This is the final part of our Hunger Games: Mockingjay (Book 3) dissection-analysis for writers who want to hone their craft!
- Part 1 here
- Part 2 here
- And you can check out the deep-dive analysis of Book 1 in the series, here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
- And Book 2 here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Who this book is for: Fans of action-adventure, dystopian with a dash of romance, fans of Roman culture reconfigured with a modern spin, survival stories (both physical and emotional survival), and anyone interested in learning to be a better storyteller.
Scylighter rating: 4.3/6 ⭐s (explanation of ratings at the end)
Join our merry band of Brilliant Writers for more book dives like this!
BOOK NOTES
Chapter 19
In ThisChapter
- Boggs promises to protect Katniss from Peeta
- Haymitch reminds Katniss of their pact to save Peeta
Katniss asks Boggs why Coin wants her dad, and Boggs tells her that Coin “denies that she does,” but even he doesn’t believe that.
Boggs hypothesizes that Coin never liked Katniss from the beginning, and wanted Peeta instead. More importantly, after the war is over, “a new leader will be chosen,” and Katniss’ endorsement matters. “If your immediate answer isn’t Coin, then you’re a threat.”
(Yep, that’s the mind of a tyrant — unquestioning and immediate loyalty, or else).
And Katniss realizes that Coin would “kill me to shut me up.” If Katniss dies, Coin will have a convenient martyr to point people to. But, Boggs promises, that is not happening on his watch.
And now Katniss is in another life-debt to yet another person:
“I know I should feel appreciative of Boggs sticking his neck out for me, but really I’m just frustrated. I mean, how can I steal his Holo and desert now? Betraying him was complicated enough without this whole new layer of debt.”
That night, Katniss is not assigned a watch, and when she confronts Jackson, Jackson says “I’m not sure you could really shoot Peeta, if it came to it.”
But when Katniss pushes, Jackson allows her to take a shift.
(Katniss makes her case by saying Peeta’s gone and “it’d be just like shooting another of the Capitol’s mutts,” and she clearly does it because of her own wounded ego at Peeta’s most recent treatment of her.
(It’s a pretty low moment for her, as a character, especially considering how Peeta’s “meanness” isn’t entirely voluntary, but it’s also understandable, and continues to add to the theme of Katniss being caught between Peeta and Gale — not primarily in a romantic way, but in a philosophical way)
As they line up for dinner, Gale bluntly asks Katniss “do you want me to kill him?”
Of course, Katniss refuses, saying “that’ll get us both sent back for sure,” but at the same time “the brutality of [Gale]’s offer rattles” her.
(Gale represents vengeance, tit-for-tat. Peeta represents forgiveness, trust in goodness no matter how bad things are on the outside. Katniss has elements of both in her, and which guy she chooses is also symbolic of which worldview she chooses in the end.
(For a moment, she’s definitely leaning “Gale,” philosophically, but then when she really sees how dark Gale is, it pushes her back towards sanity, a bit)
Gale then reveals that he knows Katniss is planning to make a run for it and track down Snow herself, and of course he wants to go too. And Katniss agrees.
At dinner, Katniss realizes not all the tension is directed toward Peeta. When she calls Haymitch, he confronts her with how she’s been treating Peeta — “Look, Coin may have sent him there hoping he’d kill you, but Peeta doesn’t know that…you can’t blame him — ”
Katniss protests that she doesn’t, but Haymitch points out that if the scenario was flipped around, Peeta would not treat her the way she’s treating him.
(Finally, Haymitch being not just smart, but wise.)
“You and me, we made a deal to try and save him. Remember?…Try and remember,” Haymitch says.
(This is great. In book 2, the deal to “save Peeta” meant saving his life. But now there’s another kind of saving Peeta needs. Saving who he is)
This wakes Katniss up, although she’s a bit surly about it to Haymitch about it at first. At midnight, she can’t sleep and sees that Peeta isn’t sleeping either. Instead, he’s knotting a rope, just as she and Finnick did, before.
Peeta says something provocative, but remembering Haymitch’s words, Katniss tries to respond gently. Peeta says that he doesn’t know what’s real anymore, and Finnick joins in the conversation, advising him to ask.
They start with some of the easier questions, like favorite color. And Katniss adds: “You’re a painter. You’re a baker. You like to sleep with the windows open. You never take sugar in your tea. And you always double-knot your shoelaces.” And then she leaves the scene before she can cry.
The next day, Jackson creates a game, “Real or Not Real” to help Peeta. Peeta asks about a memory and the others confirm if it is true or not.
They use this game to confirm for Peeta what happened to District 12, Gale and Finnick both help answer many of his questions, but Katniss has a hard time when it comes to his questions about her.
“Reconstructing his memory of me is excruciating,” Katniss reflects, “even though we touch on only the most superficial of details…but it does feel right to help him try.”
(It can be hard to work with someone with a broken mind, for sure, but especially when you know who this person was before their breakage, it is worth it to take time, be patient, and keep hoping)
The next day, the squad is ordered to come up with some more exciting footage for their propos. They decide to use their special weapons and some smoke bombs to create some excitement.
As they get ready, Peeta notices Pollux, one of the cameramen, and observes that he is an Avox (people who were punished by the Capitol by having their tongues ripped out).
This leads him to remember his Avox servants in the capitol, Darius and Lavinia the redheads, who were both tortured to death. When he asks if this was “real or not real,” Boggs says that it sounds like it was real.
Peeta agrees sadly, saying of the memory: “there was nothing…shiny about it.”
Katniss grieves over the loss of Darius and “the redheaded girl” who’d taken care of her before — who she knows now was named Lavinia.
(Side note — how did Peeta figure out her name? Well, probably heard someone else say it, most likely).
The team gets ready for their propo filming, planning to trigger a few pods (booby traps in the streets) to make it more exciting. But “the whole thing feels a little ridiculous,” Katniss observes, especially as “it turns out I’m not the worst actor in the squad. Not by a long shot.”
They all start laughing, when Boggs steps back onto an unexpected booby trap and blows up.
Comments &Analysis
Opening: I’ve never really seen Boggs angry before. Not when I’ve disobeyed his orders or puked on him, not even when Gale broke his nose.
Closing: But you can see him suppressing a smile as he’s double-checking the next pod. Positioning the Holo to find the best light in the smoky air. Still facing us as his left foot steps back onto the orange paving stone. Triggering the bomb that blows off his legs.
PROMISES & PAYOFFS
Promises:
- We will see if Peeta ever does regain his mind, or if he will — as Coin hopes — kill Katniss.
Payoffs:
- The deaths are coming again. The third Hunger Games have begun.
Complications:
- Now that Boggs is gone, who can Katniss trust?
OTHER COMMENTS
- It’s really interesting how Collins keeps bringing back familiar, favorite concepts from earlier Hunger Games books, but always in different packaging. Like the concept of owing a moral debt, for instance.
- In book one, Katniss can’t bring herself to think about really killing Peeta, because she owes him a moral debt for saving her and her sister’s lives when they were starving.
- In book two, Katniss plans to murder Finnick in his sleep, at first, but afterwards can’t bring herself to do it when Finnick saves Peeta, putting her in his moral debt.
- And now in book three, Katniss has been planning to steal Boggs’ holo and take off, but now that Boggs is actively saving her from Snow, she again can’t bring herself to do it.
- This story also examines how war brutalizes everyone involved. Strips them of their innocence. Although to be fair, Katniss already was in the innocence-stripping process, from when she lost her father and was starving as a child.
Chapter 20
In ThisChapter
- Peeta goes berserk and tries to kill Katniss, but ends up killing another team member
- Katniss takes over leadership of the Holo and the team
Katniss runs to Boggs, who gives her the Holo via voice command
“I kneel beside Boggs, prepared to repeat the role I played with Rue, with the morphling from 6, giving him someone to hold on to as he’s released from life.”
(Might be a bit too on-the-nose reference to the fact that this is still a Hunger Games even though it’s not in the official format.
(Also, the third book is a lot darker not only because it’s the climax of a dystopian series, but also because Katniss has gotten too used to giving up. Giving up on Peeta, giving up on Boggs, even though both are long shots, the latter more than the former, but still…)
Jackson yells for everyone to retreat and more booby traps go off, spouting unnatural black oil down the street.
Katniss and another teammate try to drag Boggs to safety, but just then, Peeta attacks them, trying to kill Katniss. Mitchell tackles Peeta but Peeta throws him into a trap — a net of barbs.
The remainder of the group manage to break into someone’s apartment, and Jackson cuffs Peeta and stick him in a closet.
Before Boggs dies, he tells Katniss “Don’t trust them. Don’t go back. Kill Peeta. Do what you came to do.”
When Jackson tries to take the Holo from Katniss, she says Boggs gave it to her, and makes up the story that she was on a “special mission from Coin” to assassinate President Snow. “I think Boggs was the only one who knew about it,” she adds.
There’s a moment of tension when Jackson doesn’t believe Katniss, but then Cressida speaks up for Katniss, saying that Plutarch sent them to televise it to “end the war.”
(Logic hole: Cressida speaking up directly negates what Katniss said earlier about Boggs being the only one who knew about it).
If that’s the case, then why did Coin send Peeta? Jackson asks. Cressida makes something up about how Peeta knows where Snow’s inner sanctum is.
Gale then tells everyone they have to go, and that he will be following Katniss. Homes grabs Peeta, and they decide to leave Boggs’ body behind.
(Interesting that it was Cressida, not Gale who stood up for Katniss, first. Gale never really stands up for her to Jackson either. It’s becoming clear that his loyalty is primarily to Coin and District 13 now, because they will get him what he wants — vengeance.)
Jackson relents and helps Katniss use the Holo to navigate. Katniss decides to go out the way they came, reasoning that the black oily substance probably set off and disabled any other pods that were on that street. Castor and Pollux add that it probably also coated all cameras.
(This is clever. Again, one of Collins’ strengths — using the environment as a key part of the plot)
They walk through the goop and realize there are no footprints, which is another plus. Katniss offers anyone on the team the opportunity to turn back now, but no one takes her offer.
(To be fair, where would they go, at this point?)
The group finds an empty apartment and break in to take a breather. Peeta is unconscious but Jackson keeps a gun trained on him in case.
Katniss considers what to do. If she gave up leadership, Jackson would take them back to camp and Katniss would have Coin to answer to.
The television goes on automatically as an emergency broadcast tells the audience that they are dead, identifying by name Katniss, Gale, Finnick, Boggs, Peeta, and Cressida. The footage includes everything from when Boggs is hit until the black goop takes out the cameras, right after Gale is (unsuccessfully) trying to shoot Mitchell free.
Castor notes that there is no aerial footage, indicating that the Capitol must not have any hovercrafts anymore.
(This will be an important plot point later, crucial to the climax)
Homes says that them being pronounced dead is a piece of good luck.
“Now that we’re dead, what’s our next move?” Gale asks. And to everyone’s surprise, Peeta answers: “Isn’t it obvious? Our next move…is to kill me.”
Comments &Analysis
Opening: It’s as if in an instant, a painted window shatters, revealing the ugly world behind it.
Closing: He painfully pushes himself up to a sitting position and directs his words to Gale. // “Our next move…is to kill me.”
PROMISES & PAYOFFS
Promises:
- Same as before — we will see if Peeta can recover from this mental break and be who he once was again.
Payoffs:
- We see Peeta acting out in the role of the weapon that he was sent by Coin to be.
Complications:
- Peeta has caused someone else’s death, and even he does not trust himself.
OTHER COMMENTS
- Sad to lose Boggs, who was shaping up to be an almost fatherly figure to Katniss, a tough soldier with a strong sense of nobility and morality. But of course you can’t have a dystopian book like Hunger Games without killing off a few worthy characters.
- And Boggs is still far lower on the list than our big three — Katniss, Peeta, and Gale — and even the ones a rung lower than these (like Haymitch) would only detract from the real big character-sacrifice near the end of the novel, when Katniss whole entire reason for entering the Hunger Games in the first place, is taken out by none other than one of the guys in the Dreaded Triangle…which is effective on multiple levels, but we’ll get there later.
Chapter 21
In ThisChapter
- The Capitol celebrates Katniss’ team’s apparent deaths, and Coin eulogizes the Mockingjay.
- Katniss et al go underground to head toward the Capitol.
Peeta has seen the footage and realizes that his mental break resulted in the death of one in the squad.
Finnick and Jackson try to calm him, but Peeta is in tears. “Katniss is right. I’m the monster…I’m the one Snow has turned into a weapon!”
Peeta asks them to kill him rather than release him somewhere where Snow could get his mitts on him again. When the others don’t move, Gale promises to kill Peeta before Snow can get him, but Peeta asks for a nightlock poison pill instead.
Katniss finds it interesting Peeta didn’t get one automatically. “Perhaps Coin thought he might take it before he had the opportunity to kill me.”
But Katniss tells Peeta: “It’s not about you. We’re on a mission. And you’re necessary to it.” She thinks to herself: “Once again I’m battling not only for my own survival but for Peeta’s as well.”
Katniss distracts the others by asking about food, and they find several cookies and canned foods in the apartment. Katniss finds a can of lamb stew with dried plums. “Now this place tastes like the arena, too,” she thinks.
(Interesting contrast, that her favorite food is also inextricably linked to her worst memories)
As they eat, the TV switches on again and it’s President Snow celebrating Katniss’ death and saying that the rebels have no real leader…except then Beetee from District 13 infiltrates the feed and now President Coin shows up, introducing herself as the head of the rebellion and eulogizing Katniss.
“I had no idea how much I meant to her,” Katniss quips, which makes Gale laugh, but the others are confused.
(This is pretty damning for Gale. Knowing — or at least strongly suspecting — as he does that Coin actually wants Katniss dead, how can he still be loyal to Coin? Still be on Coin’s side? Because his love for Katniss is conditional, based perhaps more on long-term familiarity than on anything true, and easily subsumed by other things, like the desire to end the Capitol no matter what.
(To be fair, he is also willing — as he says — to sacrifice his own life for the pursuit of his goal, and so at least he’s putting Katniss’ life on the same level as his own, arguably. But this is the reason why, as a Youtuber once advised unmarried women, you should not marry a people-pleaser. Because if he will abuse himself in order to make other people happy, once you are married to him, he will consider you part of himself and abuse you too, if it makes other people happy.
(Same concept with Gale. If he sees his own life worth sacrificing for his ideal, he will also see Katniss’ life worth sacrificing for his ideal. And the problem is that his ideal is not a good enough one to be sacrificing in this way for. Because he may couch it in terms of “freedom for the oppressed,” but as we have seen through his words and deeds, the reality is that Gale is more about “revenge of the offended” than “freedom for the oppressed,” even if, to be fair, the offense he has suffered is definitely a severe one)
Katniss has Jackson talk her through using the Holo to figure out where the pod booby traps are, and realizes that she must be close, because the number of pods has increased.
The problem is, how are they going to get past all the traps?
They decide to go underground, and what do you know? Pollux just so happened to have worked underground when he first became an Avox.
(Very useful. Perhaps could have seeded this fact somewhere earlier, but then again, it’s such a small detail maybe it wouldn’t have helped much).
There’s a bit off a kerfuffle when Peeta again asks to be killed rather than taken along, but the group insists on taking him anyway. They leave him handcuffed and give Katniss the key.
Pollux leads the way, and they travel for a while, taking a break to sleep when needed, and eating the food from the cans they brought with them from the apartment.
Katniss sees Peeta is awake and gives him some food, then asks him what he meant about his memories of Darius and Lavinia not being “shiny.”
Peeta explains that the jacker venom have a “strange quality about them. Like they’re too intense or the images aren’t stable.”
They chat briefly, then Katniss says there’s still time and urges Peeta to get some more rest. When he lays down, she gently strokes his hair.
“You’re still trying to protect me. Real or not real,” he whispers.
“Real,” I answer. It seems to require more explanation. “Because that’s what you and I do. Protect each other.”
(This is a good understated but important moment to begin building these two broken beings back together. Like that alliteration?)
When Pollux and Katniss wake the others in the morning, Katniss hears a strange hissing, and realizes that it’s the sound of many voices saying her name.
Comments &Analysis
Opening: That makes two requests for Peeta’s death in less than an hour.
Closing: One word. One name. Repeated over and over again. // “Katniss.”
PROMISES & PAYOFFS
Promises:
- We’ll find out what the hissing thing is, and it will be something deadly.
Payoffs:
- We get to see how Peeta feels about his own hijacking and being turned into a weapon. After yelling at Katniss, he’s turned his anger on himself.
Complications:
- The same as before — Peeta is still dangerous to Katniss, the team, and himself.
OTHER COMMENTS
- Interesting ending, but feels a little bit more unbelievable. Like we’re moving into the category of fantasy rather than sci fi. I could believe in some monster hissing the main character’s name if this was Harry Potter, but in Hunger Games? Hmm…
Chapter 22
In ThisChapter
- The team loses more people as they race to escape the mutts.
- Katniss convinces Peeta to keep going.
Katniss realizes that Snow must have discovered they aren’t dead.
Peeta starts hissing Katniss’ name, too, and she is about to shoot him in the head when he yells at her to run.
Katniss suggests splitting from the rest of the group, but they insist on staying with her, so she makes sure everyone is armed (everyone but Peeta, she’s still creeped out at the way he hissed her name), and they start to run from what must be more “mutts.”
(Sigh. I really can’t take the word “mutt” seriously)
Katniss starts gagging when she smells roses cutting through the sewage.
(Seriously?? Roses in sewage??)
They stumble out onto the Transfer, a place for vehicles to deliver things without being congested by capitol traffic. Katniss uses her explosive arrow to disarm several pods, but still one of their team is caught and melted alive.
Frozen in horror, Katniss and crew only start moving again when Peeta yells at them and pushes them forward. Katniss is stunned that he’s got his senses intact this time, but is distracted by a crew of Peacekeepers shooting at them.
Katniss realizes there’s somethin behind the Peacekeepers — human-sized, four-limbed, reptilian creatures that are eating both the living and dead Peacekeepers.
Pollux tries to lead them above ground as they dodge all kinds of delightful death traps. Along the way, Katniss realizes Jackson and Leeg One are missing. They’d stayed back to hold off the mutts. She wants to go back for them, but Homes yells at her to keep going: “Don’t waste their lives…it’s too late for them!”
Gale shoots down a bride that they just crossed, but the lizard mutt things keep coming. And they’re apparently quite invincible, able to survive many of the special arrows Katniss fires at them. But there are just too many of them.
Katniss’ team drags her to a ladder and force her to climb. They all climb multiple ladders but at the top, only Peeta, Cressida, Pollux, and Gale are with her. Below, Katniss sees Finnick torn apart by the mutts. When she sees the mutt give Finnick the “death bite,” she sees his life flash before he eyes.
(This is one of the more emotional character deaths, because audiences have actually spent time getting to know Finnick, seeing him interact with Katniss. So at this point in the story, you want a really tragic death otherwise the story stakes don’t feel that high.
(But you can’t kill off Katniss, because she’s the viewpoint character, and in retrospect, looking at what Collins decided to do with Peeta and Gale, you couldn’t kill them either. Haymitch and Johanna aren’t present, nor is Prim, who is being “saved for the climax” of the story, to put it in really calculating terms…so it has to be Finnick.)
The group try to regroup, but Peeta is huddled against the wall, shaking, afraid he’s going to lose his mind like the mutts. He tells Katniss to leave him, because he can’t hang on, but Katniss refuses:
“It’s a long shot, it’s suicide, maybe, but I do the only thing I can think of. I lean in and kiss Peeta full on the mouth…”
“Don’t let him take you from me,” she says to Peeta. “Stay with me.”
And Peeta’s eyes seem to return to normal as he murmurs: “Always.”
The team manages to emerge into someone’s utility room, and just then a woman opens the door. She sees Katniss coming out of the ground and opens her mouth to scream, but Katniss shoots her.
Comments &Analysis
Opening: The grace period has ended. Perhaps Snow had them digging through the night.
Closing: Without hesitation, I shoot her through the heart.
PROMISES & PAYOFFS
Promises:
- Peeta will (probably) heal.
Payoffs:
- The “always” line comes back. Would be more of a payoff if it was established a bit earlier, however.
Complications:
- They’ve lost a lot of people in the team
OTHER COMMENTS
- Katniss is also now becoming more comfortable with killing, including killing of inoccents for reasons other than immediate self defense. To be fair, this is what happens to people in war — kill or be killed.
Chapter 23
In ThisChapter
- Katniss & co are helped by a catlike woman, and they discuss how to get at Snow.
- Peeta helps Katniss deal with the guilt of losing so many members of their team for a “fake mission”
Katniss and the remains of her team are a mess — Gale has a neck wound, Peeta is still fighting off insanity, Pollux is weeping, Cressida is stoic, and Katniss herself is “running on hate. When the energy for that ebbs, I’ll be worthless.”
(That’s one point for understanding Gale’s hatred. Hatred can be a very energizing force, at least)
The group puts on wigs and sunglasses and makeup and head out into the street, among the agitated Capitol people.
Cressida knows of a place they can go. She takes them to the house of a woman who has been so surgically altered that she looks like a grotesque cat. And her name is Tigris.
Katniss remembers that this person was once a Hunger Games stylist years ago. Turns out, Tigris is one of Plutarch’s people. Which means she won’t report them to Snow, but it does mean she might alert Plutarch, which means Coin will know where they are.
Katniss is wary, but has no choice but to trust Tigris. She looks into the woman’s eyes, wondering why she’s willing to help. She isn’t the altruistic kind, like Cinna, Katniss can tell, but it looks like she might be motivated by bitterness, hatred, or revenge.
“A need for revenge can burn long and hot. Especially if every glance in a mirror reinforces it,” Katniss thinks.
When Katniss says she’s going to kill Snow, Tigris gives her a kind of smile, and Katniss and the others hide in her cellar.
Katniss is forced to help Gale sew up his neck wound, and tend to Peeta’s bloody wrists under the cuffs. The injury reminds them both of the first Games, when Peeta got blood poisoning and Katniss risked her life to get medicine for him.
The team goes to sleep and Katniss dreams of Effie Trinket. When she awakes, she recalls the members of the team that were lost. Eight dead in 24 hours.
“To believe them dead is to accept I killed them…[they] lost their lives defending me on a mission I fabricated. My plot to assassinate Snow seems so stupid now,” Katniss thinks, considering giving herself up.
(And this is what makes Katniss different from Gale. She has a stronger respect for the sanctity of life, which balances her hatred and desire for vengeance)
When the others awake, Katniss confesses that she lied about the mission. But Gale tells her that they all knew. After all, it was one of her conditions for being the Mockingjay — “I kill Snow.”
Gale and Cressida try to encourage Katniss, saying that their mission could be seen as a success — they’ve infiltrated the Capitol and gotten themselves plastered all over the Capitol news, “throw[ing] the whole city into chaos trying to find us.”
“Plutarch’s thrilled,” Cressida says, to which Katniss replies: “That’s because Plutarch doesn’t care who dies. Not as long as his Games are a success.”
(She’s not wrong. Plutarch may be on the side of the Rebels, but that doesn’t mean he’s on the right side. It really makes you think how many psychopaths there are out there, and how most of them are not doing anything destructive, but they could, if given the opportunity.
(In the Hunger Games, the characters who embody this kind of psychopathic pragmatism are Plutarch and Beetee, and you could make a very strong argument for Gale, too. It’s really just a matter of luck that these people are on Katniss’ side rather than the other).
When Katniss asks Peeta what he thinks, he just says: “I think…you still have no idea. The effect you can have.” Adding that all the people they lost were intelligent enough to know what they were getting themselves into, and they got themselves into it because they believed Katniss could succeed and kill Snow.
Katniss thinks:
“I don’t know why his voice reaches me when no one else’s can. But if he’s right, and I think he is, I owe the others a debt that can only be repaid in one way.”
(Really nice, subtle moving of the chess pieces even more so that as the story goes on, although the external situation seems to be getting darker with all the deaths, Katniss is actually shifting more into the side of, say, light over nihilism. Peeta over Gale. Peeta’s voice is stronger than Gale’s and will continue to do so)
The team starts to brainstorm how to get Snow out, and Katniss realizes that even in the Capitol, Snow now has many enemies, thanks to Finnick spilling all his backstabbing secrets on air.
Katniss offers to make herself bait so that Snow might come out to witness her execution, but Peeta shoots the idea down, saying there are “too many alternative endings to that plan.”
But Gale says: “It seems like an extreme solution to jump to immediately. Maybe if all else fails. Let’s keep thinking.”
(Nice. Gale is getting more and more cold blooded. You can see that his so-called “love” for Katniss was never enough to overcome his real drive — vengeance.)
Tigris calls them up for food, and says that she had no way to contact Plutarch, which makes Katniss feel relieved that she won’t have to disobey any direct orders from 13.
After dinner, the team brainstorms some more and decide to try to infiltrate the president’s mansion before settling down to sleep. When Katniss wakes up, she hears Gale and Peeta talking quietly. They share a laugh over a comment Tigris made earlier about no one knowing what to do with Katniss.
The boys each think that Katniss loves the other, and then agree that after the war it will be Katniss’ choice, if they even survive. Peeta wonders aloud how Katniss will choose, and Gale says she will “pick whoever she thinks she can’t survive without.”
Comments &Analysis
Opening: Who the woman was calling to remains a mystery, because after searching the apartment, we find she was alone.
Closing: “Oh, that I do know.” I can just catch Gale’s last words through the layer of fur. “Katniss will pick whoever she thinks she can’t survive without.”
PROMISES & PAYOFFS
Promises:
- We find out who Katniss will pick. (The clues are already more than laid out though)
Payoffs:
- Gale and Peeta talk about Katniss, and she gets to hear what they really think of her.
Complications:
- Katniss and her reduced team will need a bit of luck to get at Snow. There’s not much of a plan nor do they have many resources at the moment.
OTHER COMMENTS
- Having now read the prequel to this trilogy, it’s interesting to see Tigris again as her older self.
Chapter 24
In ThisChapter
- Rebels reach the Capitol and Katniss and her team decide to sneak in with the crowd of refugees.
- When Katniss reaches the Capitol, she watches Prim die before her eyes.
Offended by what she overheard the night before, the cold, calculating way Gale portrayed her and how Peeta did not contradict him, Katniss decides she can “survive just fine without either of them.”
The next morning, rebels have figured out how to set off the booby trap pods by sending abandoned cars down the streets to clear out the majority of the traps. Following that, the rebels are able to secure multiple blocks in the Capitol with few casualties.
Based on the news, Katniss and her team plot out what the opposing armies are doing on a paper map. Out the window, they can see refugees heading to the Capitol for safety.
Tigris goes out to spy and get food, and Katniss considers her options. When Tigris returns, she reports that Capitol citizens are being forced to house refugees, and the president himself is going to receive citizens in his mansion.
This means they can’t hide with Tigris much longer. Gale and Katniss discuss sneaking into Snow’s mansion with the refugees. Peeta agrees not to go with them, but to instead go out and possibly cause a diversion.
Gale gives him a nightlock pill if he has to kill himself to avoid being caught by Snow, and says that he himself (Gale) can detonate his exploding arrows by hand, or at least he has Katniss who “won’t give them the satisfaction of taking me alive.”
(Still not sure about this idea of death being better than possible torture. It’s probably a real issue in some situations, but I’m not entirely convinced by it in this story.
(If you start treating life as “cheap,” your story loses power, because your characters’ actions lose value. Sacrifices and potential sacrifices aren’t as meaningful when you don’t really even value what you are sacrificing in the first place.)
The next day, Tigris helps the team disguise themselves with clothes and wigs and makeup so that they look just like fleeing refugees.
“Never underestimate the power of a brilliant stylist,” Peeta says.
(This is one of the major consistent themes throughout the Hunger Games, the power of appearance. It’s nice to see it appear again here in an unconventional way, and have Peeta appreciate Tigris’ skills just as he has always been the most humble and grateful character as his old self)
They head out, and before they split, Katniss hugs Peeta, remembering their past and thinking this embrace was “not fully appreciated then, but so sweet in my memory, and now gone forever.”
Katniss and the team melt into the crowd of refugees, and Katniss thinks she’s been spotted by a sharp eyed little girl, when they are interrupted by bullets. The little girl is crying over a dead woman and Katniss realizes the shooters are rebels trying to take out Peacekeepers.
Katniss, however, doesn’t feel victorious. She’s preoccupied by the girl in the coat.
(This is reminiscent of the little girl int he red coat in Schindler’s List)
Gale manages to steal a gun from a wounded Peacekeeper because his and Katniss’ own weapons made by Beetee are too flashy and noticeable. As they move, more pods are triggered, killing multiple refugees who turn into a chaotic mess as people shoot and run indiscriminately.
“There’s nothing to do but move forward, killing whoever comes into our path,” Katniss narrates as more pod-booby-traps go off, killing yet more people. Then the street they are on folds in half and Katniss barely gets a handhold to avoid falling into an underground pit filled with monsters.
Katniss helps Gale reach safety, but he gets captured by Peacekeepers. Katniss realizes that as Gale was being pulled away by the Peacekeepers, he was asking her to shoot him, but she didn’t realize it, and now he will either be killed or tortured by the Capitol.
Katniss’ last hope is to kill Snow and end the war once and for all. She finds a couple old men to tag along behind and finds herself in the City Circle, where the president’s mansion is. The Circle is full of distraught refugees.
Katniss notices that a particular barricaded area is filled with children, “toddlers to teenagers.” They are clearly there for Snow’s protection, as a human shield.
The rebels arrive and the refugees are driven back when suddenly a hovercraft with a Capitol seal shows up and showers silver parachutes on the children.
Thinking the parachutes will contain gifts of food and medicine, the kids grab and open the packages, setting off explosives. Children are lying dead on the ground, and the Peacekeepers are pulling away the barricades to reach them when Katniss sees uniformed Rebel medics heading for the children.
Katniss catches a glimpse of her sister Prim among the medics and calls her name, pushing through the crowd “just as I did before” trying to get to Prim. But then the rest of the explosives go off.
Comments &Analysis
Opening: A chill runs through me. Am I really that cold and calculating?
Closing: I’m almost there, almost to the barricade, when I think she hears me. Because for just a moment, she catches sight of me, her lips form my name. // And that’s when the rest of the parachutes go off.
PROMISES & PAYOFFS
Promises:
- We will see what Katniss does now that her most beloved family member is gone — how will she go on living?
Payoffs:
- A sad sort of payoff — but the answer to the question “will Prim survive, after all Katniss has sacrificed for her?” is “No.”
Complications:
- Without Prim, Katniss doesn’t really have anything to live for, or so it appears…
OTHER COMMENTS
- This is a really poignant moment, especially since it mirrors the very first important scene that kicks off the entire series. Then, in Book 1, Katniss was pushing through the crowd to save Prim from death. Then, she succeeded. Here, she’s doing the same thing once again, but this time, she fails. It’s tragically poetic.
Chapter 25
In ThisChapter
- Katniss runs into Snow again and finds out he was not her biggest enemy all this time, nor the cause of Prim’s death.
Katniss is set on fire from the explosives, in excruciating pain. In a haze between life and death, she thinks she sees Finnick and other dead loved ones. When she awakens, she realizes that someone is keeping her alive, keeping her on morphling.
“Gradually, I’m forced to accept who I am. A badly burned girl with no wings. With no fire. And no sister.”
When Katniss awakens for real, President Coin visits to say “Don’t worry, I’ve saved him for you.”
Katniss has gone mute, to the consternation of the doctors, who can’t explain why and settle on psychological trauma.
Although she doesn’t talk, visitors bring information on what happened — the Capitol fell the day the parachutes went on, President Coin is in charge of Panem, Snow is being held prisoner awaiting trial and execution, and Cressida, Pollux, and Gale are safe, mopping up what’s left.
Katniss’ mother is burying her grief in her work and Peeta is not mentioned.
Haymitch comes to check on Katniss, who wanders around mindlessly. Katniss is assigned a doctor, Dr. Aurelius, who mostly comes to see if she feels like talking, and when she doesn’t, he takes a nap. The arrangement, Katniss says, works for them both.
One day, as Katniss wanders around the building, she finds herself in a strange new place. She comes across two rebel guards in front of a door, and Commander Paylor from district 8 suddenly shows up behind Katniss, authorizing her to go inside.
Katniss enters a rose garden, and looks for a white rose. Just as she finds it, she hears a voice behind her. It’s Snow, neatly dressed but manacled.
Snow expresses his “sorrow” for Katniss’ sister’s death, saying it was “wasteful.” and that he was not the one who released the parachute bombs.
It takes Katniss a while to understand what Snow is saying, and at first she rejects it, but Snow points out that he had no good reason to kill a bunch of Capitol children. Coin, however, did. Killing the corralled children made people completely turn against Snow.
This brings to Katniss’ memory the time she was with Gale and Beetee, looking at traps that “played on human sympathies.”
Snow tells Katniss that Coin was the master manipulator behind it all, pitting him against Katniss so that neither would realize her slowly creeping up behind them.
At the end, he reminds Katniss that they’d “agreed not to lie to each other.”
(Very interesting antagonistic relationship, here. Although they hate each other, because each wants and means the other’s death and destruction, they also have a kind of respect for each other, which is something you tend to want with good villains.)
Comments &Analysis
Opening: Real or not real? I am on fire.
Closing: Snow shakes his head in mock disappointment. “Oh, my dear Miss Everdeen. I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other.”
PROMISES & PAYOFFS
Promises:
- We will see whether or not Katniss believes Snow, and how she will act on his information.
Payoffs:
- Katniss and Snow’s promise to “not lie to each other” pays off here.
Complications:
- Now that Katniss knows Snow is not her primary enemy anymore, how will she take out the one who really is responsible for Prim’s death?
OTHER COMMENTS
- Good idea to use the white rose as an excuse for Katniss going into the room, when it should be the last place she should want to go, given her aversion to all things rose, thanks to Snow.
Chapter 26
In ThisChapter
- Katniss tries to talk to Haymitch about her dilemma, but is put off by his sarcasm
- Katniss and the other Tribute-Victors are asked to vote on hosting one more Hunger Games for the Capitol children. She and Haymitch vote in favor.
- Katniss kills Coin at Snow’s execution.
Katniss leaves the room with a white rose and thinks about what she’s heard.
She realizes that although she doesn’t want to believe it, Snow must be telling the truth.
(This reminds me of the turn in the Pride & Prejudice book, when Lizzy reads Darcy’s letter and realizes that almost all of her prejudices against him were founded on lies)
For one, the double-exploding bomb mechanism is one she knows for sure was Gale’s idea. And then the fact that Snow didn’t try to escape although Katniss “kn[ew] him to be the consummate survivor.”
If he had a hovercraft available, it would make more sense for him to use it to escape rather than use it to bomb children.
(Just like herself. It takes a survivor to recognize another survivor).
Plus, Snow’s assessment of Coin, Katniss knows to be correct. Coin knew Katniss wasn’t blindly loyal to her, and perhaps killing Prim would tip Katniss over the edge. Prim herself was not yet fourteen, too young to be working as a medic. Someone higher up must have given her permission to be there at the Capitol.
Katniss needs someone to brainstorm with, and there’s only one option. She runs to Haymitch, who is drunk and asleep as usual.
When she says his name, he jokes sarcastically “What is it, sweetheart? More boy trouble?”
“I don’t know why, but this hurts me in a way Haymitch rarely can,” Katniss thinks, and although Haymitch attempts to apologize and call her back, it’s too late. Katniss runs away and burrows into a wardrobe, ignoring his calls.
The guards find Katniss screaming and after a meal she doesn’t want to eat, Katniss is sent to bathe herself. She’s met by her old prep team, and realizes today must be execution day. She’s going to be made up for the cameras one last time.
In her bedroom, Katniss finds Effie, who apparently was kept alive by Plutarch and Haymitch, reports Venia. The other prep teams and stylists have been killed.
“She doesn’t say who specifically killed them. I’m beginning to wonder if it matters,” Katniss thinks.
Gale taps on the door to bring her an arrow, and Katniss knows as they look at each other that their relationship, whatever it was, is permanently broken. She asks him if it was his bomb that killed Prim, and Gale says “I don’t know. Neither does Beetee. Does it matter? You’ll always be thinking about it.”
Katniss doesn’t contradict him, and Gale says “That was the one thing I had going for me. Taking care of your family. Shoot straight, okay?”
And he goes. Katniss doesn’t call him back.
There’s one more hurdle before the execution, though. Katniss is ushered in to a meeting with Coin and other surviving tributes — Peeta, Johanna, Beetee, Haymitch, Annie, and Enobaria.
Coin announces that she’s decided to hold a final Hunger Games using the Capitol’s children, but the Tribute/Victors must vote on it.
Peeta is horrified and immediately votes no. Johanna says “why not?” especially since Snow has a granddaughter himself.
(See, this is the problem with trying to get vengeance on monstrous people. Even if Snow’s granddaughter is sent into the arena, he probably wouldn’t care. It’s doubtful he loves anyone but himself, so it wouldn’t really hurt him. Maybe his pride, at most, but he has bigger problems to worry about at this point)
Enobaria agrees with Johanna, and Annie votes no with Peeta, then Beetee votes no because “it would set a bad precedent.”
Which leaves the decision in the hands of Katniss and Haymitch.
Katniss wonders if this is how the Games started, 75 years ago — a bunch of people sitting around a table and voting. She thinks carefully then says, “I vote yes…for Prim.”
And now the decision-making vote falls to Haymitch. Katniss thinks to herself: “I can feel Haymitch watching me. This is the moment, then. When we find out exactly just how alike we are, and how much he truly understands me.”
“I’m with the Mockingjay,” Haymitch says, and Coin says “that carries the vote.”
And now it’s time for the execution.
Katniss is facing Snow tied to a post at point-blank range. Katniss shoots…and Coin keels over, dead.
Comments &Analysis
Opening: Out in the hall, I find Paylor standing in exactly the same spot. “Did you find what you were looking for?” she asks.
Closing: The point of my arrow shifts upward. I release the string. And President Coin collapses over the side of the balcony and plunges to the ground. Dead.
PROMISES & PAYOFFS
Promises:
- Snow must die, too.
Payoffs:
- Coin gets what she deserves.
Complications:
- And now that Prim is gone, and vengeance has been completed on the proper criminal, how will Katniss go on?
OTHER COMMENTS
- Katniss’ reaction to Haymitch’s sarcasm is a really good note, here. After having gone silent for so long, she finally chooses to trust a person, and that person, in his own selfish grief, cuts her, not realizing until it’s too late how serious it is to do this with someone in such a fragile state.
- Story-wise, it’s also great that Collins makes it so that Katniss tries to confide in Haymitch, because of course she should and would, but that he puts her off so much they don’t have a chance to talk things through so that at the testing scene — during the vote — they have to rely on their unspoken mutual mind-reading abilities to vote correctly together.
- Another thing: Where’s Peeta and why hasn’t Katniss thought about him yet? Of course, the out-of-story reason is that it will make his reappearance more dramatic in the end, and perhaps the in-story reason is that she’s too preoccupied with the loss of Prim to think of Peeta.
- And Katniss’ goodbye to Gale here is very appropriate. Gale has damaged himself in her eyes beyond repair, and he gets pretty much what he deserves. He wins the victory he wanted, and he doesn’t die, but he doesn’t “get the girl” because he has proven unworthy of her as the “real prize.” Not that Katniss is exactly a prize, but she symbolizes that, to him, and to the readers.
- And it’s a good thing that Gale didn’t die, because that would give him an undeserved posthumous martyr-glow, which would complicate Katniss’ memory of him for the rest of her life. Keeping him alive makes this ending much cleaner and more satisfying.
- Gale is no longer Katniss’ loyal childhood friend or a brave rebel leader and fighter, he’s now just another man — normal, forgettable, and irrelevant to her life from here on out.
- Finally, the vote scene in this chapter is top notch. I appreciate it a lot more now that I’m reading it as an older person than when I raced through the trilogy the first time. Collins doesn’t bash people over the head with what’s going on, allowing the clues to show thoughtful readers what Katniss and Haymitch are really doing at this crucial moment.
- It’s clever on many levels — on the surface, you might be forgiven for thinking that Katniss is making the wrong choice for the wrong reasons. But this scene shows that Katniss has finally truly learned the lesson of this entire trilogy (which was told to her by Haymitch: “remember who the enemy is.”)
- She shows this by ending her friendship with Gale (letting it die, rather — because he has not learned this lesson himself), and by voting the way she did during this scene.
- It’s also nice and symmetrical how in the arena, Katniss read Haymitch’s mind based on his actions, and in this crucial moment, it is Haymitch who reads what Katniss is not saying, and he votes “with the Mockingjay,” rather than vote “yes” on the Hunger Games.
- Neither Katniss nor Haymitch actually support the idea of holding another Games. But they realize they cannot say this aloud. They have to be strategic and make Coin THINK they are on her side. It’s the only way Katniss can get into position to take out the biggest threat that is hanging over them and has been for this entire book, and perhaps longer than that.
- Since the Capitol Hunger Games is Coin’s idea, they have to pretend they agree with her reasoning and logic so that she will trust them enough to let down her guard around Katniss, and that’s the opening Katniss needs to assassinate Coin.
- Collins’ skill as a writer is to not say this out in so many words, but let the readers piece the puzzle together for themselves.
Chapter 27 +Epilogue
In ThisChapter
- Katniss is acquitted for Coin’s assassination and sent home with Haymitch.
- Peeta is sent home later as well, and they and the people of Twelve rebuild their lives.
- Katniss and Peeta eventually have their own children and learn to deal with the trauma of their past.
When Katniss tries to take her nightlock pill, she bites into someone’s hand. It’s Peeta, and when she snarls, “Let me go!” he says: “I can’t.”
(This is a great exchange. It resonates on so many levels. There’s the “let me go” as in, “take your hand away and stop holding me back” surface meaning of “let me go,” and right underneath that, there’s the “let me die” form of “let me go.”
(And Peeta’s “I can’t” also works so well. It’s not “I won’t” or “no,” but “I can’t.” Which is something you could write a whole essay about, if you wanted to, interpreting it as Peeta’s genuine, true love for Katniss, warts and all — and how that kind of love doesn’t kill the beloved, not like Gale was willing to do in pursuit of his ideal, when he didn’t protest, like Peeta did, earlier, Katniss’ idea of making herself bait for Snow.
(You could also say “I can’t” is a hint at Peeta’s fundamental character and personality. He’s thoroughly good, down to the bones. Everything he did in the past to protect Katniss, to be kind to the people around him, to try to maintain his sense of self even in the first Games, flows from who he is, at a level even he can’t fully understand. It’s not that he “won’t” let Katniss go, it’s that he “can’t,” because that’s not who he is.)
Katniss is pulled away from Peeta, and she screams for Gale to deal the killing blow instead, but he does not from wherever he’s watching, and Katniss thinks to herself “he doesn’t follow through. Just as I didn’t when he was captured. Sorry excuses for hunters and friends. Both of us.”
(Well, at this point, Katniss is not going to be tortured by the Capitol, so there’s no point killing her. She may feel like dying, want to die and join Prim, but it’s not a good enough reason for anyone who still cares at all about her to do her in)
Katniss is handcuffed in the mansion where she’s mostly left alone. She considers how to kill herself, and decides the best way is to give up and stop eating. But her morphling withdrawal gets the better of her.
Katniss begins singing, songs from her childhood, that she learned from her dad.
(This fits too with the power of music, it’s almost like a magic, really. This is another major theme in the Hunger Games, how music plays a major role in the plot, from catching Peeta’s attention when they were kids, to the Hanging Tree song, and singing Rue to sleep, which wins over her district and Thresh and influences him to spare Katniss’ life…it makes sense for her to turn to music in this dark and empty moment).
Then Haymitch shows up, announces Katniss’ trial is over, and they’re going home.
Plutarch appears next, and without prompting tells Katniss what’s happened:
After Coin’s death, Snow died too — possibly trampled by the ensuing mob. In an emergency election, Paylor was voted in as president. Dr. Aurelius was Katniss’ star witness at her “trial,” presenting Katniss as a “hopeless, shell-shocked lunatic.”
Katniss realizes Haymitch has been ordered to go back to Twelve with her, because her mother isn’t coming. She notes:
“Like a good mentor, Haymitch makes me eat a sandwich and then pretends he believes I’m asleep for the rest of the trip.”
(It’s interesting that Katniss is still calling Haymitch her mentor, now that the Games are over, but that was his role, and I suppose it still fits. Also, I like how there’s still a bit of snark here, with the “pretends he believes I’m asleep.” These two are really good at reading each other’s minds, and their cantankerous relationship is a delight to read)
Back home, Katniss is taken care of by Greasy Sae who has apparently been hired as her housekeeper or something. Katniss is now free to kill herself, but she doesn’t, feeling as if she is “waiting for something” though she doesn’t know what.
Katniss doesn’t pick up the phone whenever it rings, and sits around like a bump on a log until one day she wakes up to hear a scratching shovel sound.
Curious and half in a nightmare, she runs outside and sees Peeta digging up the ground under the windows.
“You’re back,” I say.
“Dr. Aurelius wouldn’t let me leave the Capitol until yesterday,” Peeta says. “By the way, he said to tell you he can’t keep pretending he’s treating you forever. You have to pick up the phone.”
Turns out, Peeta has been digging under the window to plant primrose that he found in the woods, in honor of Prim.
(This is a great reunion scene. Understated, not melodramatic, but everything fits so well. The way they talk to each other is like they are old, close friends. which is what they are, at this point.
(Peeta has finally earned the right to be an “old friend,” probably Katniss’ oldest, now that Gale is out of the picture. They’ve seen each other at their best and worst, and there’s nothing to hide. There’s no need for greetings or polite shallow talk, just straight to the point, and with a hint of humor.
(And in characteristic unselfish fashion, the first thing we see Peeta doing is an act of love — planting flowers in remembrance of Prim. Come to think of it, flowers are another persistent theme of healing and goodness throughout the Hunger Games, from the flowers Katniss buries Rue in, to the cake flowers Peeta makes for Finnick and Annie’s cake, to these primrose flowers for Prim)
This motivates Katniss to finally go inside and take care of herself — take a bath, burn the white rose Snow left a lifetime ago, throw the windows open, burn her clothes and cut her fingernails.
Greasy Sae gives Katniss breakfast, and Katniss asks where Gale went off to, she learns he’s in District Two, with a fancy job, and he is sometimes seen on television.
Katniss “dig[s] around inside myself, trying to register anger, hatred, longing. I find only relief.”
(Relief is a good emotion. One readers share too. At last the annoying-but-thematically-useful triangle is over, and there’s a clean cut with Gale)
Katniss goes hunting, and on her way back sees workers still cleaning up the remains of the bombing of Twelve so long ago. The mayor’s entire family, she learns, were killed. Which means her friend Madge — who gave her the mockingjay pin — is gone.
All of the dead are being buried in the Meadow, which Katniss calls “a mass grave for my people.”
And when Katniss reaches home, a surprise is waiting — it’s Buttercup the cat, come all the way from District 13. He’s clearly looking for Prim, but as Prim is gone, Katniss tries to drive him away, and ends up crying over him, grieving her sister’s death for the first time.
At last, Katniss and Buttercup comfort each other over their mutual loss.
Over the next few days, Katniss goes through the motions of life, and with Peeta’s help, and later Haymitch’s, she starts a book to remember the people they lost — Prim and her father, Peeta’s family, Cinna, Boggs, Rue, and Finnick.
Time passes, Twelve comes back to life as people return and the Meadow turns green again, and Peeta and Katniss also “grow back together,” as Katniss realizes:
“What I need to survive is not Gale’s fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.”
(Interesting that she uses the word “survive” here, which she took such exception to when she overheard Peeta and Gale using that word before. But “survive” can have more than a surface meaning. Here, for example, Katniss is clearly not talking about mere physical survival, but the survival of herself as a person. The survival of hope, humanity, and all of that.
(It’s not just Katniss, but the theme of the book for readers is that although life and people can be very dark and very evil sometimes, don’t forget that there is also hope, life, and goodness, and those things can never be fully destroyed by the darkness.
(In fact, sometimes the goodness shines much brighter when contrasted against the darkness, as you see historically with, for example, people like the Righteous Among the Gentiles who risked their own lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, and many other such cases.)
In the epilogue, a middle-aged Katniss watches her and Peeta’s young children play in the Meadow. She recalls how she didn’t want kids, but Peeta did, and eventually persuaded her.
The Hunger Games are over, and memorials have been built, and her kids are starting to reach the age where they will learn more about that recent history. Katniss worries about how she will tell them about her past “without frightening them to death?”
But Peeta reassures her that it will be okay because “We have each other. And the book. We can make them understand in a way that will make them braver.”
(And that’s the key. To be antifragile rather than traumatized by hard things)
Katniss thinks of how she still has nightmares but that she overcomes them by playing a little game that she invented, where she “make[s] a list in my head of every act of goodness I’ve seen someone do.”
And although it’s become tedious after two decades, it’s a much better game than the ones she has played in the past.
Comments &Analysis
Opening: In the stunned reaction that follows, I’m aware of one sound. Snow’s laughter.
Closing: So after, when he whispers, “You love me. Real or not real?” // I tell him, “Real.”
EPILOGUE
Opening: They play in the Meadow. The dancing girl with the dark hair and blue eyes.
Closing: It’s like a game. Repetitive. Even a little tedious after more than twenty years. // But there are much worse games to play.
PROMISES & PAYOFFS
Payoffs:
- We finally see Katniss and Peeta at peace, and raising their own family in a better world after the ending of the Hunger Games
OTHER COMMENTS
- This is a pretty solid ending for this book, and for the trilogy as a whole. It’s a happy ending, though not unrealistically, perfectly so. The key to a good ending is that it’s set up well before it happens so that readers don’t feel deceived. And basically Collins achieved that.
- From the resolution of the triangle, to the answer to the question of whether or not Katniss’ most important person, Prim, will survive (nope), to the ultimate ending of the concept of the Games…although this is a dystopian book, it isn’t a nihilistic one, and I appreciate that. So do most people, which is why the book was successful.
- However, overall, not just in this chapter, but throughout this whole book, there’s a little too much talk of suicide, it lessens the deaths that do happen, especially Finnick, the one character we are led to really care about because we actually get to know him.
- And the three main characters who most frequently make threats of offing themselves don’t even die. It’s like the boy who cried wolf. Very rapidly, people stop believing you.
- Also, it’s interesting that Katniss’ mother is removed from the end of the book. She was never a really important character — from the beginning, Katniss felt that her mother had failed her and Prim, and they never truly make it up. She’s like a Gale character. Not driven by vengeance, but by grief, and that gets in the way of her having a proper, healthy relationship with Katniss…forever.
- Side thought, both vengeance and grief ultimately stem from selfishness. A concern for one’s own feelings more than the well-being of someone outside oneself.
- In contrast, what makes Katniss and Peeta strong, emotionally and morally and as story characters, is that they both unconditionally love at least one specific person in their lives. And because of that or in addition to that, they have a love for humanity, and bright red lines that they won’t allow themselves to cross when they’re in their right minds.
- Katniss had an easier time of it, because Prim was so lovable, and Peeta had a harder time because Katniss was so prickly — but even Katniss has redeeming qualities. Besides, at her core, she is fundamentally more like Peeta than like Gale, who is more of an “victory at ALL costs” type of person.
- It was that kind of thinking that got Panem into their deadly predicament in the first place, so for the Games to end, and for society to heal, it had to learn from its mistake of buying into “eye for an eye” and learn instead: “love your enemies.”
- Katniss more or less does learn this in the end, for example going out of her way to protect and support people who haven’t been friends to her (Johanna, Enobaria) or people who have let her down (Haymitch, her mother).
- And even with her greatest enemy, Snow, Katniss was able to avoid Gale’s mistake of being blinded by hatred. And she kept her clarity of vision well enough to see that Snow was telling the truth in the end. Which is what gave her the ability to end the vicious cycle of vengeance and violence and shut down the Hunger Games once and for all.
- And that is how & why The Hunger Games trilogy worked.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Why I Rated This Book 4.3Stars
I use this criteria to rate every book (out of 6 points per category):
Star ratings:
1 star = Basically, trash. Or worse.
2 stars = Only worth it if you really like the topic.
3 stars = Average.
4 stars = Quite Good.
5 stars = Worth re-reading more than once.
6 stars = Life-changing.
3. Craft ✍ ✍ ✍✍
Is this work is well-written, and are the ideas clearly and skillfully presented?
If I hadn’t read the first two books, I might have rated this book a little higher for Craft. On the other hand, if I hadn’t read the first two books, this third one wouldn’t have made sense or been compelling either.
It lacks the same verve and humor that the first couple books (especially the first one) had, with a lot more background-telling and increasingly unbelievable death traps.
However, the way the story plot is crafted, that was a bit unavoidable, so I’d still give this four stars.
2. Concept📖📖📖📖
Is this an interesting concept, well-executed? (Are implicit and explicit promises paid off?)
LMA/LDB: This is a adventure book, primarily, with love as a subtheme and not a whole lot of mystery, even though there’s a nice juicy twist at the end.
Pacing-wise, it is a bit slow, even when people start dying off from the booby-trapped pods. It’s a tricky thing to try to ramp things up without going over the cliff into oversaturation. There’s an uncanny valley of violence, too.
The first time I read Hunger Games Book Three, I felt like the violence was overdone to the point where I didn’t really care much anymore which characters were dying.
To some degree, I can see how that might be intentional — in war, veterans likely get desensitized to death as well. Unless a personal friend is killed, they become numb to the number of bodies they see or are forced to kill.
And to be fair, this story is far more philosophical and political than the other two, there’s no avoiding that.
That said, the ending was quite good, especially the way Collins doesn’t have Katniss doing the expected thing in killing Snow. The way she sets up Coin as the true villain and murderess of Prim (not directly, but in a distant, cold, bureaucratic way) is very on-theme.
And the way Katniss and Haymitch vote in the final Tribute-Victor scene is also excellent in how it brings forth the theme without bashing readers or being too obvious.
1. Core ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Are the worldview, themes, and arguments of this work true, edifying, and worth learning?
For the most part, Collins presented some excellent, thought-provoking, true-to-real-life themes and worldview observations, without it being overdone or cheap.
She explores themes like war and justice, vengeance, the value of human life, the nature of good and evil, love, fighting back against monsters without becoming a monster yourself…all the universal themes that have already been covered in so many books because they are critical to human life and experience.
And yet she does so thoughtfully, giving each side’s argument its due, and comes to a conclusion that is realistic but hopeful. This is a book that could be read and re-read and thought about, analyzed, discussed for a long time, it’s definitely got staying power.
LED Assessment
How did this book Lighten, Enlighten, or Delight the reader (that would be moi, in this case, since I’m writing this review ^^)?
I’d say this book wasn’t as delightful as its two predecessors, but you can’t expect that anyway. Book three is the darkest, longest, and most philosophical of the trilogy, and although Katniss has a happy ending, she doesn’t reach it without also acquiring some permanent scars and brokenness.
I can see how this story might help lighten the load of someone who has suffered similarly to what Katniss goes through — a war veteran or victim of severe trauma, for example. But even for those of us who haven’t, it’s an enlightening book, as it makes us think about the dark side of human nature and life without making it an unbearable experience.
Writing Tips & Practical Application
Because learning doesn’t happen until you change something you do…
- Plan your story’s ending: If you want your story to be satisfying, figure out what needs to happen in the end and then work your way backwards, planting hints in appropriate places so that when the ending arrives, it’s super satisfying.
- Bittersweet endings: Consider either giving your story a bittersweet ending, or analyzing/deeply thinking about stories that end in a bittersweet way. What makes it bitter? What makes it sweet? What makes it memorable? Can you replicate that in your own work?