{"id":171,"date":"2011-01-28T08:30:30","date_gmt":"2011-01-28T16:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=171"},"modified":"2011-01-27T23:06:37","modified_gmt":"2011-01-28T07:06:37","slug":"mark-reads-mockingjay-chapter-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/01\/mark-reads-mockingjay-chapter-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Mockingjay&#8217;: Chapter 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the first chapter of <em>Mockingjay<\/em>, Suzanne Collins reminds us just how terrible everything is. SAD PARTY 2011? It just might be. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re intrigued, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read <em>Mockingjay<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Oh hey, are you having a good morning, noon, afternoon, evening, or night? Has it been a rather pleasant day for you? Are you thinking happy thoughts and feeling accomplished?<\/p>\n<p><em>WELL LET SUZANNE COLLINS RUIN ABSOLUTELY ALL OF THAT.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ecstatic for where Collins has taken this story, mostly because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so unexpected for me, especially after what I <em>thought<\/em> the book was going to be about. AND LOOK WHERE WE ARE NOW. ::pinches <em>Mockingjay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/em> cheeks::<\/p>\n<p>How awesome are my predictions <em>they are pure genius already<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather. This is where the bed I shared with my sister, Prim, stood. Over there was the kitchen table. The bricks of the chimney, which collapsed in a charred heap, provide a point of reference for the rest of the house. How else could I orient myself in this sea of grey?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>BACK IN DISTRICT 12 IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH. Fuck yeah, FIRE TRELAWNEY <em>I AM LIVING IN HOGWARTS NOW.<\/em> I wish Hogwarts was real. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Almost nothing remains of District 12. A month ago, the Capitol\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s firebombs obliterated the poor coal miners\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 house in the Seam, the shops in the town, even the Justice Building. The only area that escaped incineration was the Victor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Village.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ok, I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for me to stop making bad jokes. Because <em>holy shit there really is no District 12 left<\/em>. I also knew once Katniss mentioned that this book starts a month after the end of <em>Catching Fire<\/em>, we were bound to be dealt some of Collins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s signature summarizing. ISN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T IT FUN.<\/p>\n<p>Actually\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6it is. I was pleasantly surprised by how\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<em>not<\/em> bothered I was by it. I know I criticized the pace in <em>Catching Fire<\/em> (WHICH I STILL STAND BY, AFTER THE FACT, FOR THE RECORD, FYI, BTW), and I think a lot of it felt weird because it took me out of the moment. However, here in <em>Mockingjay<\/em>, Collins doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever seem to take me out of Katniss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s experience inside District 12. As Katniss moves throughout her home and the town she grew up in, she uses the silence and despair to reflect on the past month. Essentially, to me, it feels natural.<\/p>\n<p>Chapter one is gigantic info dump for us and Collins starts off with a whole lot of brain mush. First of all, there are <em>authorities<\/em> in District 13. So that implies there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a whole system of organization to the government there, which probably also means there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a whole lot of people there. And Plutarch is sort of in charge? I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand how he fits in yet, but I assume he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s working alongside those in District 13.<\/p>\n<p>I also feel a lot of sympathy for Katniss, though I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand the pain and anguish she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going through. Collins spends a lot of time exploring what Katniss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind is going through after the events of the last novel and how that manifests itself physically for her. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been suffering from trouble thinking coherently and she mentions that she has also been given a steady supply of drugs to control her pain and her mood.<\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious how this is going to play out through the novel, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll avoid saying much now, except that I imagine that Katniss is experiencing some form of post-traumatic stress disorder after her second entry into the Games. (The only reason I mention that is because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve suffered from it and, so far, a lot of what she describes seems the same.)<\/p>\n<p>BUT IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S EARLY SO I WON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T SAY MUCH MORE IN FEAR OF STICKING MY FOOT IN MY MOUTH.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Katniss. Should I come down?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d My best friend Gale\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voice reaches me though the headset the rebels insisted I wear. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s up in a hovercraft, watching me carefully, ready to swoop in if anything goes amiss.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sorry, this image made me laugh. And I literally cannot explain why. It just seems\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6silly? Not that Collins intended that or that I make any sense at all, but I am just imagining Gale with a cute headset on, sending coded messages back to the staff at the District 13 base, feeling like a totally useful spy or something, like a post-modern Inspector Gadget. Annnnnnnnnnnnddddd now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve lost all my readers. Great.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>He understands I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want anyone with me today. Not even him. Some walks you have to take alone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I use the Kindle app on my iPad to read. It has a neat feature that allows you to see passages highlighted by 50 or more other readers. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice to see what other people find significant in a book. Those three sentences were highlighted by 438 people. And to those 438 people, I say:<\/p>\n<p><em>REALLY<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Honestly, that last sentence is so melodramatic and frivolous that I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but giggle wildly. SOME WALKS YOU HAVE TO TAKE ALONE. Like most of them?<\/p>\n<p>Ok, enough poking fun at this. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s get to the real shit.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The summer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been scorching hot and dry as a bone. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been next to no rain to disturb the piles of ash left by the attack. They shift here and there, in reaction to my footsteps. No breeze to scatter them. I keep my eyes on what I remember as the road, because when I first landed in the Meadow, I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t careful and I walked right into a rock. Only it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a rock\u00e2\u20ac\u201dit was someone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s skull. It rolled over and over and landed faceup, and for a long time I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop looking at the teeth, wondering whose they were, thinking of how mine would probably look the same way under similar circumstances.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/28.media.tumblr.com\/tumblr_lfjn5xh7Hv1qa6ql2o1_500.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" \/><\/p>\n<p>OH WAIT. WRONG REACTION.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/media.tumblr.com\/tumblr_lfpt1ex3jI1qawv30.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"92\" \/><\/p>\n<p>YEAH. YEAH. What the hell. And, of course, it only gets worse. Turns out that those who weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t charred immediately died of other causes while trying to escape. Their decomposing bodies litter the ground in what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s left of District 12.<\/p>\n<p>You are destroying me, Collins.<\/p>\n<p>But she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also destroying Katniss. The truth is that Katniss is wrecked with guilt:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>But I did. It was my arrow, aimed at the chink in the force field surrounding arena, that brought on this firestorm of retribution. That sent the whole country of Panem into chaos.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anything I could say to counter this. Obviously, Katniss was doing what she could to stay alive. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I would ever criticize her for that. I get it. She shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have done anything differently. But she does have to deal with the fact that what she did inherently caused the bombing of District 12.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>More than ninety percent of the district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s population is dead. The remaining eight hundred or so are refugees in District 13\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhich, as far as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m concerned, is the same thing as being homeless forever.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>NINETY PERCENT??? So, over 7,000 people died??? WHAT THE FUCK. That is far more than I anticipated. Now I <em>completely<\/em> understand why Katniss is so upset about that. Could I live with the fact that my actions caused over 7,000 people to be murdered? Fucking hell. :\/<\/p>\n<p>Katniss summarizes a bit more about District 13, as we learn that Gale helped a small group escape past the fence, out into the Meadow, and to Katniss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lake house, where they watched District 13 destroyed by Capitol aircraft. (For the record, this happened just a mere FIFTEEN MINUTES after the Games ended. Fifteen minutes!!!)<\/p>\n<p>District 13 to the rescue, though. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know <em>how<\/em> they found the group that Gale, Katniss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mom, and Prim were helping to take care of, but they did. And all 800 or so of the refugees from District 12 were moved underground in District 13.<\/p>\n<p>District 13\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not at all what I expected. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what I think about it. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re far more organized and rigid than what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m used to and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m unsure of their motives. Katniss met someone from District 10 who mentions that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re merely gathering people to help grow their numbers due to a strange infertility issue. Ok, WHAT. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure that plan makes any sense at all, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t blame anyone in this situation for being a bit paranoid.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout all of this, Katniss is wandering around District 12 and finally is overwhelmed by it all, so she does something rather foolish: she heads for the Victors Village, which is completely undamaged. Which seems like a bad idea if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the possibility that someone in the Capitol is monitoring the place. But, again, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m willing to cut her some slack after all this. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way I could ever know how I would react in a similar situation because I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even conceive of it.<\/p>\n<p>There in the house she spent a year in, she tries to organize her thoughts about her situation, at the persistent request by everyone around her to become the Mockingjay:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I must now become the actual leader, the face, the voice, the embodiment of the revolution. The person who the districts\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmost of which are now openly at war with the Capitol\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcan count on to blaze the path to victory. I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to do it alone. They have a whole team of people to make me over, dress me, write my speeches, orchestrate my appearances\u00e2\u20ac\u201das if <em>that<\/em> doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sound horribly familiar\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand all I have to do is play my part.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>WHAT THE FUCK<\/strong>. What??? How? Why? What does this even mean? First of all WHO IS SHE SPEAKING TO FOR THESE APPEARANCES? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand this at all. Also, SURELY THESE PEOPLE REALIZE HOW AWFULLY TRIGGERING THAT WOULD BE TO HER, RIGHT??? <em>RIGHT???<\/em> Ok, probably not, since they never experienced that themselves. SO WHY. WHY.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Yesterday afternoon, as the door was closing behind me, I heard [President] Coin say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I told you we should have rescued the boy first.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>THANKS, PRESIDENT COIN. That vote of confidence is TRULY UPLIFTING.<\/p>\n<p>This whole situation is not as exciting as I had thought it would be. As Katniss continues to fret about her involvement in the rebellion and expresses her reluctance to even be a part of it, I gotta say I side with her on this one. She just survived TWO HUNGER GAMES and Peeta is captured and possibly dead and all these people want is for her to become the mouthpiece for their cause? CAN SHE LIKE TAKE A NAP OR SOMETHING? It strikes me as frighteningly narrow and, frankly, quite rude.<\/p>\n<p>Never did I think that the rebellion would piss me off. Bravo, Collins.<\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to skip over the return of Buttercup (WHICH IS QUITE BEAUTIFUL, I MIGHT ADD) and go right to the horrifying discovery that Katniss makes inside that house.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>My nose twitches. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the smell. Cloying and artificial. A dab of white peeks out of a vase of dried flowers on my dresser. I approach it with cautious steps. There, all but obscured by its preserved cousins, is a fresh white rose. Perfect. Down to the last thorn and silken petal.<\/p>\n<p>And I know immediately who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sent it to me.<\/p>\n<p>President Snow.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>My thoughts immediately went here: OH MY GOD, <strong>GET OUT OF THE HOUSE, <em>HE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S BEHIND YOU<\/em><\/strong>, which is kind of irrational. But oh well. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not what it meant. It was merely a sign left by Snow, who anticipated that Katniss would return to her home, even for a brief moment. And as Katniss quickly returns to the hovercraft that holds Gale, we learn what that rose truly means to her:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Positioned on my dresser, that white-as-snow rose is a personal message to me. It speaks of unfinished business. It whispers, <em>I can find you. I can reach you. Perhaps I am watching you now<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And I will leap out from this closet and drink your blood!<\/p>\n<p>No, wait, ok, the vampire theory is silly. Still, that would be pretty cool, right? <em>Mockingjay<\/em> is totally secretly about vampires, right? RIGHT???<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the first chapter of Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins reminds us just how terrible everything is. SAD PARTY 2011? It just might be. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re intrigued, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Mockingjay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,5],"tags":[28,39,24,27],"class_list":["post-171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mockingjay","category-hunger-games","tag-katniss-everdeen","tag-mark-reads-mockingjay","tag-mark-reads-the-hunger-games","tag-suzanne-collins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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