Chapters 10-12

Part II - The Assault

Chapter 10 - Coin decides that Peeta's warning is a good reason to evacuate everyone well underground into the bomb bunkers; Prim and Gale almost don't make it for trying to save a few precious things from the Everdeen's quarters; Prim and Katniss get to talk finally and Prim once again gives amazing advice - "Whatever it takes to break you"

Chapter 11 - Katniss realizes that "Crazy Cat" is really Snow, Peeta, and herself; she has a heart to heart with Finnick (Finnick <3); she finally realizes that Snow was waiting for her to convince him she loved Peeta so he could have the strongest weapon against her; Finnick gives her his rope to distract her <3; they go topside to film after the bombing is done and Snow left Katniss roses; Katniss breaks down; They finally send in a rescue team for Peeta...for which Gale volunteered.

Chapter 12 - Finnick and Katniss pull it together in order to film something to distract the Capitol while they perform the rescue mission; We get more back stories on the prices that the other Victors paid... Finnick shares his story with Katniss and the world; Haymitch lost his mother, brother, and girlfriend; we now know why President Snows' breath smells like blood; The rescue missions was...a success. Johanna is back, Annie is back, Gale is back...and Peeta has also made it to D13.

Two quotes really quick: Finnick's advice: "Better not to give in to it. it takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart." p 154

"But in the end, the only person I truly want to comfort me is Haymitch, because he loves Peeta, too." p 160 (I don't know about you, but I was shocked that the only person she wanted was Haymitch)

So once again, a TON happened here. I actually made myself stop reading a feel what Katniss felt when she realized how Snow was using Peeta. What would I feel like if I knew that people who hated me had Brad somewhere. And that they were torturing him and bringing him back to life. Doing God-knows-what to him to create that distracted and dangerous look that we saw in Peeta's eyes at the end of 9.

But what I really want to talk about is the Hunger Games. And the fact that they never really end for any of the Victors. We have kind of touched on it before. But it was in a more abstract way. A more psychological way. As in: they would never fully recover from the trauma done to them in the arena. The things that they had to do. And the fact that they had to go back and be mentors every year. Every year re-live the experience. Figuring out how to get your District to the end. Figure out how to kill the other children. And I knew it would be important. That bit that Beetee said about everything that Finnick had gone through. My heart just breaks for Finnick. At just 14 he was turned into a sex slave.

But it is so much more than that. As far as we know, every single one of the Victors have had threats over their heads since they won. If the games themselves hadn't driven them to the brink of oblivion. Who knows what caused the other Victor-tributes to their devices. The other one who drank, the two morphlings. Was it just their Games that drove them to it or was it the continued manipulation afterwards. Some of them seemed to come out of it OK. Some of the Careers. Even Mags-she almost just seemed like an old woman. Not too terribly mad. And even at that Beetee seemed to come out as well as one could have. But I suppose he is the analytical type. And his use to the government would be to continue to develop and invent the latest technology. That seems to be straight up his alley..to always be using his mind. Maybe for him it wasn't that bad.

And with a little bit more of the background of the Victor-Tributes it makes me wonder back to book two. At the interviews. Maybe all the other Victors were glaring at Katniss, but not really at her. At President Snow's manipulation. Knowing that she was going through things that they themselves had gone through (the manipulation, the threats). All along, I had been working under the assumption that only Katniss was the one who was being threatened in order to to the President's bidding. I had never dreamed that it basically had been going on since the beginning of the Games. Now I also want to know more about Johanna's back story.

One last thought that I had. Or have had. Repeatedly. I don't think that Gale and Katniss ever could have ended up together. There are just things that Gale will never understand. There is a special bond between Finnick and Katniss that Gale would never have even. The bond of the Games. Gale may love Katniss with everything he has. He may always want to protect her. Do the right thing by her, love her. But there are parts of Katniss, major parts now, that he will never understand and he will never be able to soothe. Things that only other Victors would be able to understand.

What do you girls think? This might be the first time reading this book that I've thought "Oh my gosh, I've got to keep going! I NEED to find out what happens."

What are your suspicions about Peeta, his reaction to Katniss, what the could have been doing to him, telling him...to get a reaction like that?