Collins,Suzanne, Mockingjay - informal buddy read begins 15 July 2024

[Shan ~A~]

Maria Jo wrote: "Part 1

I remembered how this book ends when I was introduced to some of the leaders in District 13. Snow may be bad, but Coin is a tyrant, too! And the song Katniss sings in the forest is one of t..."

I totally agree with you about Coin. She is a power-hungry tyrant. And about Gale. This is when I started to dislike him.

I know there are people who prefer him, but the one thing that Peeta did is always put Katniss before anything else.

Once Gale got to D13 his focus was not Katniss. He went with the status quo. Boggs, who didn't know her before all this actually considers her more than Gale IMO.

[Shan ~A~]

Part 2: Chapters 10-18

(view spoiler)[ It opens after Peeta's warning about an attack and it baffled me why anyone would doubt him after seeing his condition. And even if you didn't believe it why would you not get prepared just in case without having to be convinced.

Plutarch continues to be an asshole at this point. He's still operating like a game maker and doesn't come across as really caring about the human element on any level besides making sure the rebellion is successful.

He basically tells Katniss to make certain to act a certain way for everyone else's benefit. It's like none of the people who don't already care about her see her as anything but a tool.

Prior to this we always assumed that Finnick was a playboy in the Capitol, but we should have realized it was more to it due to his love for Annie, but hearing his actual story broke my heart.
Then we get that bit about Haymitch's life after he became a victor and I have a suspicion that even though they ended up not having anyone to use against him after his family was killed (and that in itself was harsh), that he probably still experienced some atrocities.

President Snow was a ruthless SOB. Of course, we already knew this, but the more you learn the worse he is. I can't even imagine what he would have done to Katniss had she been a solo winner. He definitely would have tried to break her spirit.

The moment when Peeta attacks Katniss was definitely better in the movie, because we got to see it and the actors did such a great job in that moment. In the book we are told about it, but I think it would have been grittier if it had been described a bit more. The shock value that was in the movie, wasn't there in the book.

It's crazy how they hijacked Peeta's memories and completely changed them. His thoughts on Katniss aside, he is definitely not the friendly boy we once knew. When he asks to see her after the wedding of Finnick and Annie, he was a bit more stable be he definitely was not nice. However, he did call her on behavior throughout their time in the games and back that were really relevant. In his friendlier way he semi-dealt with some of these in the past, but I actually liked that it was delivered this way, because she wasn't really taking his feeling into consideration with her actions, she was just in survivor mode.

In a perfect world he would have been able to love her, while also calling her on her crap.

Also, I didn't remember that they didn't know where Effie was at this point, because of course in the movies she was in D13.

Now they're off to the capitol. (hide spoiler)]

[Shan ~A~]

Shelby wrote: "Part 2

Ok I have drug my feet about reading more of this book. I'm just not excited about it at all. Finally pushed myself to finish the second part. I have to say Gale is driving me nuts. I reall..."

Perfectly said about Gale. It was what I was thinking, but I think you worded it better.

[Shan ~A~]

Part 3: Chapters 19-Epilogue

(view spoiler)[Now Coin's true motives are shown after sending Peeta with Katniss and crew to the Capitol, hoping he'll kill her. Thank goodness for Boggs having her back and at this point, even Gale. If Gale doesn't realize his leader is actually trying to kill Katniss, he is a delusional ass. And as always, when things are crazy in Katniss' head, Haymitch is the voice of reason.

The real or not real q&a is a favorite part for me.

So glad that Boggs saw Katniss' worth and respected and cared about her. Even while dying he does what needs to be done to protect her.

In all reality it would have been best if they had killed Peeta. He is a liability at this point and ends up killing Mitchell. It wasn't intentional, but it wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Coin was happy to jump on the bandwagon that Katniss and crew were dead. She was so set on her goal and killing Katniss that I don't think she cared that sending Peeta would endanger them all.

Those Mutts!!

I forgot the extent of Katniss' injuries after the bombing.

Coin is more ruthless than Snow. Snow didn't really hide his cruelty, whereas Coin hides hers behind supposedly helping everyone in the districts.

Why did she actually think most of these traumatized people would want to put someone else through what they went through in the games? She bought her own death in more ways than one.

Gale knew once Prim was killed that he didn't stand a chance with Katniss, Smart boy. Even though he didn't know what was going to happen, she would always associate him with those bombs.

I really wish that it was explained more how Peeta got well enough to live a normal life. It just like he was not stable, then all of sudden he was fine and years later he and Katniss have a family. (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Christina]

My favourite part in this book - always have been, always will be - is when Katniss visits the hospital in District 8, originally to film probos, but it ends being so much more than that. The way Katniss got over her "fear" of sick people and gave so much hope to everyone there is so uplifiting, also the way everyone's faces lit up. It's such a beautiful thing to happen, but of course that only makes it even more tragic what happens right afterwards 3 I do love how Katniss joined the fight instead of hiding (like she was told to) and felt like she's actually doing something "usefull" there.

[Christina]

Shan ~A~ wrote: "I really wish that it was explained more how Peeta got well enough to live a normal life. It just like he was not stable, then all of sudden he was fine and years later he and Katniss have a family."

I wholeheartedly agree with you on this! Over the course of the trilogy there's always been this focus on this love triangle, with Gale actually not being a great person, and Peeta always having been the kindest and most sociable human to ever exist apparently, only for him to get brainwash and end up a mess, and then we never know how he actually got better, what led to him and Katniss actually being in love for real now, them even having kids with each other??? Honestly I find this so annoying and I think this plays a big part in why I don't feel their relationship either (just like I wouldn't have wanted Katniss and Gale to ever end up together)

[Preeti]

Pt. 1

• I read this book immediately after the first 2 in the series in 2011 and found it to be very dark and violent. I remember thinking at the time that it was something desperately needed in young adult fiction. Here, finally, was a book which showed young people the true horrors of war, that just being the good guys doesn’t automatically protect one from the atrocities of war, that sometimes sh!t happens and one has to deal with it.
• I was absolutely convinced that district 13 had their own agenda, that none of what they did was out of the goodness of their hearts but more out of necessity.
• The Capitol’s plan of using Peeta against Katniss seems to have backfired. I don’t think she would have been so quick to volunteer if they hadn’t done that.
• Plutarch comes across not as being interested in fighting for the rights of the districts but rather still stuck in gamemaker mode. I was very irritated with his treating people around him as pawns.
• The part with the prep team is one I seemed to have completely erased from my mind. That was horrific and not a good sign of things to come. This was one of the first few things that made me realise that district 13 was not the democratic space they claimed to be but instead closer in feel to the Capitol. This was made clearer when Katniss talks about the look on her mother’s face when she takes the prep team to her for treatment.
• I was definitely impressed by how much aware of her surroundings Katniss became in this book. Her telling Plutarch and Fulvia that they were just as dispensable as her showed that she was doing a lot of reading between the lines and had figured out just what their standings were.
• Boggs had some of the best lines in the book and sadly, I don’t think I noticed them much in earlier readings. When Katniss said “I decide to go ahead and like Boggs”, I was thinking the exact same thing.
• The words of “The Hanging Tree” made so much more sense after having read and watched The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

[Preeti]

Pt. 2

• Peeta warning them of the impending assault should have made District 13 realise that he was being brainwashed and held against his will but they seemed to be intent on treating him as a traitor. That was another sign to me of District 13’s shadiness.
• Katniss remembers Johanna saying that there was nothing the Capitol could hold over her as she had nobody left whom she loved. That was so heartbreaking and yet so revealing as well as so obvious that even Prim is aware of it when she answers Katniss’s question by saying the Capitol would do to Peeta whatever it took to break Katniss.
• Which brings me to… Prim felt so much more grown-up in this book, not chronologically, but emotionally. While Katniss and her mother may have kept her protected, I think this book showed that she had an inner strength that had never been given the chance to be shown.
• Yet again, secrets being kept from Katniss… one would think the people around her would have learnt by now that the best approach with Katniss would be to keep her in the loop and prevent her panicking.
• Peeta and the others being rescued was definitely better handled in the movie. But I must say, I was not in the least bit surprised when Peeta attacked Katniss on seeing her for the first time after the rescue considering the Capitol would obviously have been using her images to brainwash and torture Peeta. Though I am still wondering why Gale chose to join the mission, what were his motives, to do something that he thought would please Katniss or was there something more nefarious?!?!?
• The entire bit about the Nut made me hate Gale all over again. I can understand him being bitter after having dealt with District 12 being blown up and so few people managing to escape from there but I would think that would make one more understanding of other people going through similar situations. There was a cruel streak in Gale that I noticed would pop up every now and then that prevented me from liking him. This was made apparent when he suggest blowing up the Nut and then when told that the majority of the workers are citizens from 2 says they would never be able to trust them even though Katniss says they don’t know how they ended up in the Nut. After reading the books the first time (and 2nd and 3rd….) I knew I didn’t like Gale but reading it this time and concentrating on his parts showed me why.

[Preeti]

Pt. 3

• That “real/not real” game is heartbreaking! For the capitol to have managed to make Peeta doubt everything about himself and his surroundings… I could understand why he did the things he did, his reactions. In his place, I would have been absolutely catatonic.
• I read through the first two parts of the book fairly quickly but this part… this part took me days of starting, having to stop, put away the book, read something else until I could get back to it. This book shows the ugly side of war and it sounds weird but I am glad it does. The kind of violence that surrounds us today, I see so many children and teenagers around me completely oblivious to the fact that the people being affected are humans just like them. I don’t blame them, the way war is depicted in many books/games/video games inures them to the gruesome violence. This book makes you realise that it isn’t always somebody else, a complete stranger being killed, sometimes it is people you have come to know and care about.
• Tigris… I never paid much attention to her any of the times I read this book earlier but now after having seen what she was in Ballad, I am so curious to know what happened to her.
• See, I knew when we got that entire bit of Gale and Beetee developing bombs that it was going to come back to bite them in the ass, and boy, did it!!!! It also made me realise that I was absolutely correct (view spoiler)[to despise Coin. This entire section was proof of her machinations. And I was proved right when she tells Katniss that she has “saved” Snow for her. Yet another one of her power moves. And it was proved when Snow talks to Katniss about it. That was the 🤦🏻‍♀️ moment when the whole plot became obvious. (hide spoiler)]