Last time on Mockingjay, Katniss has lost it, so they risk the lives of many people to try to save Millstone.

But nothing can happen without Katniss declaring it the new worst thing ever, so now she’s emoing about what if Gale and Peeta both die. She tries to imagine a world without them.

when I open the door to step out into the world, there’s only a tremendous void. A pale gray nothingness that is all my future holds.

Still technically better than Twilight, but only in the sense that this isn’t followed by actual blank pages. In terms of message, it’s the exact same one.

Also, hey Katniss, remember how your mom decided to sit around in a stupor after your dad died? Remember how that was not actually a good response to the death? Well, then why are you planning on  doing the same damn thing? Not even just falling apart, which I’d have some sympathy for, but planning it out now, when you’re not excused by being in the throes of grief, like there’s nothing wrong with it.

For no discernible reason, they bother asking her this time if she wants to get knocked out again so she won’t have to sit around and wait to find out what happens. I’m pretty sure this is just because the author wants to write her waiting to find out what happens, so she needed to be able to say no.

It’s actually somewhat of a plot hole – why wake her up to tell her this when they could have just kept her under until they got back her millstone?

Anyway, Katniss knows this is deep and meaningful bonding with Haymitch because he used alcohol to sedate himself too and that’s exactly like getting knocked out via injection by strangers every time you get upset.

The sixteen-year-old boy who won the second Quarter Quell must have had people he loved–family, friends, a sweetheart maybe–that he fought to get back to. Where are they now? How is it that until Peeta and I were thrust upon him, there was no one at all in his life? What did Snow do to them?

No, book.

Most people don’t fight to get back to their loved ones, they fight to not die. People who don’t have friends aren’t supposed to just lie back and accept their fate. And there are many reasons for being isolated beyond having an evil dictator personally murder them all.

Personally, for Haymitch, I would assume PTSD in a society that doesn’t recognize that combined with alcoholism in a society that views it as a moral failing. It’s quite possible he could have relatives he’s estranged from (and probably still sending money to) and former friends, but none of them are still willing to deal with him after two decades of this. And that’s not entirely their fault either – dealing with someone mentally ill, especially when you have no support or idea of what’s happening, isn’t easy for most people. It’s not fair, but it’s understandable.

Anyway, Katniss, already a shoe-in for a lifetime Not Getting It award decides to guarantee her win: “I want to go to the Capitol. I want to be part of the rescue mission.”

Adding stupidity to idiocy, it was pretty obvious from how Haymitch talked last chapter that the rescue mission is already in progress. He then makes it more obvious by explicitly saying so now.

Katniss insists she has to do something. That sounds like more knockout drug talk, Katniss.

Inexplicably, instead of ordering another shot because actually dealing with upset people is hard, Haymitch says he’ll go ask Plutarch. Plutarch’s name is now Patriarch, because it fits and also because fuck these names.

Finnick sprawled out on his stomach, his hands twisted in his pillowcase. Although it’s cowardly–cruel even–to rouse him from the shadowy, muted drug land to stark reality, I go ahead and do it because I can’t stand to face this by myself.

This turns out to be the right thing to do because Finnick is thrilled by the news, just like every other thing the book admits could be questionable except it was fine.

this will decide things. One way or the other. By the end of the day, they’ll either be dead or with us. It’s…it’s more than we could hope for!”

Yes, Finnick just said he’d rather Annie was dead than not with him. And this even though there’s been a pretty strong suggestion that they aren’t even bothering with torturing Annie and she’s probably fine.

Katniss considers this and decides he has a point, because the lives of others are clearly secondary to her personal feelings. She did talk of the horror of losing both Peeta and Gale earlier, but it’s clear that Gale’s death is a pretty minor factor, since Katniss is consoled over both deaths by the fact she won’t have to worry about Peeta.

You know, I don’t much like Gale, but I think Katniss has pulled far ahead in Asshole Olympics and I’m starting to feel that, as awful as he is, he doesn’t deserve to have her inflicted on him.

We’re come a long way from book one, where Katniss’ berry ploy was a ploy and based on the idea dying was bad.

Patriach’s idea is for them do more filming, because that is the answer to fucking everything in this book. Happy? Film. Depressed? Film. Angry? Film. Dying? Film. Bored? Film.

So they film. Katniss decides the most engrossing thing will be to do an interview, and even President Snow won’t be able to tear himself away. My, someone has a high opinion of herself.

And she tells the bread story yet again.

he was already in love with you,” says Cressida.

Yes, that is indeed a major detraction to the story. Peeta’s selfless sacrifice is transformed into something remarkably selfish by that revelation. Especially when his love is entirely based on her having a pretty voice.

Katniss rambles and mentions Snow told her the capital was fragile. You know, that’s actually kind of a big deal and you should have considered mentioning it earlier. Being told that the leader of the country thinks it’s actually a delicate house of cards about to come down is way more inspiring than a seventeen year old shouting about how they may not be able to do anything about the capital burning them all, but she swears they can at least make the capital burn to death too.

Anyway, because she mentioned Snow, Patriarch wants Finnick to get interviewed too.

People have linked me to fanfic, and I noticed a number involving the victors being sex slaves. Oh, fanfic, I thought indulgently. Always with the rape and the prostitution and the sex slaves.

Apparently it’s canon.

Now, it’s not like fanfic doesn’t handle this stuff badly at times. But the nice thing about fanfic as a branch off of canon is when you add in something really major that shouldn’t be thrown in as a side note, like say, selling a sixteen-year-old to the highest bidder, you can make the fanfic about that and give it proper consideration. And relatedly, when fanfic does it, they don’t usually dance around the issue. I hate when this kind of thing shows up in published books and the author prances coyly around any actual details. When fanfic makes it titillating, it at least admits to it.

(And you can also yell at fanfic writers directly if you don’t like what they’re doing.)

That explains it, then. Finnick’s parade of lovers in the Capitol. They were never real lovers.

Furthermore, fanfic does do it better.

Even if he wasn’t being explicitly sold, it was still obvious that they weren’t “real lovers”. He was introduced using his sexuality to get everything. It doesn’t need to be slavery for there to be a massive power imbalance between a traumatized sixteen year old and the ruling class who did it to him. Apparently we were supposed to think all the stuff with Katniss talking about how he read a poem to his “lover” and half the capital in tears because they think it means them as him just being a slut. Really, the only question by the point we meet him was whether he was choosing to prostitute himself for the sake of the rebellion or he was already having to sleep with everyone so he tried to get some use out of it by learning secrets in the process.

Just people like our old Head Peacekeeper, Cray, who bought desperate girls to devour and discard because he could.

Another thing fanfic does better is it has a lot less saying sex is inherently ruining. The women in Katniss’ district who prostituted themselves out of hunger were not freely choosing that, but neither were they on the level of a sex slave. I would much rather have a coerced choice than none at all. And having sex with people doesn’t mean you’re devouring them, nor is paying for sex a matter of discarding the woman afterward. That only works if you’re using the model that sex is something women do in exchange for marriage. I mean, let’s say he was an asshole, in that case wouldn’t the woman want to be “discarded” rather than stuck in a relationship?

The text is clear – Cray did not try to entice them into it, and neither did he string them along with the promise of money and safety only to cut them loose when he became bored. His one actual appearance in the books is him expressing concern at the idea of barely legal Katniss drinking hard alcohol, which is not an especially predatory behavior. He just had sex with women and paid them for it. That doesn’t mean he devoured them. They aren’t discarded trash now. There are many issues with a system where women have to sell themselves or starve. This particular argument is not any of them.

(Also Katniss, you know, if you thought this, why were you so chummy with him and the whole peacekeeper group?)

Anyway, that’s not the point. (And the fact it’s not the point and there isn’t even room for it to be the point is why I really wish it’d stayed in fanfic.) The point is the terrible sordid things Finnick learned in the process of getting raped, like… some people are kinky in addition to thinking it’s okay to buy a sixteen year old. And here we get into bottom of the barrel tabloid titillation, that pretends to be saying it’s so awful but is trying to get people to pay attention.

Finnick learns a lot of secrets, since clearly a victor wouldn’t tell anything to any of the many other equally powerful people he’s sleeping with, and certainly not Snow, the person he’s being bought from.

“And now, on to our good President Coriolanus Snow,” says Finnick.

Coriolanus? I think this is the most awful name yet and I’m going to strike it from my memory.

Anyway, apparently he rose to power by poisoning everybody.

People dropping dead at a feast or slowly, inexplicably declining into shadows over a period of months. Blamed on bad shellfish, elusive viruses, or an overlooked weakness in the aorta. Snow drinking from the poisoned cup himself to deflect suspicion.

Wow forensics does not work that way.

If powerful people are dying, you test for poison. This isn’t the middle ages, and for similar reasons, we don’t consider “Oh, but I ate some too!” to be an acquitable defense either. Also, you can test for the presence of an antidote as well, which is also quite incriminating.

But antidotes don’t always work. They say that’s why he wears the roses that reek of perfume. They say it’s to cover the scent of blood from the mouth sores that will never heal.

Oh bullshit. The capital has magic science. They sent Katniss an ointment that healed second degree burns in a day. They can fix every scar on Katniss’ body. They can certainly do something as minor as removing open sores.

I mean, our current level of technology is enough for face grafts. We can do face grafts but the people who make a pack of humawolves for a few hours of footage can’t fix a couple open wounds?

Also, I don’t think blood is that incredibly noticeable a smell, and surely if he’s trying to cover a smell on his breath, he’d be better served gargling listerine than wearing a flower? Plus, couldn’t he just say the sores were from somebody trying to poison him if sores are a normal result of poisoning?

On a different tangent, so, Snow hasn’t been in power for too long. That’s interesting because as I’ve said, he seems like the only one who’s getting blamed for the whole of the Hunger Games. I was assuming the book would have said he’d been president for quite a while, especially after making a big deal of how the magic science of the capital can keep people young.

Poison. The perfect weapon for a snake.

Except he’s not a snake. You just thought his eyes reminded you of them because it was the first cliché that came into your author’s head. Also most snakes don’t use poison as a weapon like that.

Katniss isn’t surprised by anything because she hates the capital so she figures it’s just what you’d expect from them, which inadvertently raises an important point – there’s no way to know this is actually true. Finnick might as well just make it up. The capital will still listen to all of it even if the individual people named all know it’s bullshit, even if the accusations are easily torn apart within an hour or two. And they lose nothing in the districts, who, like Katniss, probably will believe any terrible thing they hear about the capital. And anyone in the districts who isn’t assuming the worst of the capital will probably assume Finnick’s lying anyway.

She says the camera crew is a lot more shocked. Seeing as they’re the cosmopolitan ones, I find that a bit eh. Even if this gossip is both true and fresh, similar people doing similar things must have been talked about before now. It’s like, fine, some politician got caught having gay sex in the bathroom, the fact it’s a new scandal for that particular one doesn’t make it a huge shock when the content of the scandal is the same thing as usual. Also, like I said, no reason to believe it’s actually true.

There’s a bit about Patriarch reacting to some of the pieces even he didn’t know and you know what, who the fuck cares? If someone did something actually harmful, like fucked dogs, revealing that information should be as part of prosecuting the guy and making sure his dog is taken somewhere safe. Just tittering about how scandalous it all is is disgusting. And it’s especially disgusting here when it’s part of glossing over the rape of a sixteen year old. Everyone who bought him already did something horrible. You don’t need to search around for something else they did.

the team, with the help of rebel insiders, will attempt–has attempted–to free the victors from an underground prison. It seems to have involved knockout gas distributed by the ventilation system, a power failure, the detonation of a bomb in a government building several miles from the prison, and now the disruption of the broadcast.

It seems like that amount of time and effort could have been better spent directly attacking the capital and not trying to rescue two people just to make two other people happier. People are losing people every day. Why are they worth so little in comparison to Katniss? Why is only her pain special enough to incapacitate her?

Haymitch pushes open the door. “They’re back. We’re wanted in the hospital.” My mouth opens with a flood of questions that he cuts off with “That’s all I know.”

This is yet another thing that doesn’t make sense and is clearly just there because the author wanted suspense. It takes about as long to say they’re back as that they’re back and not dead.

They pass by Johanna, who is alive but in horrible condition. Katniss spares her a glance before going to find her notboyfriend and othernotboyfriend. We do not spend time on the fact the only reason they bothered to save her, an actual rebel member, is because they could pick her up on the way to getting Millstone.

They see Annie, who unlike Johanna looks fine. But since she’s a girlfriend, she too is more important and worthy of rescue.

“We got them all out. Except Enobaria. But since she’s from Two, we doubt she’s being held anyway.

No, Enobaria! I wanted to see her. Come on, she chewed through someone’s throat to win. Also, I was sort of hoping they’d rescue more people from the prison than just the Hunger Games players. Surely if they’re holding these people there, plenty of the other inmates are similar? (Also, note they didn’t say they couldn’t find Enobaria, just that they didn’t think she was there and presumably didn’t make any effort to look.)

I’m light-headed with giddiness. What will I say? Oh, who cares what I say? Peeta will be ecstatic no matter what I do. He’ll probably be kissing me anyway.

A hope spot obvious enough even I notice it. Naturally, what Peeta actually does is go for her throat for our dramatic ending line. I’m sure that’s supposed to be upsetting, but compared to the alternative of more romance, it’s a relief. I hope this isn’t resolved until the end of the book.