Okay, I'm reading "Mark Reads The Hunger Games" and this bit from the review for Chapter 7 just elicited an actual bark of laughter from me:

well, I still don’t have a sense of whether or not Collins is actually going to kill anyone off yet.

YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

Snerk. Boy, is he in for a ride.

smonster, your take is pretty similar to mine. The whole trilogy was gutting, and I sobbed more than once, but the choices she made in Mockingjay worked for me, for the most part.

What grabbed me and never let go, above and beyond world-building or other details, was Katniss. Her ferocity, her determination, but also the honest moments of WTF AM I DOING? and confusion and just being a girl in this world. At her heart, Katniss felt real to me, which made the read really emotional and really satisfying, even if it was grim as fuck.

Wow, I'm tired. Stupid typos.

Ha ha ha, yeah. Mark says some pretty hilariously prescient things sometimes. He's wished for so many things in his Avatar posts that he has no idea will come true, sometimes sooner than he thinks.

Amy, yes. And I've found many a love triangle to be tedious and eyerolly, but in my own life I've had a number of times where I had a hard time choosing between potential partners (and made some poor decisions), and I really liked that I honestly didn't know who Katniss would end up with, if anyone, and that both Peeta and Gale seemed to offer real, viable, but not perfect relationships .

A random Harry Potter thought has occurred to me.

Which is that the Dementors and everyone spend a lot of time during books 3, 4, and 5 running around looking for Sirius Black. And yet Harry is able to communicate with Sirius by owl, even when Harry doesn't know where Sirius is.

So clearly the owls all know where every member of the wizarding world is at every moment.

Why doesn't the Ministry of Magic follow the owls anytime someone goes missing?

Why doesn't the Ministry of Magic follow the owls anytime someone goes missing?

They do. Which is why Harry can't use Hedwig sometimes because she's so distinctive looking.

Yeah, but all the Ministry has to do is send an owl to Sirius, and follow their own owl!

smonster, now that it's 6+ months after reading Mockingjay, what has lingered the most, out of everything, is -- Finnick. I mean, GOD DAMN. He gets to marry Annie, and then gets killed more or less offscreen, just -- gone.

I mean, I should have seen it coming. Since he got that moment of awesome happiness in marrying Annie, OF COURSE shit was going to get real.

But GOD DAMN. Out of everything, including Prim's death, that has stuck with me the most.

Steph, I totally agree. Completely, totally brutal.

Hey, germane to this discussion, this is a sample character analysis I wrote of Katniss, part of the sample set I wrote that got me the Shmoop job (it's written for a student audience).

Character Analysis – Katniss Everdeen from Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Katniss Everdeen took on the system in Hunger Games, and became The Girl on Fire, a symbol for every citizen of Panem who chokes on the yoke placed upon them by the totalitarian government. After winning the Games, she returns to her life in District 12.

What’s Love Got To Do With It? “All I was doing was trying to keep myself and Peeta alive. Any act of rebellion was purely coincidental. But when the Capitol decrees that only one tribute can live, and you have the audacity to challenge it, I guess that becomes rebellion in itself. My only defense was pretending I had been driven insane by a passionate love for Peeta. So we were both allowed to live. To be crowned victors. To go home and celebrate and wave good-bye to the cameras and be left alone. Until now” (17).

After the Games, Katniss ignored Peeta and resumed her friendship with Gale. But in the eyes of the public, she and Gale are cousins, and she is in love with Peeta. However, that she and Gale continue to see each other is seen by many – including President Snow -- as a sign of Katniss’ rebellion, and she has to convince everyone she’s in love with Peeta on their Victory Tour. If not, Snow will have Gale killed. Katniss continues to be a very pragmatic person. She doesn’t make a fuss, she’s focused on the bottom line: don’t get anyone I love killed. So she pretends again, to be so in love with Peeta that she would die for him. Problem is, Katniss is a pretty direct person, and this level of emotional pretense is pretty hard to keep up. It’s also confusing, since she’s not really sure exactly how she feels about Peeta. Her declaration of love was a play to win the game, but he really loves her. (And you thought your romantic relationships were complicated.)

Also, she’s painted herself into a corner. Sure, pretending she and Peeta were in love saved both their lives, but now she’s stuck. She HAS to marry Peeta when she’s older. Otherwise, the relationship will be seen as a lie, and the government will have to take steps to correct the show of rebellion. Messy, bloody, permanent steps. Katniss is tormented by the knowledge that she has to stay away from Gale if she wants him to keep on living.

Katniss struggles with her conflicting emotions for Peeta and Gale. She’s known Gale her whole life. He understands her, and she him. But she and Peeta have been thrown together in some emotionally charged life-or-death situations; Peeta’s been in love with her a while, and has demonstrated his willingness to die for her. That's two pretty powerful things competing with each other. Katniss’ feelings for Peeta start to change – and she truly is willing to die for him this time – but this comes about only after she thinks that she is going to die again in the Quarter Quell Games, and has no chance, ever, of being with Gale.

Stand In The Place Where You Live Because Katniss manipulated the government into letting her and Peeta live, she’s become a symbol of rebellion. Katniss has been pretty self-interested (understandably -- that whole life or death thing), but she starts to have to look outward. She knows now that the government is corrupt, that President Snow is about as trustworthy as a cat in a tuna factory, and that Panem is completely messed up, but she really hasn’t contemplated her role in the world. But on the Victory Tour, she really starts to get a clearer view. If she continues only to look toward her own self-interest, she will be the kind of person she despises. She must take a stand and fight the power. Cue Public Enemy.

I Am The Mockingjay – Cu-Cu-Ca-Choo

Katniss unknowingly keeps on referencing the mockingjay – when she wears the pin, when she talks to Rue’s district during the Victory tour -- (continued...)