Last time on Mockingjay, Peeta realizes Katniss is a slut because she kissed someone else while they weren’t together. Katniss realizes he’s so right, she’s a terrible person.

We get another revelation this chapter, which is that Katniss doesn’t get to be part of the final assault.

Coin barely looks up from her screen. “And as the Mockingjay, your primary goal of unifying the districts against the Capitol has been achieved.

Yes, but that means you don’t need to keep her alive any longer! Just send her into the war zone if she wants to suicide.

Interestingly, despite how Katniss has spent the last few chapters going on about how she wants to kill Snow, she doesn’t bring up that promise here.

Katniss insists she’s the bestest shot ever and they need her. Coin says she hasn’t shown up for training even once and the point of a soldier is to carry out orders and work in a group, something she’s terrible at doing.

She whines that she really really really wants to go, and Coin tells her that fine, if she goes through basic training and does a good enough job, she can.

It turns out Johanna is in a similar situation, so during what I assume is another morphine-stealing visit, Katniss suggests they both go. This pleases Johanna, and Katniss is thinking she’s a bit better inclined toward her. I figure the good mood is in part because she knows Katniss is about to go through training with bruised ribs. That’s definitely helping my mood.

She makes it through the basic stretches then fails at running.

Even with Johanna’s motivational insults driving me on, I have to drop out after a mile.

Sure they were motivational, Katniss. Sure they were.

Katniss tells the woman (My, we really are getting a lot of woman this book!) in charge that it’s her ribs, and the woman mentions there’s a way to get them to heal faster. It’s not very fun but…

Naturally, Katniss jumps at it. For some reason it’s really painful. For some other reason, you can’t take morphine with it, so her IV is cut off, which was Johanna’s supply. Johanna takes this in stride until the withdrawal symptoms kick in. But she’s still up at dawn to drag Katniss from bed for more training, because nothing motivates like watching Katniss flail around.

The day is miserable. They train above ground even though 13’s whole thing is being below ground, and that day it’s raining. At the end of the day, Johanna insists they should get discharged from the hospital so people stop treating them as patients, but the doctors won’t discharge her alone, in part because the morphine stealing makes them think she’s unstable. This is stupid, that should be encouraging them to get her out of the hospital and away from easily stolen morphine. Katniss, rightfully fearing the wrath of Johanna, offers to room with her. The room is next to her mom’s, so I can only assume that yet again they’ve kicked someone out over her whims.

Katniss lets Johanna look at her couple possessions because of Johanna has nothing of her own with her. Of course, most of it’s just the stuff she had on her at the arena, so not exactly pleasant memories.

Johanna gives us another Peeta update. Just for you, Johanna, I’ll pay attention. It’s that he’s getting better.

Katniss says yeah, but he’s changed so woe woe emo woe.

“So have you. So have I. And Finnick and Haymitch and Beetee. Don’t get me started on Annie Cresta. The arena messed us all up pretty good, don’t you think? Or do you still feel like the girl who volunteered for your sister?” she asks me.

Thank you, Johanna. The fact someone’s changed by trauma is inevitable. What matters is if they can get through it and end up functional on the other side, not that they’re exactly the same as before.

Speaking of which, we also see Finnick again.

Finnick’s transformation since his marriage. His earlier incarnations–the decadent Capitol heartthrob I met before the Quell, the enigmatic ally in the arena, the broken young man who tried to help me hold it together–these have been replaced by someone who radiates life.

So he’s been healed by the power of love. For sanity, we’re going to assume the power of sex wasn’t part of that, because the both of them have too many issues. Annie is not completely fixed apparently, but almost completely fixed. Also they’re codependent messes who never ,let go of each other’s hand.

Also, fuck you, Finnick wasn’t decadent. I suppose this resolves the question of if the book was going down the it-isn’t-rape-if-it’s-a-guy trail.

Not when they walk, not when they eat.

Being unable to function without someone else is not actually something to aspire toward as an example of true love.

Delly, who I’ve known since I was little but never gave much thought to, has grown in my estimation. She was told what Peeta said to me that night after the wedding, but she’s not a gossip. Haymitch says she’s the best defender I have when Peeta goes off on some kind of tear about me. Always taking my side, blaming his negative perceptions on the Capitol’s torture.

I’m not sure why this is so impressive, given Peeta’s crazy rants seem to mostly involve screaming she’s a genetically engineered monster trying to kill them all. Why praise someone for being able to tell the obvious?

They’re eating together at the table when suddenly, a wild Peeta appears!

Well, a heavily chained one.

“What’s with the fancy bracelets?” asks Johanna.
“I’m not quite trustworthy yet,” says Peeta. “I can’t even sit here without your permission.” He indicates the guards with his head.

I thought this was kind of dickish, but he actually is talking to Johanna, who he got to know in prison, and not being passive aggressive at Katniss. Johanna’s happy to say yes.

“Peeta and I had adjoining cells in the Capitol. We’re very familiar with each other’s screams.”
Annie, who’s on Johanna’s other side, does that thing where she covers her ears and exits reality. Finnick shoots Johanna an angry look as his arm encircles Annie.
“What? My head doctor says I’m not supposed to censor my thoughts. It’s part of my therapy,” replies Johanna.

Oh Johanna, always with the humor and the hurting others with you! <333333 forever. Delly, one of those people who doesn’t like awkward silences as people quietly flip out, talks about how Peeta made Annie’s wedding cake.


Annie cautiously looks across Johanna. “Thank you, Peeta. It was beautiful.”

I just find the “cautiously” very funny here. You can just picture poor Annie watching to make sure Johanna doesn’t leap at the chance to terrify her again.

Anyway, then Peeta jokes about how if Finnick doesn’t take good care of Annie he might try to steal her, only he doesn’t sound like he’s joking. Finnick jokingly says not to make him regret the whole thing with the restarting his heart.

Delly reminds Peeta that yes, Finnick did help him out. Peeta points out that no, he just did that for the rebellion.

Katniss then says that he still let Mags die to save Peeta and that should count, which, you know, still the same basic issue of it really being for Katniss, which in turn was really for the rebellion.

a lot of things should count for something that don’t seem to, Katniss. I’ve got some memories I can’t make sense of, and I don’t think the Capitol touched them. A lot of nights on the train, for instance,” he says.

What the hell. I am going to be charitable and assume he means that this meant they should have been in a relationship, which is merely completely unreasonable since Katniss was indeed faithful and not kissing Gale during that period and the games. The alternative is that he’s bitching at her for taking advantage of him by sleeping together and not putting out.

Unfortunately, we then get Katniss thinking that he’s thinking Everything a lie, everything a way of misusing him. so the second option seems to work better. Remember when the books were weirdly sexless? I miss those times.

Then Peeta asks if she’s with Gale now or they’re still dragging out the Peeta/Katniss star-crossed lover thing. Hey, jackass, you did that, not her. Then Gale says he can’t believe how Peeta is.

“You’ll have to be a little more specific,” says Peeta. “What about me?”
“That they’ve replaced you with the evil-mutt version of yourself,” says Johanna.

The book does not say, but I believe we can assume Johanna said this with a cheerful grin because that’s just how Johanna rolls.

Anyway, Gale and Katniss leave, and then Gale says he finds Peeta’s behavior familiar, because it’s just how he felt. The difference was he was saneish enough to understand it wasn’t fair to her.

Well, no, sorry. That’s not properly dickish.

I knew I wasn’t being entirely fair.

Fuck you, Gale. You weren’t being fair at all.

Really, it’s so hard with them all fighting to make me hate them the most. They’re all terrible people, so you’d think they’d deserve each other, but at the same time they’re so terrible I can’t think that anyone deserves a relationship with them. Plus, Katniss’ awfulness is mostly in everything but her relationships, so she seems especially put upon by this sort of bullshit.

Johanna comes in and throws herself across the foot of my bed. “You missed the best part. Delly lost her temper at Peeta over how he treated you. She got very squeaky. It was like someone stabbing a mouse with a fork repeatedly. The whole dining hall was riveted.”

Johanna’s descriptions of events are the best descriptions.

Anyway, later before they go to sleep Katniss asks if Johanna really could hear him screaming. Yes, she could.

“Like the jabberjays in the arena. Only it was real. And it didn’t stop after an hour. Tick, tock.”

That’s right, it was like the arena only way worse, and she’s not being whiny and refusing to do stuff left and right. Reflect on own life and become less whiny y/n?

N

Instead, Katniss just has horrible all-about-me nightmares. Eh.

I’m being pretty harsh on Katniss, but she’s had two and a half books in which she not only failed to get me to like her but did everything she could to make that worse. We are well into the negatives here. It’s hard to sympathize with Katniss’ pain when the book is always making it out to be worse than anyone else’s.