{"id":84,"date":"2010-12-17T09:34:22","date_gmt":"2010-12-17T17:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=84"},"modified":"2015-02-07T21:10:07","modified_gmt":"2015-02-08T05:10:07","slug":"mark-reads-the-hunger-games-chapter-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2010\/12\/mark-reads-the-hunger-games-chapter-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThe Hunger Games\u00e2\u20ac\u2122: Chapter 22"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the twenty-second chapter of <em>The Hunger Games<\/em>, Katniss and Peeta hang out in a cave while it rains and occasionally make out. Yeah. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still intrigued, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read <em>The Hunger Games<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->UUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH WHY AM I SO BORED.<\/p>\n<p>There is indeed some good writing and character development in this chapter, but after the shocking events of the last chapter, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m left feeling a bit let down by the stunted pace. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that having this sort of contrast is at all a bad thing in and of itself, but I just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like how it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s executed here, especially so close to the end of the book.<\/p>\n<p>I do like this moment in the dream that Katniss has at the beginning:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>My mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hand strokes my cheek and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t push it away as I would in wakefulness, never wanting her to know how much I crave that gentle touch. How much I miss her even though I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t trust her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Blunt as a rock to a tribute\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s skull. But I liked it quite a bit and now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m interested to see how this plays out. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to happen when she returns home? Will her mother have changed without her? Will they have a better relationship?<\/p>\n<p>Much like the camping scenes in <em>Harry Potter<\/em> (but without any of the plotting and introspection Rowling brought to those parts of <em>Deathly Hallows<\/em>), Katniss and Peeta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s waiting seems to stretch on for pages. In fact, I believe an entire day goes by without anything happening but them resting and waiting for the rain to stop.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very convenient that Peeta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s infection got better in a quick enough time that he was able to bandage Katniss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not-so-convenient that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still dizzy and weak from the encounter, unable to hunt for the two of them. So they simply don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t eat.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean to criticize their actions, though. I mean, Peeta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leg is a mess and Katniss suffered a gash to the forehead. I THINK IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S OK IF THEY GET SOME REST. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m bored with. Until Katniss asks Peeta about his crush on her, they sort of just sit around and talk. And Katniss pretends to act romantic while Peeta is clearly not acting and I am really getting tired of this charade. Is Collins trying to lead us to this big revelation of Katniss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when she has an epiphany about Peeta <em>actually<\/em> liking her? I hope not, because her own writing will have deflated that by then.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about quicksand instead, ok?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nobody really wanted to track Thresh down in that grass. It has a sinister feeling to it. Every time I look at that field, all I can think of are hidden things. Snakes, and rabid animals, and quicksand,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Peeta says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Completely unrelated to this book except for that one word: I was obsessed an incredibly unhealthy amount with quicksand as I child. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funny that the moment I began to fear quicksand was when I first saw <em>The Neverending Story<\/em>. The part where Atreyu begins to drown in the swamp is awful AND IT ISN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T REALLY EVEN QUICKSAND but I thought it was and I began to believe that you could seriously fall into quicksand <em>every place there is sand<\/em>. Including sandboxes.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think you understand how much thought I gave to the very real threat of quicksand until I was in junior high and someone pointed out to me how rare quicksand actually is and how it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even rarer to actually die from sinking into quicksand and how many times can I use the word quicksand in one sentence.<\/p>\n<p>Ok, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my aside.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I wonder what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have to do to get Haymitch to send us some bread.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Oh, Peeta, you have no idea how strange this is going to be.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I raise my eyebrows before I remember he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know about the message Haymitch sent us a couple of nights ago. One kiss equals one pot of broth. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the sort of thing I can blurt out, either. To say my thoughts aloud would be tipping off the audience that the romance has been fabricated to play on their sympathies and that would result in no food at all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>THAT WOULD BE A TRAGEDY, RIGHT? Also, I cannot believe this anymore. I know that Katniss has no experience with romance. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t at the age of 16 either. But DOES SHE HONESTLY BELIEVE PEETA IS FAKING IT AT THIS POINT? Again, emotional depth of a teaspoon. This is not something I can seriously accept at this point.<\/p>\n<p>I can accept Peeta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anger at Katniss drugging him to get\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6more drugs.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The problem is we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both still alive. Which only reinforces the idea in your mind that you did the right thing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Peeta.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I did do the right thing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I say.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No! Just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, Katniss!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d His grip tightens, hurting my hand, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s real anger in his voice. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t die for me. You won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be doing me any favors. All right?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Well\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6what if she does do you a favor? Ok, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the point. The point is that this moral gray area isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t so gray for Peeta, especially since he was the one that was drugged. For Katniss, the ends justify the means.<\/p>\n<p>Where do I stand on this? I think Katniss had another option besides putting Peeta to sleep and wish she hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t done it. I mean, she could have died if he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wake up in time; it just wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a practical idea, let alone a moral one.<\/p>\n<p>That being said&#8230;clearly I am not in the Games and having to make difficult decisions to stay alive. I recognize that.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Then I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll just have to fill in the blanks myself,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says, and moves in to me.<\/p>\n<p>This is the first kiss that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both fully aware of. Neither of us hobbled by sickness or pain or simply unconscious. Our lips neither burning with fever or icy cold. This is the first kiss where I actually feel stirring inside my chest. Warm and curious. This is the first kiss that makes me want another.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Oh. Oh, ok. Yeah, Peeta has definitely been faking this whole time, right? <em>This is so frustrating my head actually hurts<\/em>. Katniss, how can you not see this? Is this leading up to some twist at the end that I can&#8217;t see? DON&#8217;T ANSWER THAT.<\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not given much to go off of as we return to more waiting. The rain continues to fall. They continue to starve. They are getting rest, which is good. Part of me wants to say that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s realistic that there would be boring moments during the Games. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to happen. But I get the feeling reading this that this is just one thing connecting to another thing. This boring moment is just a bridge to the more exciting stuff that comes later.<\/p>\n<p>Basically, it feels plotted.<\/p>\n<p>Katniss decides that she needs to finally attempt to create some drama for the watching audience so that Haymitch will send them something from the sponsors. She initiates the conversation by asking Peeta how long he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had a crush on her.<\/p>\n<p>I think most of us who have had unrequited crushes on people can appreciate the detail that Peeta can still recall about the first moment he saw Katniss. Can I remember some of my early crushes? Absolutely. When you first are stunned into silence by a person, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind of hard to forget.<\/p>\n<p>The entire section where Peeta tells his story is wonderfully written by Collins and almost makes up for everything else in this chapter. I think that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m starting to care for Peeta more than Katniss. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obvious he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lying when he said he had a crush on Katniss and his genuine level of respect and care for her is pretty endearing.<\/p>\n<p>Katniss isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t so endearing herself, though.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have much competition here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says.<\/p>\n<p>I want to draw away, to close those shutters again, but I know I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s as if I can hear Haymitch whispering in my hear, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Say it! Say it!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>I swallow hard and get the words out. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have much competition anywhere.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And this time, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s me who leans in.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Oh. Oh ok.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Our lips have just barely touched when the clunk outside makes us jump. My bow comes up, the arrow ready to fly, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no other sound. Peeta peers through the rocks and then gives a whoop. Before I can stop him, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s out in the rain, then handing something in to me. A silver parachute attached to a basket. I rip it open at once and inside there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a feast\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfresh rolls, goat cheese, apples, and best of all, a tureen of that incredible lamb stew on wild rice. The very dish I told Caesar Flickerman was the most impressive thing the Capitol had to offer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Bravo, Katniss. Your lack of emotional depth has fed you two. I HOPE YOU\u00e2\u20ac\u2122RE HAPPY.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/thgch22.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-85\" title=\"thgch22\" src=\"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/thgch22.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"433\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/thgch22.jpg 433w, http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/thgch22-300x207.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 433px) 100vw, 433px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the twenty-second chapter of The Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta hang out in a cave while it rains and occasionally make out. Yeah. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still 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":[28,24,27],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hunger-games","category-the-hunger-games-novel","tag-katniss-everdeen","tag-mark-reads-the-hunger-games","tag-suzanne-collins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","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=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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