on
3.5/5
Non-Fiction
- Get link
- Other Apps
Rating: 4.5/5
Pages: 400
Started: 16 November 2023
Finished: 17 November 2023
Summary:
Katniss and Peeta have won the Hunger Games. They murdered their way to survival, something that should entitle them to the time and space needed to heal the deep wounds the Games inflicted. Yet Panem is not done with them. Even as they watch the citizens of District 12 suffer from oppression and starvation, and even as the other districts begin to rebel, the two victors are forced to put on the garb and the smiles of a happy couple and parade throughout the country.
But for the government of Panem, even that isn't enough--their grasp on the country has become tenuous in the face of the rebellions, and in a stroke of desperation they draw upon an ultimate cruelty: calling the previous victors back into the Games.
Thoughts:
So rarely is the second book the best in a trilogy, but despite the less cohesive structure, I think this book qualifies. From a purely entertainment point of view, it included every single one of my favorite tropes: mentor/mentee, improvement montage, competence, reluctant alliances, people dressed fashionably yet deadly. It was genuinely such a fun book to read, and would have been very enjoyable even if I hadn't been searching for more evidence for my hypotheses.
"I think of Gale, who is only really alive in the woods, with its fresh air and sunlight and clean, flowing water"
- Gale is nature and natural
"Even so, I never drop off the game while he's at home. Which is easy since he works twelve hours a day."
- Gale fragile masculinity! matches Katniss's
"Our romance became a key strategy for our survival in the arena. Only it wasn't just a strategy for Peeta. I'm not sure what it was for me. But I know now it was nothing but painful for Gail."
"But it wouldn't do, what with the romance I was playing out in the arena, to have my best friend be Gale. He was too handsome, too male, and not the least bit willing to smile and play nice for the cameras. We do resemble each other, though, quite a bit. We have that seam loook. Dark straight hair, olive skin, gray eyes. So some genius decided to make him my cousin"
- both POC Katniss evidence, and gender/attraction/masculinity
"Just the sound of his voice twists my stomach into a knot of unpleasant emotions like guilt, sadness, and fear .And longing. I might as well admit there's some of that, too. Only it has too much competition to ever win out."
- sexuality vs survival
"President Snow rubs a spot over his left eyebrow, the very spot where I myself get headaches"
- snow/katniss parallel
"My revulsion at this conversation, at discussing my feelings for two of the people I care most about with President Snow, chokes me off"
About unconscious Gale: "But I hadn't imagined how arm they would feel pressed against my own. Or how thosehands, which could set the mosst intricate of snares, could as easily entrap me. I think I made some sort of noise in the back of my thraot, and I vaguely remember my figers, curled tightly closed, resting on his chest. Then he let me go and said, 'I had to do that. At least once.' And then he was gone. Despite the fact that the sun was setting and my family would be worried, I sat by a tree next to the fence. I tried to decide how I felt about the kiss, if I had had liked it or resented it, but all I really remembered was the pressure of gale's lips and the scent of the oranges that still lingered on his skin. It was pointless comparing it with the many kisses I'd exchanged with Peeta. I still hadn't figured out if any of those counted. Finally I went home."
"My mother laughs, and I think about how there was no going bac k after I took over caring for the family awhen I was eleven. How I will always have to protect her"
- gender dynamics and protection
I hadn't thought about it much, but in the arena at least some of the boys got to keep their body hair whereas none of the girls did"
- gender, katniss misses her leg hair
"In the arena, I'd played that romance angle for all it was worth. There had been times when I didn't honestly know how I felt about him. I still don't, really.
"The solemn ceremony is pretty tightly mapped out, so I'm not sure how to do it. It's not a time for kissing, but maybe I can work one more in"
- this is so funny & so unromantic
- Peeta is both good and smart, but people struggle to reconcile that
"Glale, I can't think about anyone thta way now. All I can think about, every day, every waking minute since htey drew Prim's name at the reaping, is how afraid I am. And there doesn't seem to be room for anything else. If we could get somewhere safe, maybe I could be different. I don't know."
- i'm a little tired of asexuality being so tied to circumstances rather than standing on its own, but still worth including.
"Instead I throw myself directly between the whip and Gale. I've flung ouyt my arms to protect as much of his broken body as possible"
- Katniss the protector
"That's what nettles me. It's the implication that there's something going on between Gale and Madge. And I don't like it."
"Of course, I love Gale. But what kind of love does she mean?" What do I mean when I say I love gale? I don't know. I kiss him last night, in a moment when my emotions were running high. But I'm sure he doesn't remember it. Does he? I hope not. If he does, everything will just get more complicated and I really can't think about kissing when I've got a rebellion to incite"
- again regardless of possible attraction, Katniss does not see romance as a prioroty in the slightest
Are all of Peeta's grossly in-love comments ("my nightmares are usually about losing you") genuine or conniving? Because they're so extreme
Also: "Do you mind that I used your mockingjay? I wanted us to match" --is this also conniving and misleading?
Finnick is the other object of desire in the book
"It's like when you wouldn't even look at me naked in the arena even though I was half dead. You're so ... pure"
"Isn't it the thing I dreaded the most about the wedding, about the future--the loss of my children to the Games? And it could be true now, couldn't it? If I hadn't spent my life building up layers of defenses until I recoil at even the suggestion of marriage or a family?"
"We walk down the hallway. Peeta wants to stop by his room to shower off the makeup and meet me in a few minutes, but I won't let him. I'm certain if the door shuts between us, it will lock and I'll have to spend the rest of the night without him."
"So before he can talk, I stop his lips with a kiss. I feel that thing again. The thing I only felt once before. IN the cave last year, when I was trying to get Haymitch to send us food. I kissed Peeta about a thousand times during those Games and after. But there was only one kiss that made me feel something stir deep inside. Only one that made me want more [...] Instead of satisfying me, the kisses have the opposite effect, of making my need greater."
"Used without consent, without knowledge"
"While you live, the revolution lives"
"To punish Haymitch, who, of all the people in this rotting world, has turned Peeta and me into pieces in his Games. I trusted him. I put what was precious in Haymitch's hands. And he has betrayed me.