Mark Reads ‘Mockingjay’: Chapter 15

In the fifteenth chapter of Mockingjay, Collins quickly shows us how much this series has improved from the first book by metaphorically punching us in the face. If you’re intrigued, then it’s time for Mark to read Mockingjay.

The implications of what Gale is suggesting settle quietly around the room. You can see the reaction playing out on people’s faces. The expressions range from pleasure to distress, from sorrow to satisfaction.

“The majority of the workers are citizens from Two,” says Beetee neutrally.

“So what?” says Gale. “We’ll never be able to trust them again.”

This is not a good idea, Gale. The more I think about it, the more I hope that other people don’t buy it as well. There has to be another option than to suffocate an entire mountain base.

Katniss seems to be the first to jump towards disagreeing with Gale and I have so much respect for her for doing so.

I have to close my eyes a minute, as the image rips through me. It has the desired effect. I want everyone in that mountain dead. Am about to say so. But then…I’m also a girl from District 12. Not President Snow. I can’t help it. I can’t condemn someone to the death he’s suggesting. “Gale,” I say, taking his arm and trying to speak in a reasonable tone. “The Nut’s an old mine. It’d be like causing a massive coal mining accident.” Surely the words are enough to make anyone from 12 think twice about the plan.

RIGHT????? I know they have to fight back, and I know that any sign of mercy on the part of the rebels might be interpreted as weakness by the Capitol. But what Gale is advocating for is murder. He wants to murder all of those people without giving them the chance to surrender or anything.

“But not so quick as the one that killed our fathers,” he retorts. “Is that everyone’s problem? That our enemies might have a few hours to reflect on the fact that they’re dying, instead of just being blown to bits?”

UGH THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING. There is certainly a part of me that feels Gale is right, that the situation is desperate enough to warrant such a drastic course of action. But most of me is like NO NO NO NO PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS SUFFOCATION IS AN AWFUL WAY TO GO.

“You don’t know how those District Two people ended up in the Nut,” I say. “They may have been coerced. They may be held against their will. Some are our own spies. Will you kill them, too?”

“I would sacrifice a few, yes, to take out the rest of them,” he replies. “And if I were a spy in there, I’d say, ‘Bring on the avalanches!’”

Katniss, HIGH FIVES FOREVER. That is a brilliant point. It is wonderful. It’s subtle enough to convey the message that the rebels are operating within a zone of ignorance regarding who is in the Nut and it’s a way to make Gale force to acknowledge what he is doing. Unfortunately, Gale doesn’t care. He knows he’ll be killing innocent people and the ends justifies the means.

Please do not go through with this plan.

“You said we had two choices,” Boggs tells him. “To trap them or to flush them out. I say we try to avalanche the mountain but leave the train tunnel alone. People can escape into the square, where we’ll be waiting for them.”

A slightly, slightly better idea, but still. This is murder. They’re going to kill a lot of innocent people.

But after consulting Coin in District Thirteen, the choice is made. They’ll trigger the avalanches and leave the train station open for people to escape. Katniss suits up as the Mockingjay and heads over to the Justice Building to watch over the train station.

Ugh, it’s making me nervous just typing this up, having to read this again. Gale’s plan turns out to be perfect, even more so than they predicted:

Whole sections of the Nut collapse before our eyes, obliterating any sign that human beings have ever set foot on the place. We stand speechless, tiny and insignificant, as waves of stone thunder down the mountain. Burying entrances under tons of rock. Raising a cloud of dirt and debris that blackens the sky. Turning the Nut into a tomb.

They did it. They actually did it. There’s no way to avoid the obvious now. People died instantaneously. Some will die in a few hours. But a lot of the people in that building are never going to see the next day, and there’s a high chance most of them never deserved it at all. So, so fucked up.

Collins is rather brilliant for putting this act into context. It triggers a very specific and horrific memory for Katniss, of the day there was an explosion in the mines in District 12, and her and Gale’s fathers did not return alive. In one of the more poetic passages of the series, she parallels the sound of the sirens, the black debris and soot that litters the air, and the inevitable terror of the moment to what the rebels just did to those in the Nut.

If there’s a more helpless feeling than trying to reach someone you love who’s trapped underground, I don’t know it. The wounded. The bodies. The waiting through the night. Blankets put around your shoulders by strangers. A mug of something hot that you don’t drink. And then finally, at dawn, the grieved expression on the face of the mine captain that could only mean one thing.

What did we just do?

You’ve become that which you were fighting against. You’re murdering people because you’re supposed to, because in war our morality is twisted and bent to fit the needs of the moment. This is not to suggest that war or violence is inherently immoral, either, but this act in this war is pretty damn awful. Did it need to happen? Hell that’s probably the worst part of it. It might be a necessary evil.

Haymitch interrupts this flashback and instructs Katniss to head indoors in case the Capitol retaliates and she’s out in the open. She heads down inside of the Justice Building and, in a direct parallel to Katniss’s memory, she sits inside the cold, soulless building and waits. And waits. She waits for any sign of life to come out of the train tunnel and even though her father isn’t in this group, she can’t help but feel how eerily similar this all is to that day years ago. Boggs comes by to accompany her and let her know that they’re simply going to keep the tracks open so that the citizens inside the Nut can get as many people out as possible. The rebels who had pushed the Peacekeepers back a few blocks so that the train station wasn’t in their possession are using the opportunity to rest. Haymitch, meanwhile, has an update on Peeta.

Apparently, when he watched the clip of Katniss singing “The Hanging Tree” outside the house by the lake, he said he remembered the song. Katniss initially discounts it as progress until Haymitch adds that Peeta specifically remembered that he heard the song from Katniss’s father.

“But it’s the first connection to you that hasn’t triggered some mental meltdown,” says Haymitch. “It’s something, at least, Katniss.”

It is something. It’s small and subtle, but it’s something.

I expected survivors to begin pouring out of the train station rather quickly, but was instead shocked to read that hours pass without a sign of life. Night arrives and giant spotlights are set up outside the train tunnel. No one comes. Midnight strikes. Not one train comes out of the mountain.

Sometime past midnight, Haymitch asks Katniss to head to the steps of the Justice Building to give a speech that will be broadcast not only to the country, but amplified for anyone who may still be alive inside the Nut. Katniss agrees because it seems like the only way left to save lives and heads outside, awaiting Haymitch to tell her what to say. And just as she begins her speech, introducing herself, a set of trains rapidly pull into the station.

The pair of trains comes screeching into the train station side by side. As the doors slide open, people tumble out in a cloud of smoke they’ve brought from the Nut. They must have had at least an inkling of what would await them at the square, because you can see them trying to act evasively. Most of them flatten on the floor, and a spray of bullets inside the station takes out the lights. They’ve come armed, as Gale predicted, but they’ve come wounded as well. The moans can be heard in the otherwise silent air.

It’s utter chaos. I don’t need to tell you yet again that Collins truly excels at this sort of writing, but I do love giving her praise for this. She doesn’t ignore the poetry of the imagery she provides, drawing parallels to the past and using the first-person-present to ramp up the intensity. She is simply fantastic at building and creating these moments of terror and confusion and it’s very easy to feel as if you’ve been dropped into the situation yourself.

Katniss stops being an observer when she notices a young man stumble out of the train and fall to the floor, burn marks across his back. She yells to the rebels to stop firing on those who are coming out of the trains and then:

I’m nearing the young man, reaching down to help him, when he drags himself up to his knees and trains his gun on my head.

I instinctively back up a few steps, raise my bow over my head to show my intention was harmless. Now that he has both hands on his gun, I notice the ragged hole in his cheek where something—falling stone maybe—punctured the flesh.

Good fucking god. What is Katniss going to do? What has she done? Did she just put herself in needless danger? Maybe so, but she also clearly wanted to help out and ensure more people didn’t die. But now the situation is so much more intense.

His garbled speech is barely comprehensible. “Give me one reason I shouldn’t shoot you.”

We know Katniss performs best when unscripted. She cannot fake things to save her life. So the first words out of her mouth are completely genuine: “I can’t.”

“I can’t. That’s the problem, isn’t it?” I lower my blow. “We blew up your mine. You burned my district to the ground. We’ve got every reason to kill each other. So do it. Make the Capitol happy. I’m done killing their slaves for them.” I drop my bow on the ground and give it a nudge with my boot. It slides across the stone and comes to rest at his knees.

“I’m not their slave,” the man mutters.

Maybe not, but it’s hard to ignore Katniss’s point. When she elaborates, she gives it a wonderfully powerful context.

“I am,” I say. “That’s why I killed Cato…and he killed Thresh…and he killed Clove…and she tried to kill me. It just goes around and around, and who wins? Not us. Not the districts. Always the Capitol. But I’m tired of being a piece in their Games.”

Peeta. On the rooftop the night before our first Hunger Games. He understood it all before we’d even set foot in the arena. I hope he’s watching now, that he remembers that night as it happened, and maybe forgives me when I die.

Simply beautiful. Collins, bravo. I never thought the story would reach a point like this, but I love it. Katniss has realized that even she has been complicit in the reign of terror, even though she was defending herself. It’s a poignant way for us to be reminded of the power of identity, especially an identity forged separate from the oppression the Capitol smashes down on its citizens.

As Katniss gains the confidence that she’s finally found a way to break this perpetual struggle between the districts, she continues to speak openly about what has happened. Why have the people in the Nut turned against their own victors and citizens? Why have the rebels agreed to kill people crawling from the rubble of the blast? Why isn’t the focus on the real enemy?

“Who is the enemy?” whispers Haymitch.

“These people”—I indicate the wounded bodies on the square—“are not your enemy! We all have one enemy, and it’s the Capitol! This is our chance to put an end to their power, but we need every district person to do it!”

I LOVE IT. Katniss, LOOK AT YOU. LOOK AT YOUR LIFE. LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES. They are wonderful and I love you forever for them.

The cameras are tight on me as I reach out my hands to the man, to the wounded, to the reluctant rebels across Panem. “Please! Join us!”

My words hang in the air. I look to the screen, hoping to see them recording some wave of reconciliation going through the crowd.

Instead I watch myself get shot on television.

NO. NO!!!!! YOU ARE FUCKING KIDDING ME.

A;LKSDFJ A;L KSDFJ @!#$ 48U SADFJ 234 ^#$&^

That is seriously the worst cliffhanger of a chapter ever. In the history of ever. WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!

About Mark Oshiro

Perpetually unprepared since '09.
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181 Responses to Mark Reads ‘Mockingjay’: Chapter 15

  1. Ishii_Era says:

    This is where my love/hate relationship with Gale began. I love him as a character because he's real. He's human. This is what humans do. He's not some ruggedly handsome idealized hero – Collins doesn't shy away from anything, doesn't glaze over any of the details. Humans do horrible things.

    This is also where I realized that the series definitely wasn't appropriate for some of its audience (10, 11-year-olds) in my mind anymore.

    And hip hip hurray for another cliffhanger! They're pretty dang predictable by now, which doesn't make them any less horrible. And they make commenting on these reviews without spoiling you frustratingly difficult. So I'll just post a gif to express the emotions I feel when I see your daily review and then realize I have to wait another 24 hours for the next one.

    <img src="http://i55.tinypic.com/w00vn.gif"&gt;

    • Lurker Dee says:

      This, exactly.

    • andreah1234 says:

      That gif is hypnotizing

      A+ just because of it. And your comment.

    • Stephalopolis says:

      Haha, I'm just happy this cliffhanger didn't happen on a Friday review, or else we'd have to wait a few days 😛 We got saved by 1 day

    • Ellen says:

      Agreeee so much. I love that he's realistic, that he's got a personality, even when it makes him make bad choices and do awful things sometimes. I feel guilty for liking him, but I think it's just his real-ness that makes me like him? As great as Peeta is, he's just a little "too" perfect. Not quite a Gary Stu, but I'd say he borders on it sometimes…

    • xpanasonicyouthx says:

      MY GOD THAT GIF.

      • booksinbulk says:

        i think that GIF is what caused the poster to have even MORE upvotes than you mark!! haha IT'S SO FUN TO WATCH. and I agree with its sentiment. so happy for the review, then it's over so fast and time slows down until the next one! 🙁

    • lindseytinsey says:

      Omg that gif makes me so happy. 🙂 Then sad. 🙁 Then happy… then sad… then happy… then sad.. then happy…

    • amandajane5 says:

      Perfect gif is perfect.

    • notemily says:

      Wait, when was this series' audience ever 10–11-year olds?

      • Ishii_Era says:

        I doubt that was its target audience, but kids that age do read it.

        Which is how you end up with pre-teens going on about how they would love to be in the hunger games what with the fame and fortune at all and since they can run fast they could totally win it. (I'm on a fan-forum and this mindset has been frustrating me for a while.)

        • notemily says:

          I think kids should be able to read whatever they want to read, and if they misinterpret it, well, maybe they'll read it again when they're older and see it in a different light. But saying "you can't read this" is the surest way to get kids to read something.

          • That's how my mum tricked me into one reading assignment when I was a little homeschool kid. She gave me a book of Poe and told me that my brother hadn't been allowed to read it at my age. THAT SNEAKY BROAD! And now I adore Poe. Amazing now she made me a reader at seven by giving me stuff that most people would assume was over my head.

            • pennylane27 says:

              Yeah, my dad gave me I, Robot when I was 9 and said, let's see if you can finish it. I had been asking for more adult and longer books, so I was really determined to show him I could, so I did. I misinterpreted a lot, of course, but still. I adore Asimov.

          • Katie says:

            Yeah, I read a lot of Stephen King in middle school, but at 20, Insomnia (which was my favorite then) has a whole other meaning. It might as well be a different book.
            I say as long as kids are reading, it's great. It's not like they're reading Twilight. They're just misinterpreting.

          • castlejune says:

            That is how I read Richard III in fourth grade. My grandmother (an English teacher) went on an on about how hard it is to read/teach Shakespeare, and I was like, "I bet I could do it" and she said, "Prove it." My total comprehension was pretty bad, but it lead to the best book reflection ever given to my grandmother (she said so):
            "This guy is evil. That girl was dumb for marrying him, he is obviously evil, he says so. Plus he killed two kids! Why is everyone making him king? Evil kings are bad news. There was a war because everyone finally realized he was evil, but I don't know why it took them so long. He said he was evil on the first chapter. He wants a horse really badly, and then I guess he died."

            It is also how I read Lord of the Flies and came up with the theme: "Boys are stupid. If girls were on the island it would have worked out better."

            My grandmother loved giving me high school books to read in fourth and fifth grade for obvious reasons.

      • Saber says:

        Cover on mine says +12
        I read the first one when I was that age, and I know younger people who've read it. But I wouldn't give MJ to anyone under 14. Finncik's abuse, stuff like the bombings in war, magnified on such a huge scale. My brother asked me to not read them allowed around him because he thought they were too mature. (He's 11)

        It depends on the person, really, but then hasn't it always? You read what you can handle.

        • notemily says:

          I agree. I'm a firm believer in letting kids read what they want to read. They know themselves best.

        • theanagrace says:

          Wow, that's amazing that he asked you that. Not many kids I know would ask not to hear something they thought was too mature for them. (I may just not know very many 11 year olds, either, I guess :P) He sounds like a smart guy.

        • syntheticjesso says:

          I was reading "grown up" books when I was around 11-12, simply because I got bored with the books in the kids' section of the library, and the teen section was so open I felt like I'd get dirty looks for going into it. The adult fiction was along the wall and kind of sheltered by the non-fictions shelves, so I could slip in, grab some books (Usually from the A-B range, so I have read a lot more A authors than, say, R authors) and go find a place to read. Some of the books had some pretty explicit scenes, but at that age I didn't really know what was going on so I just skimmed the "weird" parts and moved on. Looking back now, I'm kind of horrified by some of the things I read, and I'd be a little concerned if I saw a kid reading them, but really at the time I just ignored the stuff I didn't get and moved on to the parts with the giant shark or whatever.

      • liliaeth says:

        When my brother bought me the books for christmas, that's the age range the shop owner told him the books were for, aka ten to fourteen year olds. It had me going, "did they ever even open the books?"

  2. iva222 says:

    That's why I love this book so much: after Katniss gives her speech I expected people waving their guns, cheering and applauding her.
    Instead she gets shot.
    It's terrible… and I love it.

    • ALynnJ42 says:

      I expected the same reaction. When I read that part I was like "Aww, this is so sweet. Everyone is gonna join up together and then shoot her… Wait. What???" I was obviously not prepared…

  3. cait0716 says:

    I love this book so much. It's definitely my favorite of the trilogy. Everything is real and harsh and horrible. And there are no easy decisions. Usually, reading a book, I'm fairly convinced that everything will work out in the end. Especially a YA book. But with Mockingjay I wasn't. Everyone could die. The rebellion could fail. I absolutely wouldn't put it past Collins to do that, because how can this possibly have a happy ending?

  4. momigrator says:

    Weeeeeeeelllllll, so much for a cease fire on the survivors… :-/

  5. MeasuringInLove says:

    <img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfi59e7zjb1qcre2y.gif"&gt;

    EFF YOU, CLIFFHANGERS.

    Lololol, children's book. AS IF. Collins, you continue to win internets for doing the completely unexpected. BRAVO.

  6. andreah1234 says:

    This chapter was awesome. Well not really, because a lot of people died and Katniss got shot and shit, but still it was awesome. What I really like about this books it's that we actually see Collins progressing as a writer at the same time we see the protagonist progressing as a character. It's something we haven't seen before in the Mark Reads (J.K. is awesome in everything she does, and Smeyer sucks at everything she does too, so we hadn't seen how Mark would react to this kind of progress (pretty amazing by the way)) and I love it.

    I'm not really sure how I feel about Gale. I know he's (sometimes) an asshole and he's not the best person in the world, which should make me hate him, but at the same time he feels so real, he's human, humans do horrible things to each other, for different kinds of things, and I like how Collins presents him as a chacter who is far from perfect, but deep down actually has good intentions. It's a good way to present the grey area Collins is so good at.

    I just love Haymitch. And TEAM KATNISS.

    I LOVE IT. Katniss, LOOK AT YOU. LOOK AT YOUR LIFE. LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES. They are wonderful and I love you forever for them.
    ^^ Yeah, pretty much.

  7. SusanBones says:

    When you hear Katniss tell how it felt to be waiting outside a collapsed mine, it makes you think how the people of District 2 are going to feel about the rebels who just killed their love ones. How can the rebels expect the support of this district when it does something like this? This was such a cruel thing to do.

    I love how Katniss put down her bow and arrow, and then got shot. This action will bring more sympathy to the rebel cause then blowing up a mine ever will.

  8. kajacana says:

    Ohhh the cliffhangers. I don't understand how anyone could read this one chapter at a time.
    Gale kind of pissed me off with his whole "KILL THEM ALL" attitude. On the one hand, I understand his rage and I think it's totally justified… but this violent, merciless side of his personality just doesn't sit well with me. He's Katniss's childhood friend; he's been through a lot of the same hell that she has (minus the Games); how could he turn so brutal? Especially when Katniss is right there trying to get him to be more reasonable? Has he always been this way deep down, or has their situation actually changed him? I can't tell, and I think that's what bothers me.

    • Hotaru-hime says:

      He watched 12 burn. Katniss didn't. He was also probably witness to whatever horrors Snow put upon 12 after Katniss left for the 75th Hunger Games. Gale doesn't care anymore. He wants the Capitol humiliated and broken, not just defeated.

    • mkjcaylor says:

      Yea, Gale bothers me too. There's the enemy, and then there's you, and there has to be a reason to consider yourself better than your enemy. There has to. Weren't they fighting the people who thought like that? Isn't that Katniss's point? He had that attitude and immediately I decided that if they thought that was the way to go, that I hated District 13 as much as the Capitol.

      There's just no reason to like either one of them anymore.

  9. lisra says:

    YAY, WARCRIMES!

    Okay, *necessary* warcrimes, which is so much worse and fucked up. I commented in the last chapter on Gale and I'm calling it now: Gale is a warmonger. This is beyond revenge and the urge to smash the capitol. I'm only a technical pacifist, I did my share of wanton violence when I was younger, but I always had the knowledge that what I was doing was not, fundamentally right. Gale has now a superior motive that shields his thoughts from that. He will never hesitate, and that is frightening and makes him sink even lower in my eyes. Still, he cares for Katniss, and that still counts for somethings.

    Katniss really jumps to new heights here. Bravery and a terribly good show. Stupid bravery. Or maybe numbness in the face of all the horrors. What a utterly riveting scene..

    and the worst fucking cliffhanger so far. i was so upset I had to make myself tea before reading on.

    Mark is again not prepared. Read fourth, young Mark, we are all with you.

    • tethysdust says:

      I agree with you about Gale. His life will not be a happy one if they actually win the war and establish a republic.

      • Puel says:

        I get the feeling Gale hasn't given much thought to what'll happen when the war is over, and someone really needs to sit him down and make him think that one through.

        Sadly, both life coaches and Sassy Gay Friends seem in short supply in Panem.

  10. monkeybutter says:

    I forgot that Katniss gets shot until her speech was in full swing. The scene is too optimistic to last. I did enjoy stage-mom Haymitch, though!

    You’re murdering people because you’re supposed to, because in war our morality is twisted and bent to fit the needs of the moment.

    Haha, just during war? How about all of the time. Listen, I get that innocent people dies in wars; ordinary civilians will always suffer disproportionately. But there's a difference between pursuing a war knowing that civilians will die, and using tactics that indiscriminately kill civilians because, hey, c'est la guerre. I think Boggs' suggestion, which allows people a chance to surrender, is a happy medium between prolonging the battle for District 2 (deaths) and killing everyone (more deaths). And, of course, Katniss is right: they should be focused on the people who put them in this situation, not bludgeoning each other into oblivion.

  11. SecretGirl says:

    Prediction time…Katniss is killed. Prim, who is beloved by the country according to Peeta in CF, takes over Mockingjay duties, the capital falls, then she becomes the first president of the new and improved Panem. In the movie version, the foreshadowing of this can be seen in the HG reaping when we catch an Observer (I'm guessing August) in the street scene watching the important event of Katniss taking Prim's place because Prim is so important.

  12. Oh Katniss, just when your smarts kick in you get shot. No good deed goes unpunished, eh?

    And Gale… what a mess. I know darn well that War is nasty and hard and the only way to win is to incapacitate the enemy before it can progress, but it STILL sucks and isn't something you ought to rejoice in. If you win, rejoice that there's no more killing, not that you killed the most people and with the most panache!

    Do I think Gale is evil? No, but I do think he could use some counseling and maybe Legos to play with instead of people's lives.

    Supreme Lord of Everything Buttercup is going to have to poop in a lot of beds by the end of this book.

  13. tethysdust says:

    I enjoyed this chapter. Once or twice it verged from poetic towards cheesy in my estimation, but it was moving all the same. This is something I would never have predicted myself saying back during THG, but I think the flashback was worked in really well. It strengthened the main scene rather than detracting from it.

    While Katniss speech was powerful and persuasive, I kind of didn't expect for it to work. I think it will work well to encourage her TV audience. Her more direct audience was desperate, angry, frightened, and probably delirious from pain. I can only hope those things combined are enough to screw up his aim, so that Katniss isn't hurt too badly. I'm not sure how her being shot will affect the propaganda value of the film. It seems like that might make more people veer towards Gale-ism.

  14. Sarah says:

    All I keep thinking during this chapter is "All is fair in love and war." Is that true? Katniss is torn between fair and unfair and will have to continue to make those decisions.

    About two chapters ago, that's when I started disliking Gale. I hate how he holds pain over her head. He's not my favorite person… You can't GUILT someone into falling in love with you. It's sickening, and it pisses me off.

    I read this book so fast that I missed a lot of details. I keep finding out new things through these reviews that I missed the first time around. Love it! 🙂

  15. mugglemomof2 says:

    Katniss seems to be the first to jump towards disagreeing with Gale and I have so much respect for her for doing so
    This is why I enjoy this book so much. It is these conflicts that mirror the difficult decisions of real life that jump off the pages that make this book (series) so appealing. We may not always choose to take the popular road but it is people's ability to stand their ground that define them (not sure if I am getting my point across)

    I LOVE IT. Katniss, LOOK AT YOU. LOOK AT YOUR LIFE. LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES. They are wonderful and I love you forever for them.
    She really is the Mockingjay now!

    LMAO at your reaction to the cliffhanger

  16. Lurker Dee says:

    I feel like this chapter is a huge moment for Katniss, and I believe it shows how much Peeta's absence had been holding her back. She didn't contemplate her own identity when he was gone because she was so consumed with his absence and held herself together just enough to give D-13 what they were asking for, up until his warning. If he had returned safely, or, at the very least, if he had returned himself, then Katniss wouldn't have had a frame of reference to understand exactly the kind of warfare the Capitol is using. She's known that Snow is evil and manipulative and out to break her, but now she understands how his mind actually works; she knows that Peeta has lost the one thing he thought he couldn't lose. It's not the technical understanding that sets her off – it's the way all of her reactions click together and she recognizes herself as part of the destruction she's protesting that she does the single-most rebellious thing I think she's done throughout the entire series: running to help the D-2 worker. It's not just rebellion against the Capitol or D-13, it's rebellion against the mindsets that pit them against each other. The speech she gives here is not just a flash of inspiration or anger or survival instinct kicking in, it's the understanding of all those flashes linked together that form Katniss's her character, and her finally having the context and the words to show this.

    As for Gale… yes. I understand his impulse. Understand how anger can get twisted into a need to see violent retribution – and so does Katniss, at the mention of the dying children – but, unlike either Gale or Katniss, I'm not sure which voice would be stronger when actually confronted with a situation like this. However, it is Katniss's reaction I respect and would wish to emulate, especially knowing how deep my own rage against certain things is and they're not anywhere near the scale of the Capitol. I've said before, I can't hate Gale – he's never been forced to look at how his identity is being taken from him like Katniss has. He doesn't see how his part in the revolution is just another part in the evil they're fighting against – Katniss and Peeta (and, especially, the other Victors) do. I think it haunts Gale to kill other people, that he is distressed at the idea of mass murder, especially when it takes on the form of a mine explosion – but he doesn't see it as a part of himself being taken away. He sees it as fighting for his identity, whereas Katniss (et all) are beginning to see a picture that's larger than justice or vengeance but is itself the nature of human violence and the fact that it can't be stopped unless it ends.

  17. Integrity1584 says:

    I have to say that though I hate that Katniss gets shot, I love the fact that she isn't able to talk the guy down. That's one of the things that annoys me most in TV/movies etc. If someone is at the point where they want to kill you I'm pretty sure you're not going to be able to talk them out of it. Collins, I applaud your realism once again.

    • Not_Prepared says:

      I completely agree. As much as I wish everything could be all *~rainbows and ponies~*, I'm happy that Collins is keepin' it real, dawg. I probably would have been just as pissed off if everyone stood up and applauded and hugged each other and blahblahblahhh as I am that she got shot.

  18. Karen says:

    I hate you, Gale. UGH. I get that he is ~flawed and ~human, but whatever. Humans can be terrible people and make bad decisions and I can dislike them for it. I just LOATHE the idea of ends justifying the means. Ruthlessness in war is just one of my berserk buttons. And yes, Gale had a rough life. His father died, leaving Gale to support his family and then he had to go work in the mines. It sucks. I get that. But that's not an excuse. It's an explanation, maybe. But Gale is still making these really awful decisions of his own accord.

    Also, TEAM KATNISS FOREVER. She's grown so much since the opening chapters of The Hunger Games. She's been through so much and seen so many terrible things, and yet she still manages to have compassion and mercy. She sees the institution of the Capitol for what it is (she understands how the Capitol manipulated her into killing people like Cato) and also sees the people of District 2 for who they are- the Capitol's victims albeit in a different way than she is. I love that she fights for and stands up for what is right. LOVE YOU, KATNISS.

  19. EasyE says:

    Is it ok to ask that the WORST CLIFFHANGER EVER, deserves a second review today?

    ?? : D

  20. Jessikaw says:

    My thoughts:

    Oh, Gale . Oh, Katniss . Oh, Peeta . Oh, Collins.

    </3

  21. Puel says:

    Bravo, Katniss. Brafuckingvo. I still want to stand up and applaud when I reread her speech to that man in Two. She's grown so much since the first book, hasn't she? This isn't the first time in this book where I've gotten that holy shit no wonder she became the Mockingjay vibe from her — let's face it, shooting down hovercrafts with explosive arrows was pretty damn boss — but she's really learned to look at the world through a broader lens than that of self-interest. Her journey towards a larger, more nuanced understanding of the world and her place in it and her complicity in creating it is a lot more extreme than the ones most teenagers go on, to say the least, but if we're talking about messages we want to send teenage readers? This is a message I want to send. There are awful and oppressive systems all around us, and often within us, and we can say no to them. If we look outside of self-interest, if we form alliances and meaningful connections with other people, we can work together towards making a change that matters. We're going to fuck up a lot along the way, and it won't be easy, but at least we'll be working for it, and that ability to make choices means something in and of itself.

    …I possibly got a little carried away there. But as awful as this series can get, and as much as it hammers home the consequences (which a lot of let's-overthrow-the-system lit, whether for younger readers or older ones, quite frankly doesn't), it's still damn inspiring sometimes.

    Also, Gale?

    <img src="http://cdn.imgfave.com/image_cache/1289942134223589.jpeg"&gt;

    • xpanasonicyouthx says:

      why do we love sassy gay friend so much

    • lilah80 says:

      Gale's a stupid bitch. 🙂

    • Clare says:

      "This is a message I want to send. There are awful and oppressive systems all around us, and often within us, and we can say no to them.If we look outside of self-interest, if we form alliances and meaningful connections with other people, we can work together towards making a change that matters. "

      Yes!!!! I cannot emphasize enough how true and spot on the problem this is. Bravo, and Upvote!

  22. ldwy says:

    Yeah, despite that this chapter was full of so much sad, that was one of the saddest parts for me. Part of it is personal, I just lost my mother, and I am by no means ready to be a grownup without a mother to guide me. And part of it is just human empathy I believe I'd have one way or another. As you say, she's young and being forced to grow up beyond her years and beyond what anyone should experience.

    She deserves all our hugs. And tea. The two cure-alls I employ in real life.

    • Baz says:

      I just lost my mom, too, in September and it was so sudden and so shocking, and I thought about it so much while reading these books (although, if I'm being totally honest, part of the reason I read these books was so I could get sucked in to someone else's life and ignore my own).

      What you said about Katniss, and how she's being used by so many people and yet no one is really concerned with how she's doing…it's so horrible but also SO real. She's been though things that so few people in the book can even comprehend, and while they're all wrapped up in wanting to win a war, they're not sparing any thoughts to check on someone who is suffering in a way they never will. It's frustrating, but totally honest, that the few people who check on her the most (Haymitch and Fennick) are so damaged in their own, similar ways, that they can only be so much support.

      • ldwy says:

        It was a sudden thing for my family too. The shock was awful. I'm sorry to hear you've gone through that too.
        I've been reading so much. I've always loved it, but it's also an excellent way to sink into a totally different world.
        Take care of yourself-have some hugs and tea.

        • Baz says:

          I love hugs and tea. Hugs and tea for everyone!!

          As horrible as it is to lose someone, and as much as I would never ever wish this feeling on anyone, it's good to be reminded that so many other people have gone through something similar, and they're still around being badasses. It's so easy to forget and get sucked into a ball of self-pity.

          I'm sorry for you and your family. We'll all get better someday. Hugs and tea, snugs and coffee.

    • thatonegirl says:

      She deserves all our hugs. And tea.
      You do too. Sorry about your mom.

  23. monkeybutter says:

    Yeah, I don't Gale would bother me as much if he weren't so unflinching in his beliefs. The self-righteousness takes me aback as much as the battle plans themselves. I kinda pity him for becoming like this.

  24. Lynn says:

    Awwww, our little heroine Katniss is growing up! What an awesome person she is turning out to be!

  25. anamardoll says:

    As much as I love these books, I think I love even more your wonderful commentary, Mark, as well as this great forum for social disucssion about morality within war! How awesome is this?

    Let me also jump on the bandwagon against Gale; it's not so much horrible that he is willing to kill people, it's that he's so *eager* to do so, he seems almost bloodthirsty at this point. I hate his smug, "If I were in there I would be willing to die for the cause" retort; it's easy to say that, but would you feel the same way, Gale, if Katniss or Prim were in there?

    Sadly, though, I begin to think that he WOULD. =/

  26. andreah1234 says:

    <3

    Just <3.

  27. That is seriously the worst cliffhanger of a chapter ever. In the history of ever. WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!
    Ha, right?? I was like, "But wait, what?? Katniss can't get shot! She can't, like, die? Right? Uh…right? The dude was pretty much point-blank. I THINK I HAVE TO TURN THE PAGE NOW." So I did.

    But you can't, Mark. You can't. SUCKER.

  28. arnenieberding says:

    Excrement can hardly manifest any more than this.

    RIGHT?

    Or not… *dun dun dun duuuun*

  29. bendemolena says:

    I still can’t believe (in a very, ‘Sorry Collins, I’m not buying it’ kind of way) that they’ve been preparing for and planning this rebellion for what seems like at least a year and yet they had no prior idea as to how they were going to deal with one of the biggest, most important, potentially tide-turning obstacles. D2 was absolutely crucial and they knew this the whole time, and yet they wait until the last possible minute to figure out how to take it once and for all? That makes so very little sense to me. /:

    • t09yavorski says:

      It is possible that they knew is would be a "tough Nut to crack" beforehand but werent able to get the exact specs of the situation until the rebellion was in full swing.

      Or they knew it was rather impossible and decided that they could lay seige or something over a longer period of time. Collins never told us how food and water got into the Nut. It might just have been the rebels impatience that caused them to look for new, more immediate solutions.

  30. theupsides says:

    I love that Peeta feels very much present even though he's not. In these pivotal moments, you can see the impact he's had on Katniss, because she always recalls the things he's said or done in the past. He is a source of strength and guidance to her during this, and I'm glad we have the memory of the old Peeta with us as we navigate these waters. It's funny, because I don't think Peeta's fundamental character has changed that much since before The Hunger Games, but you can see how Katniss has changed a lot.

    I love how brave and compassionate Katniss is in this chapter. The speech she gives is just amazing. And she's always saying Peeta is the one who is good with words. Well, in his absence, she's had to take on that role, and she's doing great. It really is sad, thinking back to that night on the rooftop before their first Games. If Peeta could see her now, he'd be so proud.

    • Katniss's dependence on Peeta always reminds me of how Kurt had a picture of Blaine in his locker with the word "Courage"

      • theupsides says:

        Haha, really? I mean, I read the books before Blaine ever came along, but…Kurt worships Blaine. Peeta is the one who has always worshiped Katniss. Katniss is late to the party.

        • Katniss certainly doesn't fit in Kurt's shoes for his complete adoration of Blaine, but the idea of how whenever she's trying to push through something and her mind goes straight for Peeta, that's what it reminds me of. I also read/finished these books before Blaine was on Glee but just that image sticks with me.

          Also please someone refresh my memory if Katniss ever has these moments with Gale, or if she's always drawing power from Peeta.

          • theupsides says:

            You're right, Peeta is the one she goes to when she challenges herself. I don't think she ever thinks of Gale. It's like people have been saying, Katniss and Gale started out very similar. But the Games changed Katniss, and maybe Peeta helped change her, too. Gale is not someone she draws power from, maybe because they don't differ very radically (or well, they didn't before). Peeta has ALWAYS been different, as we saw from that first rooftop conversation.

    • ldwy says:

      Fantastic comment, beautifully written.

  31. I love the crap out of how this chapter ends. It's so beautiful and I imagined it in slow motion and surreal and just hjdhgdjhgfg I hope whoever makes this into a film does it justice.

    • Ishii_Era says:

      Well, Collins is directly invoved in the scriptwriting for the first movie, at least. So there is hope 😀

  32. bell_erin_a says:

    I'm sure everyone else has already said the things I think about this chapter, so I'll keep it short. Bravo, Katniss, and thank you for realizing this, for the speech, for everything in this chapter. Thank you. I can stop yelling as loudly now. I'll still yell at Gale (maybe if I yell loudly enough, he'll drop his worldview and experiences and start to see things as I see them from outside of the story?), just maybe not in paragraph or capslock format!

    Peeta!? Should I be happy it's progress, or should I still be sad because this shouldn't be fucking happening *sadface*? Hm, both I think.

    Also, THAT ENDING. AS;DLGKHASDLJG WHAT.

  33. ohheyitsalliek says:

    I think it's really interesting how different Katniss' views are from Gale. Their lives were so similar up until Katniss went to the Hunger Games, and they seemed to want the same things up to a point. But where Katniss has seen firsthand the brutality of other people within the context of the Hunger Games and she simply wants it to end with a little violence as possible, Gale has yet to really experience anything like that. They both feel the same rage but I think it speaks volumes for how Katniss has been growing up over the course of these books and kinda left Gale behind. Gale says "eye for an eye", and Katniss understands where he's coming from, but she also realizes that would achieve nothing except more pain and death.

    I also think this is why I like her better with Peeta. Gale has such fire and intensity that it has the possibility to fuel Katniss' already short temper, whereas Peeta (before the hijacking) balanced out Katniss' fire with his calm demeanor and his ability to use words so powerfully, rather than wanting to resort to violence.

  34. Shanella says:

    I think it's the BEST cliff hanger! I mean, we all expected this guy to put his gun down and join the rebellion … I know I was practically cheering the victory until reality hits. Changing sides takes more than just a few words, it's a process and these people are as dedicated to their cause as Katniss is.

  35. shortstack930 says:

    I really don't like how Gale's view of everything is so black and white. Either you're part of the rebels or part of the Capitol, and everyone who is for the Capitol must die. Katniss tries to remind him of the gray area, of the people inside the Nut who are either not there by choice or are spies for the rebels. But Gale just decides without the slightest hesitation that they should all die either way. He is fueled by anger and hate which is not a good combination when making decisions that impact the lives of innocents. I'm glad that Katniss at least tried to stand up for her beliefs and tried to make him see how similar it is to a mining accident, even if they still went ahead with the plan anyway.

    • pennylane27 says:

      I hate that he is basically applying his own feelings to everyone else, when he says “I would sacrifice a few, yes, to take out the rest of them,” he replies. “And if I were a spy in there, I’d say, ‘Bring on the avalanches!’”. YOU DO NOT GET TO MAKE THAT CHOICE FOR ANYONE GALE. I mean, it's very noble of you or whatever to sacrifice yourself for the cause (although I don't really like that either), but you can't possibly know if the spies in there would do the same.

      • shortstack930 says:

        Exactly, and I think Katniss even says something similar to that after he makes that comment. She says that she would sacrifice herself if she was a spy inside but that she doesn't feel she has the right to make that choice for anyone else. Gale apparently thinks he can.

      • Clare says:

        Absolutely!!

        We DON'T get to say what OTHER people sacrifice. ESPECIALLY when it involves the people's life and death.

        (As a girl and in reaction to the way I was brought up this just really hits home to me.)

  36. dahliabeard says:

    MARK, I IMPLORE YOU TO DO THE NEXT CHAPTER TODAY. I THINK THAT THIS CLIFFHANGER WARRANTS IT.

  37. RachelHs says:

    I think this chapter is amazing for several reasons. A lot of people (and by a lot I think the majority of people in the fandom) dislike Mockingjay. I've been reading that it's not as exciting or captivating as THG but I disagree. It may not be nonstop action, every chapter isn't somebody getting savagely beaten to death or killed by mutts, but what's exciting about it is the character development. I mean, even if we go back to Marks comments in THG about how Katniss couldn't figure anything out and was fairly one dimensional, we see how much that's changed. Mockingjay is all about how to maintain identity and a sense of self during times of oppression and war and that's what makes it so great. Especially with everything that has been (i.e. Egypt) going on in our world.

    So, getting back to my point. This chapter is fantastic not only because you feel like you're a part of it, but because you see how much each character has changed and figured out the reality of their situation. That's what I love about Mockingjay.

  38. potlid007 says:

    Gale way to be. Seriously, if there is one way to a woman's heart, it's by blowing up a mine. bravo.<img src="http://i1203.photobucket.com/albums/bb385/potlid007/tumblr_lc0mgrV2el1qa47c3.gif&quot; border="0" alt="Photobucket">

    I DON'T CARE IF VOLDEMORT KILLED YOUR PARENTS.

    and bravo Katniss. and Haymitch. you guys are wonderful.
    <img src="http://i1203.photobucket.com/albums/bb385/potlid007/image.gif&quot; border="0" alt="Photobucket">

    BUT WTF COLLINS T U LEAVE ME LIKE THAT???
    <img src="http://i1203.photobucket.com/albums/bb385/potlid007/tumblr_lcbm30YUeG1qdw1bro1_500.gif&quot; border="0" alt="Photobucket">

  39. mr_bobby says:

    Off-topic, but.

    Mark, I was at uni today and walked past a noticeboard in the Student's Union, upon which was a (sparkly) piece of paper asking people for their opinions on the Twilight Saga. I read what this person wrote, apparently as part of a project, and it was incredibly patronising and FILLED ME WITH RAGE. And here I quote, 'If you are one of those "spirited" individuals who dislike Twilight, maybe you should think about how much money Stephenie Meyer has made, and start doing the same thing instead of just complaining about it'. YEAH. 🙁

    Then, out of morbid curiosity, I read the responses. Omg. You would think that a bunch of articulate, intelligent students would be able to express valid reasons for disliking, or even liking the series, BUT NO.

    The responses:
    "OMG I LOVE TWILIGHT every girl deserves an Edward"
    "It's brilliant and Rob Pattinson is soooo hot"
    "Haters are just jealous of Stephenie Meyer, Twilight is my favourite book ever"

    After repeatedly smacking my face against the wall, I scuttled off to the nearest computer. Half an hour later, several copies of your review for Chapter 9 of Breaking Dawn are now plastered across the board.
    Trolling? PERHAPS. Totes worth it.

    • erin says:

      You, sir, deserve a gold star.

      • mr_bobby says:

        Thank you! 😀 I couldn't just leave the idiocy there untouched where people with eyes could see it…

        (Technically I don't think I can be a sir due to not being a dude, but this isn't the first time my oddly gender-specific username has been the source of confusion :P)

    • Julia says:

      You are my new best friend/ role model (along with mark)

    • Baz says:

      It's so weird to me that "Stephenie Meyer has made a shit-ton of money" is a valid argument against why Twilight sucks. I would think there are better qualifiers than that, but maybe my mind just doesn't work properly…….

      You are a hero among trolls, Mr. Bobby.

      • mr_bobby says:

        Haha thanks! And yeah, same with the YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS OF HER SUPER-SPESHUL AWESOMENESS argument. I mean, I'm really really not, I'm saying she can't write because she CAN'T. (Anyone remember the 'Also like a hospital…' sentence from Breaking Down?)

        But my favourite thing about that sentence has to be the "spirited" in quotation marks. We're so blatantly supposed to read that as "asshole", ha.

  40. Katherine says:

    But what Gale is advocating for is murder. He wants to murder all of those people without giving them the chance to surrender or anything.

    In war, nobody calls it murder. They call it "collateral damage." But it's incredibly cold of him – a lot of the people in there are the rebels' allies.

  41. theresa1128429 says:

    This was an amazing chapter. My respect for Katniss just went way up. I have no more words to describe this…
    <img src="http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/6541/405e43ad53ecc2c598fff49.jpg"&gt;

  42. You hit the nail on the head with this. I'm not asking Gale not to fight, I'm just asking him to have some feeling for the innocents that will perish along with the guilty, and to maybe consider how he can best limit the civilian casualties. :/

  43. Kaci says:

    I love how…I don't want to say dark, because that sounds so cliche, but how brutal everything is. Katniss tries to do the right thing, she says the right words, she offers help because it's the only way to cling to what's left of her humanity after watching what they have just done to the Nut. And no one thanks her for it. She's not cheered on like a hero by the wounded. She tries and fails and that is so real to me–that sometimes, prejudices (although after being attacked in such a manner, I think it moves from being pure prejudice into being retaliation or even self-defense) can not be over come simply with words, or even a decent act of humanity. Sometimes, people will cling to them until it kills them, or they kill someone because of them. Brutal, but truth.

    Also, someone needs to get Sassy Gay Friend up on Gale. LOOK AT YOUR LIFE, GALE. LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES. The sad part is, he'd probably still say he was justified, even right to do what he did.

  44. Gamesfan says:

    Just brilliant, how Collins seems to end every chapter like this. You feel not simply compelled but FORCED to keep reading. Love it! Mark, I love your Obama gif. Very appropriate.

  45. BradSmith5 says:

    The world recedes as I try to think of a reason to nitpick this chapter. I stare into the accusing eyes of the Powerpuff girls GIF above my post. Surely I should be able to come up with thousands of things––there are like 14 pages in this chapter, come on! But the words that make it to my keyboard are "I can't."

    • Mauve_Avenger says:

      I found a few, but then again I'm a very nitpicky person. =/

      One probably doesn't really count as it's purely Pavlovian: Because of the Twilight books, I have a deep-seated antipathy for characters who somehow forget to use their autonomic (aka unconscious) nervous system or their kinesthetic sense, which is also largely an unconscious process. (Seriously, Katniss, how do you not realize that your hands are clamped so firmly to your mouth that you can't even speak? How does it take actually trying to speak in that condition and failing to realize that?) I know that that's largely unfair, but annoyance at things like that have seemingly become part of my autonomic nervous system.

      I also really didn't like that Gale and Katniss were dismissed from the meeting. It doesn't make sense to me that the leadership would consider a discussion of the effects of war on the nation's demography to be ~OMG!TopSecretClassified~ to the extent that the figurehead of the rebellion plus one of its military strategists would need to be excluded. It feels like another instance of Collins leaving Katniss out of the loop just so she can be surprised when she finds out later, at a more suspenseful time.

      Another issue I have is either a simple connotation problem or a lack-of-detail problem: if you're going to use a deeply meaningful word like "sorrow" (untempered by a word like "resigned") to describe people's reactions to Gale's plan, we actually need to see that sorrow played out. A person who's "sorrowful" at the prospect of killing the people in the Nut isn't just going to sit there calmly at the meeting table , doing absolutely nothing the whole time; a person who's sorrowful probably has family and friends in that building who they know are likely to die, and I tend to think that they'd make that fact known one way or another.

      • BradSmith5 says:

        Ha,ha,ha. Oh man, I forgot about that first one. It even takes Katniss two paragraphs after realizing it to drop her hands!

        And I must have forgotten about the reactions: "The expressions range from pleasure to distress, from sorrow to satisfaction." Why not describe what they're doing? Shaking their heads, leaning back in their chairs with smirks on their faces…anything!

        Anyway, thank you, Mauve Avenger! I can always count on you! 😉

  46. csq says:

    Okay! I'm finally caught up to were you are so I can read your reviews, and I love it! 😀

    And one of the reasons I've loved these books so far is for the very important message in them. THIS is a message I want youth everywhere to read and understand, not some Twilight nonsense about how it's okay to be with an abusive and jealous boyfriend as long as you marry him (Yes this is the message I got from it, deal with it). Katniss speech there is so real, and true and it tells you that it's NEVER okay or fine to harm other innocent people.

    So much love for her and this book 🙂

  47. easilyentranced says:

    I think this is my favorite chapter so far. Everything about it is just so powerful, even that cliffhanger, which is the most awful thing ever if you're reading the books like you are, Mark. I'm glad the citizens of Two didn't just go with what Katniss was saying. No matter how much I agree with her, I think it'd be unrealistic to expect them all to join forces because of Katniss' awesome speech… so I guess I'm saying, I'm glad she got shot? That sounds horrible, though! Ah! Katniss, be alright!

  48. Not_Prepared says:

    I'm trying hard to look at this from Gale's point of view… Of course, I've never personally had my father killed in a mining accident (herp derp), but I can see where he's coming from. An eye for an eye. I think that if I was in his position, I could have easily done the same, as long as I could put it out of my mind that the people inside the Nut had lives and families and feelings. It's kind of like how Katniss felt in her first Hunger Games. As long as she could forget that she was killing people, it would be just like hunting.

    Feeling so much what-the-fuckery at this cliffhanger right now… WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO ME, COLLINS?!?! I'm seriously hoping she's not about to pull some Jodie Picoult-style shit and have Katniss die & Prim narrate the rest of the book…

    • Pk9 says:

      See where I think Gale crosses the line is actually when it becomes more about vengeance than it is about victory. The idea itself is pretty dark, but it is necessary in the absence of an alternative to defeat the Nut. It's an issue of "the greater good" where this needs to be done or the war itself may be lost. It's certainly an uncomfortable subject even then. But when Gale takes it one step further and wants to kill everyone BECAUSE they helped bomb District 12, this crosses the line into murder.

  49. Lady X says:

    I’m still sure I actually felt my head explode when I read this chapter for the first time! 🙂

  50. HGCFMJ says:

    BEAUTIFUL DARREN CRISS GIF IS BEAUTIFUL.

  51. Clueless says:

    “I am,” I say. “That’s why I killed Cato…and he killed Thresh…and he killed Clove…and she tried to kill me. It just goes around and around, and who wins? Not us. Not the districts. Always the Capitol. But I’m tired of being a piece in their Games.”
    I think this is one of those passages that Collins was waiting the whole series just to get out. Its so poetic and straight to the point and I love it. It's one of those quotes I'd use if I were doing stupid quote analysis for school because its soo perfect. It just sorta reminds everybody that this isn't about overcoming opression or the grey area between write and wrong (although there is a lot of that in here). It's about having an idententity and being able to have a CHOICE in the matter.
    That whole speach though was amazing it gave me chills reading it and it still does today. Especially the cliffhanger. That just proves how heartless and gutsy Collins is. Seriously.

  52. TreesaX says:

    Mark, if you honestly got to that last line of the chapter and did not IMMEDIATELY read the next one, I will think you are a robot. Because SERIOUSLY that line is adsasdfadfdsdf!!

    I will attempt to write something of substance later.

  53. Saber says:

    Too big to post a picture of. But here is peeta's facebook page (if he had one) by 13pinkstars
    http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/350/8/2/pe

    No spoilers, I double checked

    • Lynn says:

      I laughed, especially at Gale telling Peeta that yes Katniss is a mutt so stay far away. Then Dr. Aurelius calling him out for it.

      There was a GREAT one for the Harry Potter series. It was about a lot of social media sites with the different characters. I couldn't find it on a quick check but I will keep looking. It made me laugh so hard I had tears rolling down my cheeks!

  54. Personally I think Collins enjoys giving people emotional whiplash, hence these chapters. It's stuff like this that makes me really excited for the movie though, especially as she did the screenplay. That movie is going to be some exciting stuff. Assuming hollywood actually, you know, pays attention to the screenplay and doesn't go on their merry little way like usual.

  55. Cally says:

    It was this chapter that I realized how attached I was to Katniss.
    In the first book, I would have been a tad saddened if she died, but would have found it a cool twist. As everyone was saying in those reviews; "Let the rest be from Rue's, Foxface's, Thresh's, etc. POV"
    Then in CF, I would have been much more upset if she died, but almost more for Peeta's sake than hers.
    But now, when I read the last sentence and just burst into tears at the mere thought of Katniss being killed and gone, it hit me how much I have grown to love Katniss over the course of all three books, but especially this one. She's changed so much, and really discovered who she herself is apart from what the rest of the world is telling her to be. She's still extremely confused, but her vulnerableness and self-questioning is such a contrast from the cynical, defensive girl we met at the beginning of THG.
    So when I suddenly started crying it just hit me how crushed I truly was for the possibility of losing Katniss; not for how Peeta would feel (because he obviously wouldn't care at this point), not for Prim or her mom, but because I would genuinely miss Katniss.
    Ok, spew over.

  56. Phoebe says:

    I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS CHAPTER FOR DAYS!!! I kept thinking "is this the one?!?!?!" finally!!!!!!

  57. kaycee says:

    Even though I've read this book more than once (and I swear it always ends the same way) AND I'm trying to read at pace with Mark, there was no way I could stop at the end of this chapter.

    Seriously, how can anyone do that? Mark how did you even stop long enough to write up this review? I would have read just another page or two until there was no book left, and then my review would be something stupid like Smeyer's "I couldn't put it down" Way to go anyone who is actually reading along with Mark. 😀

  58. TreesaX says:

    <img src="http://i56.tinypic.com/13zogee.jpg"&gt;

    It says Catching Fire but still, appropriate picture is appropriate.

  59. Quizzical says:

    a big 'fuck yeah!' to every thing you have said here, mark.

    also i love that in these moments we get from katness what the capitol AND district 13 are unable to get her to do on cue with a script etc. this is actually her real strength right now. *slow clap*

    and then she gets shot.

  60. vampira2468 says:

    For some reason , Katniss really annoyed me

  61. After i start the Nourish it provides me with a lot of garbled text message, may be the problem on my finish?

  62. Hanh says:

    Thank you, Mark, for saying that bombing the mines was a necessary evil. I swear if you had been all "That is all wrong to the highest degree and shame on all of them for doing it" I would've gotten angry. Sometimes horrible things have to be done. That being said, my heart hurts because I see Gale is paving his way down a dark path, and I'm really starting to believe your prediction will come true. He'll have his redemption but ultimately dies.

    Also, the whole time Katniss was giving her speech I just thought 'She's going to get shot, isn't she?' And then when she did

    <img src="http://www.cpcwiki.eu/facepalm.gif"&gt;

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