The smell of blood … it was on his breath.

What does he do? I think. Drink it? I imagine him sipping it from a teacup. Dipping a cookie into the stuff and pulling it out dripping red.

Really?  That’s the very first thought you go to?  Not, I don’t know, that he’s ill?  Blood can be a scary thing, sure, but in this case if feels like the author just wanted to sound ominous by tossing her symbolism and completely forgot to consider the context of what she’d just done.  She knows that she means to be scary, so she has her characters react accordingly, and logic be damned.

Districts on the verge of uprisings. A direct death threat to Gale, with others to follow. Everyone I love doomed. And who knows who else will pay for my actions?

She’s just relentlessly the center of the universe in these books. 

Katniss, no one will die for your actions.  Literally not one single person.  Why?  Because they’re going to be dying for their actions.  They are the ones rising up and revolting while you mope in your pretty mansion.

I can’t do it, I think. I’m not that good. Peeta’s the good one, the likable one. He can make people believe anything. I’m the one who shuts up and sits back and lets him do as much of the talking as possible.

Katniss can’t tell a convincing lie.  She’s right now so shaken up that she’s gripping a chair and dizzy with shock.  One paragraph later…

“Is everything all right, Katniss?” she asks.

“It’s fine. We never see it on television, but the president always visits the victors before the tour to wish them luck,” I say brightly.

…and she’s perfectly able to tell a convincing lie, and do it ‘brightly’ at that.

Fuck continuity, we’ve got to make sure that Katniss can do no wrong!

Since I’ve been home I’ve been trying hard to mend my relationship with my mother. Asking her to do things for me instead of brushing aside any offer of help, as I did for years out of anger. Letting her handle all the money I won. Returning her hugs instead of tolerating them.

…wow.  Just, wow.  How selfish doe you have to be to believe that asking someone for stuff counts as a repaired relationship?  Notice how absolutely nothing in this description is about Katniss giving love or consideration to her mother.  There’s nothing that runs outward from Katniss.  She’s a black hole, sucking in Cynthia’s love and concern and giving nothing back.  And this is supposedly better than whatever came before it.

Someone asked my mother what she thought of my new boyfriend, and she replied that, while Peeta was the very model of what a young man should be, I wasn’t old enough to have any boyfriend at all.

Presumably, Cynthia was not in on the whole story aspect before now, so is this an accurate reflection of culture?  What is their society’s belief about underage dating?  It seems reasonable that they’d use 18 as a marker for adulthood, given the terms of the games, but in that case, do kids date?  Is there some hesitancy towards getting serious, since everyone knows that their partners might be taken away to die on any given year?  Maybe kids flirt and dally until they reach majority, but avoid taking it seriously (or at least avoid outward signs of taking it seriously) until they’re free from the reapings?

Well, we’ll never know, because this is a throwaway line and the book is not at all interested in developing the setting.  There’s no hint of their culture being affected by the circumstances in any way.  Instead, everyone is just a middle class American plopped randomly down into dystopia. 

And maybe it can help account for how little I’ve been seen in Peeta’s company since the cameras left.

Katniss is worried about what people might think of something that they haven’t seen and don’t know about.

What?

None of us are used to the luxury of turning on a tap and having a limitless supply of hot water at our fingertips. We had only cold at our home in the Seam

I’m really curious as to the infrastructure of this place.  Apparently even the poorest houses have running water, which isn’t exactly an easy thing to maintain.  You’ve got to build the plumbing and pipes to get it to the houses, so that’s a community-wide project, plus there’s the matter of water treatment plants, pumps, all sorts of machinery.  Water towers are nice and all, but they still need a pump to fill them.  Which means electricity, which we’re told only turns on for a few hours a day, if that.  And all this stuff is prone to breaking, which means someone needs to be on hand and knowledgeable enough to fix it.  And that’s not even getting into sewage disposal, which hasn’t been touched on by the book yet.  Do they have indoor toilets in the seam, or do they unload night buckets into a midden pile?

So, we’re actually talking about a very expensive and complex system in a place where people routinely starve to death, and the book doesn’t even seem to realize this.  Why do they have running water at all?  Why is the capitol so concerned about giving them potable water on tap, but not about giving them proper food?

Honestly, once you’ve got water on tap, getting hot water on tap isn’t an astounding luxury. 

My mother has added a small bag of dried flowers that perfumes the air. […] I undress and lower myself into the silky water — my mother has poured in some kind of oil as well — and try to get a grip on things.

Yup.  Katniss is clearly so concerned with her relationship with her mother.  Cynthia goes through all the effort of showering Katniss with extras and goodies, and Katniss just sort of off-handedly notes that while mostly just focusing on herself.  It’s even all the same consideration as a standard description, like those things are just supposed to be there for Katniss’s comfort.

Well, last book Cynthia was an abject failure every time she was mentioned, and this book she’s a competent servant.  I guess technically that’s a step up.

The first question is who to tell, if anyone. Not my mother or Prim, obviously; they’d only become sick with worry. Not Gale. Even if I could get word to him. What would he do with the information, anyway?

It’s not clear here how much anyone knows.  Does her family think that the relationship with Peeta is real, or do they know it’s a fake?  She clearly hasn’t told Gale that it was all a show, although I can’t fathom why not.  But there’s no word one way or the other about Cynthia and Prim.  If they know it’s a fake, then tell them about the visit, because at this point you really don’t want them to accidently fuck things up.  If they don’t know it’s a fake, then still tell them, because – again – you don’t want them to accidently fuck things up.

She’s not the only one that has to carry on this fiction, after all.

Besides, Gale’s already so angry and frustrated with the Capitol that I sometimes think he’s going to arrange his own uprising. The last thing he needs is an incentive.

Yes, heaven forbid anyone try and overthrow the tyrannical despot that’s making life so miserable.

By the way, you know what would be nice?  Seeing Gale be this angry at the Capitol.  I can certainly buy that it happens, and I’m glad someone is since Katniss continually fails, but that doesn’t change the fact that we don’t get to see it.  We’re told that he rants and raves, but we’ve never heard one of the rants.  We don’t know if he does anything but grumble.  We don’t know why he’s more dissatisfied than anyone else in the world, or if he is.  All of his appearances so far have been completely centered around interacting with Katniss, and frankly, after that bath thing, I’m pretty convinced that’s just because Katniss doesn’t notice anything that isn’t directly related to her.  “Oh, he’s ranting about the Capitol?  Blah, blah, summarizing time…”

But my guess is Cinna might already be at risk, and I don’t want to pull him into any more trouble by closer association with me.

Whaaaa?  How would associating with her put him at more risk?  He’s already pretty close to her in a social sense, and that’s not going to change if he’s kept in the dark.  So, really, keeping him safe would require telling him to keep his distance, which would require telling him about the threats.

This is all just so strange.  She’s flatly convinced that people can’t know about last chapter, because it would somehow endanger them to know the truth, but without telling us why she thinks the truth is so dangerous.  She seems to have completely missed the point that she’s supposed to be quelling rebellion, not keeping her feelings a secret.  And if they’re basically going to be putting on a giant play, then the rest of the actors need to be in on the script so that they can help.  So that, if Katniss fucks up in private, they know they need to lie to help her, or they can nudge her and whisper stage directions. 

Then there’s Peeta, who will be my partner in this deception, but how do I begin that conversation? Hey, Peeta, remember how I told you I was kind of faking being in love with you? Well, I really need you to forget about that now and act extra in love with me or the president might kill Gale.

“Hey, Peeta, remember how you sprung your feelings for me on national television in a ploy to keep me/both of us alive, and then for some reason you forgot that it was all a ploy?  Well, you set this thing in motion, now we’ve got to keep it up.  If we don’t the result (somehow) will be open rebellion in which thousands of people will die.  All of which wouldn’t have happened if you’d just kept your big fat mouth shut.  So, you know, good job on that one.”  ß How about you say it like that?

Really, it’s kind of disgusting how this book frames her ‘lie’ to Peeta as if it’s her fault, as if she was somehow the one manipulating his feelings and taking advantage of him, when it was really his ideas and manipulations that set all this in motion in the first place.  But heaven forbid we let go of the idea that women are manipulative harpies, and that if there’s any discord in a relationship it’s actually all her fault for being so deceitful. 

This book is feminist!

my prep team bursts into the bathroom. There’s no question of privacy. When it comes to my body, we have no secrets, these three people and me.

Yes, because you were forced to strip naked in front of strangers while they judged your fitness for television, all while showing a complete disregard for your wishes and comfort.  But sure, go ahead and pretend like this is all just fine and dandy. 

And then they make much of how she’s “let herself go” by commenting on her overgrown eyebrows, her bitten nails, and her hair.  Three things which will actually present no problem at all, because they’re easily fixed.  She goes out in the woods all the time and that’s all they’ve got to comment on?  She’s got to be the cleanest, carefulest hunter ever. No scars, scabs, sunburns, rashes, or calluses here!

After they’ve exhausted the topic of the Quarter Quell, my prep team launches into a whole lot of stuff about their incomprehensibly silly lives. Who said what about someone I’ve never heard of and what sort of shoes they just bought and a long story from Octavia about what a mistake it was to have everyone wear feathers to her birthday party.

Actually, all that sounds very comprehensible.  What’s incomprehensible is your insistence that Snow is a snake, that people can’t know they’re in danger, and that machine-made shoes are expensive. 

Also, that’s perfectly normal small talk.  What, do people your district only converse about deep, philosophical topics?

I can see by the palette Cinna has assigned that we’re going for girlish, not sexy. Good. I’ll never convince anyone of anything if I’m trying to be provocative. Haymitch made that very clear when he was coaching me for my interview for the Games.

…because sexy girls are all fakes?  Because sexy girls are only trying to manipulate people?  Because sexy girls can’t be in love?  Because sex is bad?

…because fuck feminism?

They respond with enthusiasm and then watch, thoroughly engrossed, as she breaks down the process of the elaborate braided hairdo. In the mirror, I can see their earnest faces following her every move, their eagerness when it is their turn to try a step.

For all Katniss goes on about the prep team being stupider than animals, they actually seem pretty normal.  They have small-talk conversations, they are clearly very passionate and competent in their chosen field of expertise, and they have yet to say anything that’s actually dumb.

In fact, all three are so readily respectful and nice to my mother that I feel bad about how I go around feeling so superior to them.

And they’re even nice people.  Yes, Katniss, you should feel bad!

Who knows who I would be or what I would talk about if I’d been raised in the Capitol? Maybe my biggest regret would be having feathered costumes at my birthday party, too.

GOD DAMNIT BOOK, WHY DO YOU HAVE TO RUIN EVERYTHING?

Katniss should feel bad because the team actually isn’t a trio of pets, not because she’s supposed to pity them for being at the mercy of some ‘incomprehensibly silly’ culture.  She’s basically saying that her culture (undeveloped as it is) is actually superior by default to anything else, so the only good feelings she could have for someone outside her own ethnocentric group is pity that they had the misfortune of being born in the wrong place.

I mean, yes, the Capitol sucks for supporting and continuing the Hunger Games.  But Katniss’s people have no sense of community, let old people and disabled people keel over dead if they can’t find other work, and run an orphanage staffed with child-abusers.  Not really a shining example, there.

Every victor is supposed to have one. Your talent is the activity you take up since you don’t have to work either in school or your district’s industry.

So…what’s Haymich’s talent?  And does ‘not have to’ equate to ‘not supposed to’?  I mean, I can see no one volunteering to go into mining, considering it’s unlikely they have proper safety regulations in place.  (Or maybe they do; they have indoor plumbing for no reason.)  But what about in District 10?  Are you allowed to have your talent be animal related?  Can a District 4 victor have his talent be deep-sea fishing?

I don’t have a talent, unless you count hunting illegally, which they don’t.

ARCHERY, ALSO KNOWN AS “A FUCKING SPORT, YOU DUMBASS.”

suitable alternatives from a list Effie Trinket sent her. Cooking, flower arranging, playing the flute.

Okay, what the fuck.  If a ‘talent’ is supposed to be a stand-in for not having a career and fill up her time, then do they expect her to spend all of her days arranging flowers?  And does it include growing flowers, maybe developing crossbreeds or some such?  All three of those options can be time-intensive, if you want to get super-professional about them, but so can a lot of other things.

You know, like philanthropy.  Or maybe running a daycare so single mothers can work more, or taking over the orphanage, or starting a community vegetable gardening project, or inventing a department store so the Hob can be legitimized or tons of other options.  Oh, if only Katniss had buckets of money that she could spend on community improvement!  But alas, I guess her neighbors aren’t going to get anything except what the Capitol sends them on parcel day.

None of them took, although Prim had a knack for all three.

Also, note how all three of those things mentioned are stereotypically ‘girly.’  Katniss fails at all three, but Prim excelled at them, because Prim is a girly-girl and Katniss isn’t.  Therefore, she’s not allowed to do girly things.

Because this book is feminist and don’t you forget it!

But I said yes because it meant getting to talk to Cinna, and he promised he’d do all the work. […]I may have no interest in designing clothes but I do love the ones Cinna makes for me.

Katniss gets off with not doing any actual work, but she still gets rewarded with pretty baubles.

Naturally, unlike the other expensive clothes that didn’t fit right, these expensive clothes are just awesome.  Because, you know, Cinna and shit.

Bam! It’s like someone actually hits me in the chest. No one has, of course, but the pain is so real I take a step back. I squeeze my eyes shut and I don’t see Prim — I see Rue

So, flashbacks.  As far as I’ve experienced, flashbacks are more a matter of your emotions and priorities being incorrect for the situation, not a matter of randomly seeing the wrong thing.  That’s more like a visual hallucination.  A flashback would be freaking out because you can’t find your weapon, only to realize “Oh, right, I’m at Olive Garden and hyperventilating.”  Or lashing out when someone reaches in front of you because you forgot for a moment that sudden movements are not a sign of impending danger, or having a panic attack in the mall because you can’t process the fact that the crowds are probably not trying to kill you.

Other times you can get a flashback that’s an actual memory, called up involuntarily, that causes an intense reaction.  But the ‘reliving’ part isn’t because the person is re-enacting past events, seeing the same things again and going through the same motions.  It means that the person is reacting to current events as if they are in the context of a past situation.  It’s reacting to someone in your home as if both of you are in a war-zone. 

In Katniss’s case, a more believable reaction would be to have her suddenly compelled to protect Prim from the cameras, under the belief that small 12 year-olds are by default about to get stabbed by the perceived danger.  Instead, this fake/wrong PTSD symptom is being used to remind us that, oh yeah, Rue existed at one point.  Because it’s not like Katniss could just think “oh, hey, she looks like Rue right now.”

And, of course, then the whole matter is over and done with and has no consequence.

I feel fur, inside and out, encasing me. It’s from no animal I’ve ever seen. “Ermine,” he tells me as I stroke the white sleeve.

Ermine is the term for a stoat’s winter coat.  Stoats, by the way live all over the damn place, including Appalachia, where she said District 12 is.

My mother hurries up with something cupped in her hand. “For good luck,” she says.

It’s the pin Madge gave me before I left for the Games.

Once again, Katniss can’t be arsed to give a damn about this thing, even though it becomes ‘her’ symbol.

In my head I hear President Snow’s directive, “Convince me.” And I know I must. […] and that’s where we have our first kiss in months.

Continuing the theme of “make out or die” from last book.  It’s not even trying to do anything else.  It practically going out of its way to draw the line between the death threats and the resultant kissing.  And yet there’s fans going on and on about the ‘romance’ in this book without bothering to call it what it is: coerced.

As badly as I have hurt him, he won’t expose me in front of the cameras. Won’t condemn me with a halfhearted kiss.

Fuck, there is just no end to the amount of hate I have for this book.  See, Peeta’s feelings are ‘real,’ which means he can do no wrong, but Katniss’s feelings are ‘fake,’ and therefore it’s bad for her to continue faking them.  Even though she’s literally being threatened with death if she doesn’t keep up the fiction, she’s being condemned for daring to not return some boy’s feelings.  He likes her, and she’s a bitch for not liking him back.

Because this book is feminist and don’t you forget it!

The train starts to brake and for a second I think President Snow is watching me and doesn’t approve of my confiding in Haymitch and has decided to go ahead and kill me now.

Snow’s only goal is to get you to pacify the districts.  Why on earth would he protest you getting help in pacifying the districts?

It’s weird.  I can’t even tell what Katniss is thinking anymore.  She seems to have taken Snow’s whole conversation and just leapt into a quagmire of confusing assumptions, like “no one can know they’re in danger” and “I can’t tell anyone else this is a fiction, even if doing so will help keep the charade running, even if they already know it’s a fiction.”

“Even if you pull it off, they’ll be back in another few months to take us all to the Games. You and Peeta, you’ll be mentors now, every year from here on out. And every year they’ll revisit the romance and broadcast the details of your private life, and you’ll never, ever be able to do anything but live happily ever after with that boy.”

And as we all know, celebrity couples never break up.  Ever.  That’s just unpossible.

Actually, I think it runs worse than that.  See, the idea here is that Katniss has to be in love with Peeta to excuse her berry ploy.  And then we run into the trope of “real love is forever,” which comes along with a side of “if they break up, then it wasn’t actually real love.”  There’s no room in this conversation for Katniss to be ‘in love’ with Peeta and have real feelings for him and then have a falling out with him later down the line.  You only get one ‘true love’ and all your other feelings are fake.  At the age of sixteen. And apparently, every person in the whole country believes this, to the point where they’ll revolt 15 years later if she’s still not married to him. 

Did the series of unspecified disasters just really fuck up humanity or something?