back in the vines, a terrible pain in my left temple. Something\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong with my eyes. My vision blurs in and out of focus as I strain to make the two moons floating up in the sky into one. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to breathe, and I realize Johanna\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sitting on my chest, pinning me at the shoulders with her knees.<\/p>\n
$\"\"$ <\/p>\n
No. No. NO. It can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be. JOHANNA???<\/p>\n
There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a stab in my left forearm. I try to jerk away but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still too incapacitated. Johanna\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s digging something. I guess the point of her knife, into my flesh, twisting it around. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an excruciating ripping sensation and warmth runs down my wrist, filling my palm. She swipes down my arm and coats half my face with blood.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Johanna betrayed her. Finnick probably did too. They lied. They fucking lied to her. They have to have planned this the entire time.<\/p>\n
I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t guys. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe this.<\/p>\n
Footsteps coming. Two pairs. Heavy, not trying to conceal their whereabouts.<\/p>\n
Brutus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voice. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good as dead! Come on, Enobaria!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Feet moving into the night.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Oh fucking hell. They betrayed Katniss to side with the Careers. They were planning this THE WHOLE TIME.<\/p>\n
The alliance is over. Finnick and Johanna must have had an agreement to turn on us tonight. I knew we should have left this morning. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know where Beetee stands. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fair game, and so is Peeta.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This is just awful. You know, I wanted to believe that they they were good and that they were actually trying to give the Capitol the middle finger. This is so fucked up.<\/p>\n
With a renewed sense of purpose and a motivation to get up and not die there in the middle of the jungle, Katniss manages to sit upright and her thoughts turn to Peeta, to saving him. She throws up her seafood dinner from that night, and begins to work on making sure she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still able to keep moving.<\/p>\n
The reality of her injuries is terrifying. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still squirting blood from the wound on her arm, but she manages to bandage it up with some moss. The lump on her head didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t break the skin, so she presses on.<\/p>\n
Collins narrates, through Katniss, one of the most ordered bits of chaos I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read in a long time. Again, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another moment that validates the narration style that Collins chose. To be completely honest, I read this chapter in maybe ten minutes, if that; I had to visit it a second time before I even started to write this review.<\/p>\n
My judgment of Finnick is quickly proven to be hasty when he runs by Katniss screaming her name and Johanna\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. Surely he wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be calling out her name with so much terror if he had turned on her, right? Though I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be sure and neither can Katniss. But her mind isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t completely focused as the rise in the clicking from the insects in the eleventh wedge begins to overwhelm her. And me. Fine, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll admit it, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M OVERWHELMED. WHAT IS GOING ON.<\/p>\n
The boom of a cannon pulls me up short. Someone has died. I know that with everyone running around armed and scared right now, it could be anybody. But whoever it is, I believe the death will trigger a kind of free-for-all out here in the night.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Well, if I was overwhelmed before, now I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even think right. What is going on.<\/p>\n
Katniss thinks she gets caught in a net, but it turns out to be more of Beetee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wire. She uses it to guide herself as quickly as possible in her current condition back to the tree in the twelfth wedge, but no one is where they should be.<\/p>\n
A soft moan answers me and I whip around to find a figure lying higher up on the ground. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Beetee!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I exclaim. I hurry and kneel beside him. The moan must have been involuntary. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not conscious, although I can see no wound except a gash below the crook of his elbow.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
WHO HURT MY BEETEE? I will metaphorically harm you back.<\/em><\/p>\n
Except maybe no one did. Because Katniss sees that Beetee is clutching a knife in his hand, a knife wrapped in a small bit of wire that he left on the ground before he even started. Realizing that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just a few steps from the force field, she looks up the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153chink\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the field and makes a damn fine guess: Beetee tried to drive the knife into it.<\/p>\n
WHAT. WHY<\/strong>. WHY WOULD HE DO THAT DELIBERATELY.<\/p>\n
Except, like most things in chapter 26, she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get much time to think about it. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when she hears Peeta screaming her name in the distance. Knowing she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too weak and injured to run to him, she does the next best thing. She screams his name in response, hoping to bring his attackers to her. She waits atop the small hill and sure enough, Finnick and Enobaria arrive. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all but outright confirmed at this point that they were completely and utterly betrayed.<\/p>\n
Another cannon.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Katniss!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Peeta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voice howls for me. But this time I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t answer. Beetee still breathes faintly beside me. He and I will soon die. Finnick and Enobaria will die. Peeta is alive. Two cannons have sounded. Brutus, Johanna, Chaff. Two of them are already dead. That will leave Peeta with only one tribute to kill. And that is the very best I can do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I really can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pinpoint why, but this might be the saddest passage yet in this trilogy. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m at the point where I truly believe Katniss loves Peeta and appreciates and respects him on a level that is genuine and real. And here, she realizes this might be it and she is completely okay with giving it all up for him.<\/p>\n
Shit is fucked up.<\/p>\n
Enemy. Enemy.<\/em> The word is tugging at a recent memory. Pulling it into the present. The look on Haymitch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Katniss, when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in the arena\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> The scowl, the misgiving. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> I hear my own voice tighten as I bristle at some unspoken accusation. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You just remember who the enemy is,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> Haymitch says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all<\/em>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n
Haymitch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s last words of advice to me. Why would I need reminding? I have always known who the enemy is. Who starves and tortures and kills us in the arena. Who will soon kill everyone I love.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And the transformation begins. In an instant, she chooses to reveal herself as she removes the wire from Beetee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s knife, ties it around the arrow, turns to the weak spot in the force field, and sends her arrow flying through it. IT GOES THROUGH THE FORCE FIELD<\/em>.<\/p>\n
A flash of white runs up the wire, and for just a moment, the dome bursts into a dazzling blue light. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thrown backward to the ground, body useless, paralyzed, eyes frozen wide, as feathery bits of matter rain down on me. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t reach Peeta. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even reach my pearl. My eyes strain to capture one last image of beauty to take with me.<\/p>\n
Right before the explosions begin, I find a star.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Suzanne Collins, what have you done?<\/strong> That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all I have to say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the twenty-sixth chapter of Catching Fire, I realize that these little third-person introductions I do are utterly pointless because there is no way I can ever summarize what the fuck just happened. My god. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re intrigued, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,5],"tags":[32,28,33,24,27],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catching-fire","category-hunger-games","tag-catching-fire-2","tag-katniss-everdeen","tag-mark-reads-catching-fire","tag-mark-reads-the-hunger-games","tag-suzanne-collins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}