Who the woman was calling to remains a mystery, because after searching the apartment, we find she was alone. Perhaps her cry was meant for a nearby neighbor, or was simply an expression of fear. At any rate, there’s no one else to hear her.

This apartment would be a classy place to hole up in for a while,

Gosh, you can just feel the guilt dripping off the page, can’t you?

Here’s this completely random woman who, by the book’s admission, was just minding her own business and got shocked and was not a danger to anyone…but she wears tacky clothes and her makeup was smeared, so she doesn’t get any angst.

II think this annoys me doubly because of all people going on about how these books “show how terrible war is,” and yet it can’t be arsed to give a damn about collateral damage.  The pretty guy we actually know died?  Well, he gets a magic flashback.  Random woman died?  Let’s call her a whore.

In a bedroom across the hall, there’s a similar selection for men. Perhaps they belong to her husband. Perhaps to a lover who had the good luck to be out this morning.

Why make that distinction?  No, really, why did that need to be two different options, except to point out that the dead woman may not have been married?  “The guy she lives with who isn’t here, or the guy she lives with who isn’t here,” but the book wants to be sure to put the idea in our heads that maybe the dead woman (who no one will ever feel bad about) was a slut.

And this from a narrator that “just tell” right away that the mutts chasing her are doing it by smell.

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

their affected Capitol accents

af·fect·ed

əˈfektid/

adjective

adjective: affected

2.artificial, pretentious, and designed to impress.

If that’s really their real accent, then it’s not “affected.”

Words: they mean things!

Only a couple of people are around, and they pay no attention to us.

The whole time they’ve been in this populated area, Katniss describes things as being “business as usual” and as if everyone’s just walking around howdy-do.  But massive amounts of the city have been evacuated.  …evacuated to where?  Apparently the displaced people haven’t stayed in town, because otherwise we’d be seeing a lot of crowding here.  Also, why the fuck is everyone just standing around?  Get them to do something!  At the very least, they should be working on improvised fortifications.  Block off the streets with random junk.  That’s actually a very common reaction to urban warfare.  “Oh, shit, put stuff in their way!”  You don’t have to instruct people in doing it, they just do it.  But all these guys are milling around, shopping.

Don’t tell me this is some sort of “metaphor” for how the US all but ignored the Iraq war.  Don’t even try that.  The situation is completely different, because this US-stand-in is the one attacking not being attacked, and that changes everything.  The only time you can pull something like this is if your setting is a lot more surreal.

The result is a grotesque, semi-feline mask, which now squints at us distrustfully.

“It’s not that this is wrong, you see, it’s just that this particular person didn’t do it right, and now they’re ugly.  I’m so deep!”

So this is where stylists go when they’ve outlived their use. To sad theme underwear shops where they wait for death. Out of the public eye.

Yes, when a professional can no longer perform their job to satisfaction, they get fired.  That’s not shocking, nor is it particularly cruel or unusual.  What’s next; should we get up in arms about the accountant who got too senile to do complex math?  How about the doctor with arthritis?  Should we bemoan the football players who got too old to smash into each other without injury?

Oh, I know!  Let’s talk about ALL THE OLD PEOPLE IN YOUR DISTRICT THAT YOU JUST LET DIE WHEN THEY CAN’T WORK IN THE MINES ANYMORE.

Why is she doing this? She’s no Cinna, someone willing to sacrifice herself for others. This woman was the embodiment of Capitol shallowness.

…dafuq?  How do you even know that?  I…just…what?  You know literally nothing about this woman’s personality except the fact that she’s working with the rebels, and you up and outright assume that she’s shallow and selfish?

“A dude works as a stylist and looks stylish doing it and helps the rebels in the process.  He is the embodiment of all that is good in this world.”

“A chick works as a stylist and looks not-so stylish doing it and helps the rebels.  She is the embodiment of shallow decadence.”

FUCK YOU BOOK JUST FUCK YOU I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHY THIS LINE IS PISSING ME OFF SO BAD RIGHT NOW BUT FOR SOME REASON THIS IS THE LIMIT THIS IS MY UTTER LIMIT I JUST CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE I CAN’T TAKE HOW FUCKING HYPOCRITICAL AND FUCKING STUPID AND FUCKING ANTIFEMINIST AND FUCKING STUPID AND FUCKING FUCKITYFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK I HATE YOU KATNISS AND I HATE YOUR STUPID BRAIN AND I HATE YOUR STUPID BOOK AND I HATE HOW FUCKING JUDGEMENTAL AND SELFISH AND HATEFUL YOU ARE I HATE YOUR HATE THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN REDUCED TO CAPSLOCKING ABOUT HATING YOUR FUCKING HATE.

A guy does something and the book will practically jerk him off for it.  A girl does the same thing and the book goes out of its way to paint her as a bitter, hateful mess.

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

FUCK.

Oh, and don’t go thinking that this is just Katniss’s distorted worldview.  No.  Like so many times before, Katniss makes a guess and it’s spot-on.

“Did Snow ban you from the Games?” I ask. She just stares back at me. Somewhere her tiger tail flicks with displeasure. “Because I’m going to kill him, you know.” Her mouth spreads into what I take for a smile.

Of course.

Man, Tigris doesn’t even get lines in this book.  She’s there to be nothing but a walking symbol of wrongness, she’s literally turned into an animal, and she doesn’t get to speak.

This isn’t worse than Catching Fire’s woman-to-animal bullshit, but it’s certainly more concentrated.  “Oh, shit, we haven’t reduced any females to animalistic roles yet.  Um…just shove a whole book’s worth into one character.”

He won’t [sleep] until I’ve rearranged his handcuffs and shackled him to one of the stair supports. It can’t be comfortable, lying there with his arms above his head.

You can die from that.

Just so you know.

Even if you don’t pinch the wrong way and cut off your blood circulation, which admittedly isn’t the most likely outcome, you can and probably will still seriously hurt your joints and cause a lot of pain.  (Sleeping like that is the real danger, because you can’t stay aware of problems and shift around.  Doing it for a short period of time while being observant should be fine.)

Castor, Homes, and Finnick being decapitated by the rose-scented lizard mutts.

Castor, that’s who I forgot last chapter!  Here’s to you, Castor.  |~|

Katniss does finally have a moment of feeling bad about all the people she’s killed.  She even thinks about the civilian woman (as an afterthought) and come to the conclusion that this is all bullshit and a bad idea.  Yay?  No.

“Katniss, we all knew you were lying about Coin sending you to assassinate Snow.”

“You knew, maybe. The soldiers from Thirteen didn’t,” I reply.

“Do you really think Jackson believed you had orders from Coin?” Cressida asks. “Of course she didn’t. But she trusted Boggs, and he’d clearly wanted you to go on.”

No, because then the book goes on to absolve her of all that guilt and pat her on the head and reassure her that, actually, she can do no wrong.  Katniss thinks about the consequences of her bad actions only so that we can be reassured that the heroine actually has no consequences. 

This line is where all arguments that ‘Katniss’s plan is supposed to be selfish; that’s the whole point’ die, because if that was the point, the book utterly failed to stick to it.

“I think it would be considered a highly successful mission […] We’ve thrown the whole city into chaos trying to find us.”

Fucking-fuckity-what?  First of all, thanks for killing that argument further, Gale. It’s nice when the book does the work for me.  Second, what chaos?  Your descriptions of the civilians was “business as usual” and you’re hiding on a quiet, calm street of quiet, calm shops.

“I think … you still have no idea. The effect you can have.”

I have no idea what you’re talking about either.

I owe the others a debt that can only be repaid in one way. I pull my paper map from a pocket in my uniform and spread it out on the floor with new resolve.

Everything about Katniss’s moment of doubt was just so that we could spend two fucking pages reassuring everyone that this is, in fact, the right thing to do and proceed with renewed resolve.

I feel immensely relieved by the news that I won’t be given — and have to ignore — direct orders from 13.

Yes, thank god that a thing that wouldn’t matter anyway isn’t going to happen.

“I eat next to nothing,” [Tigris] says.

Wait, does the capitol have a cosmetic surgery that makes you need less food?  Because why not give that to everyone?  …or did the book just throw in anorexia for no reason?

“She loves you, you know,” says Peeta. “She as good as told me after they whipped you.”

“Don’t believe it,” Gale answers. “The way she kissed you in the Quarter Quell … well, she never kissed me like that.”

Just in case you forgot about the forced love triangle in this book.  I mean, it has been like a whole chapter without some romance angst! \~/