Our full stomachs make us more uncomfortable and breathless than we were on the morning’s climb. I begin to regret those last dozen oysters.

Hiking while well-fed and rested makes you uncomfortable, but hiking while starving and running on fumes didn’t?

Yeah, sure, that makes total sense and isn’t in any way a gross misrepresentation of how hunger works.

Then they stand on either side of the tree, passing the spool back and forth as they wrap the wire around and around the trunk. At first it seems arbitrary, then I see a pattern, like an intricate maze, appearing in the moonlight on Beetee’s side. I wonder if it makes any difference how the wire’s placed, or if this is merely to add to the speculation of the audience. I bet most of them know as much about electricity as I do.

I know a little bit about it, having taken some introductory classes since it kind of dovetailed with my job.  And no, this makes no sense at all.  I have never once heard of a “maze pattern of wrapped wire” doing jack squat.  Wire carries electricity from point A to point B.  If you make a pattern of the wire, it just takes a circuitous route to do the same thing. 

Which makes me really wonder what the author was going for her.  Did she have something in mind?  Was this supposed to go somewhere?  Or perhaps the “merely to add to the speculation” part of that quote is meta.

And if I trust anyone here besides Peeta, it’s Beetee.

Because he’s proven himself trustworthy by…  Um…

Because he’s done so many great things, like…  er…

Because he’s been so honest and—oh.  Hm…

Because reasons?

She’s clearly no happier about being teamed up than I am. But we’re all caught up in Beetee’s trap.

But it’s okay.  He’s trustworthy.  Katniss Just Knows.

Both of our hands are still on the metal cylinder when there’s a slight vibration. Suddenly the thin golden wire from above springs down at us, bunching in tangled loops and curls around our wrists.

So the girls were meticulously unwinding the coil of wire and laying it out on the ground, but here it’s snapped and come back at them?  That would only happen if they were keeping it taut and had a lot of tension on the wire, and since it’s a hair-thin little thing, keeping it tight would run the risk of breaking it.

So what just happened?  Were they pulling on it this whole time, or is the wire magic?

All I can think of is Johanna shoving Wiress to the beach. “Just stay down, will you?” But she didn’t attack Wiress. Not like this.

Why does Katniss never wonder why Johanna stabbed her in the arm?  It’s a really weird place to hit if you have someone at your mercy and want to kill them.  I would grant her some disordered thinking because of the whole hit-in-the-head bit, but then again, she’s not very disordered.  She’s still perfectly lucid and able to narrate, just confused. 

Apparently Katniss thinks it’s perfectly fine and not deserving of comment that Johanna attacked her arm.

And why did Johanna bother with that, anyway?  They aren’t exactly subtle about the break-out when it happens, so they don’t need to get rid of the tracking device for reasons of sneaking.  And when they get on the hovercraft, they could just take it out in much less violent ways.

Brutus’s voice. “She’s good as dead! Come on, Enobaria!” Feet moving into the night.

So, is Brutus in on the conspiracy?  There’s no reason not to just veer off track a little bit and stick a knife in her throat, especially when you can’t really tell at a glance how injured someone is.  So why just leave her there unless he’s in on it?

In fact, rational thinking is a struggle. This much I know. Johanna attacked me. Smashed that cylinder into my head. Cut my arm, probably doing irreparable damage to veins and arteries, and then Brutus and Enobaria showed up before she had time to finish me off.

That is some remarkably rational and well-ordered thinking for someone who can’t think rationally.

Guys, first person is hard to write.  First person present tense is really hard to write.  Because in order to pull it off, you have to be willing to sacrifice the role of a rational narrator and get down and dirty with your character, to get irrational and confused and have a limited view on the world. 

This is not how you do that.

There’s a huge lump but not too much blood. Obviously I’ve got some internal damage, but I don’t seem in danger of bleeding to death. At least not through my head.

Except for the part where “internal damage” is bleeding inside your head.

Fair enough that she wouldn’t know that, but still some awkward wording that made me giggle.

I think of how he looked to her for confirmation before he’d agree to help set Beetee’s trap. There’s a much deeper alliance based on years of friendship and who knows what else.

Wait.  So.  Beetee’s plan wasn’t known to them before the start?  Then what did they think was going on?

Something snags my feet and I sprawl out on the ground. I feel it wrapping around me, entwining me in sharp fibers. A net! This must be one of Finnick’s fancy nets, positioned to trap me

…a net sitting on the ground is considered a trap?

How clumsy are you?

I flail around for a moment, only working the web more tightly around me

Seriously, your foot caught on something and you fell over.  You then proceeded to somehow wrap that thing around you, even though it was just laying there flat on the ground.  You’d have to pick it up and move it over you in order for that to happen.

Katniss , what are you doing?

all its power will come surging down that wire and anyone in contact with it will die.

You know the best part of this plan?  All that wire is laying on the ground, so the electricity won’t actually travel down it.  It’ll go “yay, ground!” and bleed off that way.  So it wouldn’t have even made it to the water if they’d done that, or anywhere else for that matter.

I have always known who the enemy is. Who starves and tortures and kills us in the arena. Who will soon kill everyone I love.

My bow drops as his meaning registers. Yes, I know who the enemy is. And it’s not Enobaria.

So.  This is basically confirmation that Katniss doesn’t think of the gamemakers as the people “starving and torturing” her.  She places all the onus, every bit of the blame, on the other victims in there with her and has to be reminded that they aren’t the ultimate bad guys. 

What, did she think the Careers were withholding food from her family all those years?  Did she think Enobaria picked her out specially to come be in the arena with her?

Why does she fucking need a reminder about this?

the dome bursts into a dazzling blue light. […]  Right before the explosions begin, I find a star.

Light pollution!  It’s still a thing.

So, another short chapter.  To be fair, this one was mostly okay, because it was just Katniss running around and doing stuff.  This book is always at its best when stuff is happening, rather than we try and get introspective, romantic, or world-building, because there’s not much opportunity for rage.  There’s just a bit of weirdness and research fails.