{"id":57,"date":"2010-12-08T10:47:50","date_gmt":"2010-12-08T18:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=57"},"modified":"2015-02-07T21:10:58","modified_gmt":"2015-02-08T05:10:58","slug":"mark-reads-the-hunger-games-chapter-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2010\/12\/mark-reads-the-hunger-games-chapter-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThe Hunger Games\u00e2\u20ac\u2122: Chapter 14"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the fourteenth chapter of <em>The Hunger Games<\/em>, why does this exist <em>nightmares forever<\/em>. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read <em>The Hunger Games<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no shame allowed here and <em>certainly <strong>no judging<\/strong><\/em>. But I read chapter fourteen before I went to bed and I absolutely had a nightmare.<\/p>\n<p>In my dream, I was camping on the North Rim in the Grand Canyon. (If you recall, I went there during my read of <em>Half-Blood Prince<\/em> and it was also when I inadvertently re-ignited the Ginny Weasley Slut Shame War of 2010. <em>THANKS GUYS<\/em>.) Anyway, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not actually the point. In my dream, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m camping in the sparse forest up on the top of the rim and because I am the very worst klutz of all time, I somehow tripped on a fire? Look, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know how that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible, but it happened. And then the tent was on fire. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S A NIGHTMARE IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO MAKE ANY SENSE. When I set the tent on fire <em>and no one else was freaking out<\/em>, I then upset a nest of tracker jackers. And guess where they decided to sting me? No, not there.<\/p>\n<p>My armpits.<\/p>\n<p>Seriously, it was an awful dream, despite being so comical. So let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s start off this review with a compliment: Suzanne Collins, the tracker jackers are one of the most horrifying creations I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever read. Bravo.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>My eyes follow the line of her finger up into the foliage above me. At first, I have no idea what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pointing to, but then, about fifteen feet up, I make out a vague shape in the dimming light. But of\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6of what? Some sort of animal? It looks about the size of a raccoon, but it hangs from the bottom of a branch, swaying ever so slightly. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something else. Among the familiar evening sounds of the woods, my ears register a low hum. Then I know. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a wasp nest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>YEAH THIS IS GOING TO BE TERRIBLE. Even re-reading this a second time, I am not a fan of this.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>More likely they will be one of the Capitol\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mutations, tracker jackers. Like the jabberjays, these killer wasps were spawned in a lab and strategically placed, like land mines, around the districts during the war. Larger than regular wasps, they have a distinctive solid gold body and a sting that raises a lump the size of a plum on contact. Most people can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tolerate more than a few stings. Some die at once. If you live, the hallucinations brought on by the venom have actually driven people to madness. And there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another thing, these wasps will hunt down anyone who disturbs their nest and attempt to kill them. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where the tracker part of the name comes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So, first of all, they are SOLID GOLD WASPS. Then Collins <em>continues to make it worse<\/em>. Poisonous? Sure! Stings that cause swelling the size of plums? Totally! Fatal reactions? You betcha! <strong>Hallucinations that happen EVEN IF YOU SURVIVE THE STINGS?<\/strong> Oh, definitely! And if you can escape all that, WAIT YOU CANT BECAUSE <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">THEY TRACK YOU<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Pure genius. A terrifying brilliance, yes, but genius nonetheless.<\/p>\n<p>The problem here is that Katniss now has a weapon against the tributes, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one that can hurt her and can definitely kill other people. The risk she has to take is one that will probably hurt herself and will change our view of her if she actually goes through with killing other Careers.<\/p>\n<p>Katniss takes advantage of the anthem playing to provide sound cover for her as she makes her attempt to saw the branch holding the nest off.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Once I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a groove, the work requires less effort but is almost more than I can handle. I grit my teeth and saw away, occasionally glancing at the sky to register that there were no deaths today. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all right. The audience will be sated seeing me injured and treed and the pack below me. But the anthem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s running out and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m only three quarters of the way through the wood when the music ends, the sky goes dark, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m forced to stop.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>GOD DAMN IT. She was hoping the smoke would keep them groggy and that the anthem would mask the sound of her cutting down the branch, but both of those hopes have now been eliminated. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frustrating to read, but the fact that so much goes wrong adds a bit of realism to an otherwise fantastical story.<\/p>\n<p>That sort of realism is the only thing we really have to ground any of this. It would be more entertaining for events to simply continue, for the nest to drop to the ground and for Katniss to escape because we could feel as if she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being victorious, as if she has a chance. I appreciate that this is still difficult for her, though, and that random chance can still affect her life.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In the faint light of the Careers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 torches, I inch back down to my fork to find the best surprise I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever had. Sitting on my sleeping bag is a small plastic pot attached to a silver parachute. My first gift from a sponsor! Haymitch must have had it sent in during the anthem. The pot easily fits in the palm of my hand. What can it be? Not food surely. I unscrew the lid and I know by the scent that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s medicine. Cautiously, I probe the surface of the ointment. The throbbing in my fingertip vanishes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Is it weird to say I was looking forward to see how Katniss deals with her burns? Not on a personal level, but just to see how Collins wrote it. This <em>is<\/em> an interesting way to deal with the burns and to also show us how the sponsors actually work towards a player\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advantage in the game. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ok with that, especially since we get this moment instead:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, Haymitch,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I whisper. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Thank you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He has not abandoned me. Not left me to fend entirely for myself. The cost of this medicine must be astronomical. Probably not one but many sponsors have contributed to buy this one tiny pot. To me, it is priceless.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen a moment of humility like this from Katniss so far. So much is about her display of her ego and her contempt; this, however, is something more raw and real than anything before. She genuinely means it when she thanks Haymitch.<\/p>\n<p>After rubbing the ointment on her, which quickly begins the healing process, Katniss has a newfound sense of purpose: it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for her to drop the tracker jackers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 nest. She decides to warn Rue before she does so, though:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I call Rue\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name in a hushed whisper and the eyes appear, wide and alert, at once. She points up to the next again. I hold up my knife and make a sawing motion. She nods and disappears. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a rustling in a tree nearby. Then the same noise a bit farther off. I realize she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leaping from tree to tree. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all I can do not to laugh out loud. Is this what she showed the Gamemakers? I imagine her flying around the training equipment never touching the floor. She should have gotten at least a ten.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>WHAT!!<\/strong> Oh man, now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m cheering for Rue to somehow survive with Katniss. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect it to be long before they pair up either.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>At the tree limb that holds the nest, I position the knife in the groove and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m about to draw the teeth across the wood when I see something moving. There, on the nest. The bright gold gleam of a tracker jacker lazily making its way across the papery gray surface. No question, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s acting a little subdued, but the wasp is up and moving and that means the others will be out soon as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And thus begins the most harrowing and disgusting set of scenes in the book. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know whether to trigger warning this or just put a general disclaimer, so this will have to do:<\/p>\n<h1><strong>THIS IS REALLY, REALLY, REALLY DISGUSTING<\/strong>.<\/h1>\n<p>First of all, as Katniss is cutting the branch, a tracker jacker stings her on the knee. So even if Katniss gets away, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already going to be horrible. Then a second and a third sting sends poison into her system and even though she manages to pull the stingers out, the poison is already doing its work. But what happens below is just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6jesus fuck.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mayhem. The Careers have woken to a full-scale tracker jacker attack. Peeta and a few others have the sense to drop everything and bolt. I can hear cries of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153To the lake! To the lake!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and know they hope to evade the wasps by taking to the water. It must be close if they think they can outdistance the furious insects. Glimmer and another girl, the one from District 4, are not so lucky. They receive multiple stings before they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re even out of my view. Glimmer appears to go completely mad, shrieking and trying to bat the wasps off with her bow, which is pointless. She calls to the others for help but, of course, no one returns. The girl from District 4 staggers out of sight, although I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bet on her making it to the lake. I watch Glimmer fall, twitch hysterically around on the ground for a few minutes, and then go still.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Oh my god. She did. She killed someone, right? I honestly thought Collins would find a way to avoid Katniss actually killing someone, but she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Oh my god.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>People have not exaggerated the effects of the tracker jacker stings. Actually, the one on my knee is closer to an orange than a plum in size. A foul-smelling green liquid oozes from the places where I pulled out the stingers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>WHAT THE FUCK IS ALL THIS. This means that if Katniss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ONE sting did this, then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The swelling. The pain. The ooze. Watching Glimmer twitching to death on the ground. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot to handle before the sun has even cleared the horizon. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to think about what Glimmer must look like now. Her body disfigured. Her swollen fingers stiffening around the bow\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is seriously so gross. Also KATNISS KILLED SOMEONE <em>WHAT THE FUCK<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Katniss realizes she has precious little time before the canons sound and the hovercraft takes Glimmer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s body, the bow and arrows going along with it. So she risks being stung again to go back and get the weapon.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I reach Glimmer just as the cannon fires. The tracker jackers have vanished. The girl, so breathtakingly beautiful in her golden dress the night of the interviews, is unrecognizable. Her features eradicated, her limbs three times their normal size. The stinger lumps have begun to explode, spewing putrid green liquid around her. I have to break several of what used to be her fingers with a stone to free the bow. The sheath of arrows is pinned under her back. I try to roll over her body by pulling one arm, but the flesh disintegrates in my hands and I fall back on the ground.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>WHAT THE FLYING FUCK IS GOING ON.<\/strong> How is this movie going to be PG-13??? Oh my god, this is like a billion times more disgusting and real than I could have ever imagined. Oh my god what the hell, guys.<\/p>\n<p>Katniss is unsure whether this actually happened or if she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hallucinating. The hovercraft comes to pick up the girl from District 4 and she knows she has little time to act. Unfortunately, by the time she secures the bow, she hears the Careers returning, either to kill her or get the dropped weapons.<\/p>\n<p>And Peeta shows up.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What are you still doing here?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he hisses at me. I stare uncomprehendingly as a trickle of water drips off a sting under his ear. His whole body starts sparkling as if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been dipped in dew. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Are you mad?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prodding me with the shaft of the spear now. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Get up! Get up!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I rise, but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still pushing at me. What? What is going on? He shoves me away from him hard. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Run!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he screams. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Run!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>WHAT THE FUCK. Peeta didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t try to kill her? Did Peeta just save her?<\/p>\n<p>When Cato crashes into their area, a glimmering sword in his hand, Katniss breaks into a run, obeying Peeta, attempting to escape.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The world begins to bend in alarming ways. A butterfly balloons to the size of a house then shatters into a million stars. Trees transform to blood and splash down over my boots. Ants begin to crawl out of the blisters on my hands and I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shake them free. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re climbing up my arms, my neck. Someone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s screaming, a long high-pitched scream that never breaks for breath. I have a vague idea it might be me. I trip and fall into a small pit lined with tiny orange bubbles that hum like the tracker jacker nest. Tucking my knees up to my chin, I wait for death.<\/p>\n<p>Sick and disoriented, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m able to form only one thought: <span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Peeta Mellark just saved my life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Then the ants bore into my eyes and I black out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Shit cannot get any realer than this. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see how.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/thgch141.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-62\" title=\"thgch14\" src=\"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/thgch141.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"433\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/thgch141.jpg 433w, http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/thgch141-300x207.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 433px) 100vw, 433px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the fourteenth chapter of The Hunger Games, why does this exist nightmares forever. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Hunger Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,488],"tags":[21,28,24,29,27],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hunger-games","category-the-hunger-games-novel","tag-awful","tag-katniss-everdeen","tag-mark-reads-the-hunger-games","tag-so-fucked-up","tag-suzanne-collins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","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=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. The path to wp-cache-phase1.php in wp-content/advanced-cache.php must be fixed! -->