THE THRILLING CONCLUSION!
So... yeah... I stayed up late to finish reading Mockingjay last night. I got to a point in the book where I just could not stop reading because I HAD TO KNOW HOW IT ENDED and was up until three in the morning. My only regret is that I'm now somewhat cranky (because of lack of sleep, not because of the book).
BUT ANYWAY, THERE ARE THINGS TO FLAIL OVER AND SQUEE AND CRY ABOUT!
Chapter 21-
Katniss and Co. shoot down Peeta's begging to be killed or kill himself (via their special-issued nightlock pills, so named for the berries Katniss defied the Capitol with in the first book).
They take some rest and a breather and wait for Snow's statement on the Mockingjay's "death".
"I poke around in the pile, about to settle on some cod chowder, when Peeta holds out a can to me. 'Here.'
I take it, not knowing what to expect. The label reads LAMB STEW.
I press my lips together at the memories of rain dripping through stones, my inept attempts at flirting, and the aroma of my favorite Capitol dish in the chilly air. So some part of it must still be in his head, too. How happy, how hungry, how close we were when that picnic basket arrived outside our cave."
Aww... mental flashback to the cave scene in the first book. WHY ARE YOU TWO STILL SO CUTE?!
Snow makes his announcement, Coin cuts in with a counter-announcment, the group ducks into the Capitol's underground tunnels in order to make their way to the the City Circle with the President's house. Pollux becomes their guide, since he was an Avox (had his tongue cut out) and worked in the tunnels for several years.
"We're halfway down the first tunnel when I realize what was so remarkable about the exchange. Peeta sounded like his old self, the one who could always think of the right thing to say when nobody else could. Ironic, encouraging, a little funny, but not at anyone's expense. I glance back at him as he trudges along under his guards, Gale and Jackson, his eyes fixed on the ground, his shoulders hunched forward. So dispirited. But for a moment, he was really here."
The squad stop for the night and while Katniss is on watch, she and Peeta have a nice conversation about Peeta's memories and the effects the tracker jacker venom had on them. And we get this epic quote:
"'You're still trying to protect me. Real or not real,' he whispers.
'Real,' I answer. It seems to require more explanation. 'Because that's what you and I do. Protect each other.' After a minute or so, he drifts off to sleep."
D'aww!
Oh and then something in the tunnels with them starts hissing Katniss's name. Yeah. Ms. Collins is the master of mood whiplash.
Chapter 22-
Peeta joins in with the hissing voices and Katniss almost kills him but fortunately he snaps out of it just in time. The squad flees through the tunnels, running and hurrying now that they know they're being tracked by muttations. Messalla of the camera crew gets melted by a light ray.
*whimper* Ouch. Bad way to go.
AND THEN WE SEE THE MUTTATIONS THAT ARE HUNTING THEM AND THEY ARE GIANT WHITE LIZARD THINGS THAT SMELL LIKE BLOOD AND PRESIDENT SNOW'S ROSES. HOLY COW.
AND MORE 13-ERS BITE IT BUYING TIME FOR THE OTHERS TO ESCAPE.
AND THEN CASTOR AND HOMES AND FINNICK GET TORN UP BY THE MUTTS.
D:
NOOOOOOOOOOO FINNICK! FINNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK! WHY?! I LIKED YOU!
*sniffle* Allow me a moment to mourn the loss of Finnick.
Peeta huddles against the wall, his eyes dialating, on the verge of losing control of himself. I love this part to epic shippy pieces so I'm just going to quote it in full.
"'Peeta,' I say. There's no response. Has he blacked out? I crouch in front of him, pulling his cuffed hands from his face. 'Peeta?' His eyes are like black pools, the pupils dilated so that the blue irises have all but vanished. The muscles in his wrist are hard as metal.
'Leave me,' he whispers. 'I can't hang on.'
'Yes. You can!' I tell him.
Peeta shakes his head. 'I'm losing it. I'll go mad. Like them.'
Like the mutts. Like a rabid beast bent on ripping my throat out. And here, finally here in this place, in these circumstances, I will really have to kill him. And Snow will win. Hot, bitter hatred courses through me. Snow has won too much already today."
"YOU ARE NOT TAKIN' MAH BOY AWAY FROM MEH YOU EVIL EVIL MAN!"
"It's a long shot, it's suicide maybe, but I do the only thing I can think of. I lean in and kiss Peeta full on the mouth. His whole body starts shuddering, but I keep my lips pressed to his until I have to come up for air. My hands slide up his wrists to clasp his. 'Don't let him take you from me.'
Peeta's panting hard as he fights the nightmares raging in his head. 'No. I don't want to...'
I clench his hands to the point of pain. 'Stay with me.'
His pupils contract to pinpoints, dilate again rapidly, and then return to something resembling normalcy. 'Always,' he murmurs."
EPIC ROMANTIC COOLDOWN KISS OF LUUUUURRRVE!
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Chapter 23-
Katniss and her rapidly-diminishing group get back up to street level. They're in an unevacuated portion of the Capitol now, and thus need to be extra careful not to be identified. They grabs some disguises from the apartment they're in. Cressida guides them to an insider's safehouse and we meet Tigris, who hides the group in the cellar of her fur store. They take some much-needed rest.
This exchange happens:
"I'm jolted back in time, to another wound, another set of bandages. 'You said the same thing to me in the first Hunger Games. Real or not real?'
'Real,' he says. And you risked your life getting the medicine that saved me?'
'Real.' I shrug. 'You were the reason I was alive to do it.'"
Aww, thank you book for that nice flashback to why I fell in love with them in the first book.
Katniss and Co. continue to hang out at Tigris's and eventually formulate a plan to make themselves up, join the throngs of refugees in the Capitol streets, and hide in among the ones slated to be given shelter in Snow's mansion.
Gale and Peeta have a nice chat about their girl.
Chapter 24-
After a day or so of resting and gathering information, the group suits up, gets made up by Tigris (who was a former stylist of the Games), and splits up. Cresidda and Pollux lead the way, Gale and Katniss follow, and Peeta bring up the rear on the off chance he can cause a distraction at an opportune time. Before they leave, this cuteness:
"I feel a kind of desperation rising up in me. It's like I'm back in the Quarter Quell, with Beetee giving Johanna and me that coil of wire.
'Listen,' I say. 'Don't do anything foolish.'
'No. It's last-resort stuff. Completely,' he says.
I wrap my arms around his neck, feel his arms hesitate before they embrace me. Not as steady as they once were, but still warm and strong. A thousand moments surge through me. All the times these arms were my only refuge from the world. Perhaps not fully appreciated then, but so sweet in my memory, and now gone forever."
Poignant farewell Peeta/Katniss hug. Aww.
The plan seems like it's working... AND THEN THE REBELS BREAK THROUGH TO THE CITY CIRCLE AND START SHOOTING AND THE PEACEKEEPERS SHOOT BACK AND ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE AS EVERYONE IS RUNNING ALL OVER THE PLACE AND THERE IS ABSOLUTE CHAOS. AND THE REFUGEES GET CAUGHT IN CROSSFIRE AND KATNISS AND GALE ALMOST GET CAUGHT BY ONE OF THE PODS AND THEN GALE'S CAPTURED BY PEACEKEEPERS AND KATNISS MAKES IT TO THE CITY CIRCLE.
AND IN THE CITY CIRCLE ARE A BUNCH OF CHILDREN THAT GET BLOWN UP WHEN A CAPITOL-MARKED HOVERCRAFT APPEARS AND DROPS SILVER PARACHUTES. AND THEN WHEN THE REBEL MEDICS COME IN TO HELP, A SECOND SET OF BOMBS GOES OFF AND KILLS A BUNCH OF THEM TOO INCLUDING-
!!!
PRIM! NOOOOOOO!
Chapter 25-
So... after watching her sister die Katniss is broken. Like, seriously broken. Physically, mentally, emotionally, the whole package. She is just a WRECK. (And the chapter beginning is fairly Mind-Screwy as a result.)
Oh and since she got hit with one of the fireballs from the explosions she didn't get to see the Rebels succeed in taking the Capitol and imprisoning Snow. Too busy having her skin regrafted. When she's able to get up she wanders the mansion aimlessly, in a state of mental catatonia.
She is officially the biggest Woobie of the books now.
In her wandering she makes her way to Snow's rose garden, and snips one to pin over his heart when she executes him. He's there, in chains, and chats with her. (And coughs up blood, likely a side-effect/condition of his imbibing too much poison over the years, to immunize himself and deflect suspicion from him. How poetic.) He tells her it wasn't the Capitol who dropped the bombs on the children, but the Rebels, under the instruction of Coin.
Crap. I knew Coin was evil! I just knew it!
Chapter 26-
Being the mental mess she is, Katniss can't process this accusation and starts to consider it. Recognizes Gale's design/hand/thinking/whatever in the two-fold bombs strategy. Dammit Gale you turned out to be really unlikeable as a character didn't you? Considering the evidence both ways, Katniss seeks out Haymitch, but he's drunk so he can't help her and she goes off and finds some silks to bury herself in and sleep and have nightmares.
Her prep team comes and finds her and gets her ready for the execution and we learn that Effie Trinket is okay. Awesome.
Gale finally decides to pay her a visit and Katniss looks at him and realizes that she and he are too much changed by their experiences to be compatible anymore. HOORAY! SINK THAT GALE/KATNISS SHIP COLLINS! SINK IT! She also confronts him about the hovercraft bombs. To his credit, he really doesn't know whether or not it was his design exactly that made up the two-fold bombs that killed her sister. But the methodology and thinking behind the bombs remains his and thus he will forever be connected in Katniss's mind with the death of her sister. You uh, didn't have to sink the ship THAT hard Suzanne.
Before the execution there's a quick meeting with Coin and the remaining victors. Coin states that she feels Snow's execution won't be sufficient retribution for the Districts.
She proposes a final symbolic Hunger Games using Capitol children.
OH HELL NO LADY! YOU SO DID NOT JUST CROSS THE MORAL EVENT HORIZON BY SUGGESTING THAT! PERPETUATING AND CONTINUING THE CYCLE OF REVENGE NEVER EVER SOLVED ANYTHING!
She needs to die now.
Peeta is appalled of course and votes no. Ditto Annie. (Poor Annie! She's a widow now. *mourns again for Finnick*) Johanna and Enobaria are game. Katniss, either because she's still really messed up in the head or because she realizes now that Snow was telling the truth and is playing along in order not to arouse Coin's suspicion, goes along with the plan and votes yes. Haymitch too, probably because he realizes he shouldn't blow Katniss's cover. The meeting adjourns and they head to the square for the execution.
Katniss takes her place and arms her awesome bow. She aims at President Snow.
She adjusts her aim a little higher at the last minute and shoots Coin.
YEAH-HAAAA KATNISS!
Chapter 27-
Katniss attempts to commit suicide after this deed but Peeta stops her. She's arrested and put into her old room in the previous two Hunger Games and basically spends the chapter trying to die. Haymitch comes and gets her and tells her her trial's over and she's free to go. Plutarch fills us in on the way back to 12. Pandemonium errupted. Snow started laughing and then coughing and choked to death on his own blood. (Again, how fitting.) They elected Paylor, a minor character rebel from District 8, instead. Katniss's psychiatrist managed to get her off on an insane plea and she was freed but confined to District 12 until further notice.
Once home in her house on the Victor's Row, Katniss sits in a chair and angsts and stares into the fireplace, still very VERY mentally messed-up. Various characters come in to take care of her and make sure she's okay. Including Peeta who brings some Primrose bushes to plant for her. (This drives Katniss to finally destroy that rose Snow left for her in Chapter 1.)
Eventually, Katniss gets off her butt and hunts some. That night... the cat finds her. The freaking cat is still alive. Miracle of miracles. Katniss has a bit of a breakdown and yells at the cat-"'She's dead, you stupid cat. She's dead.'"-and then has a nice cry and the cat gets over his dislike of her to comfort and protect her. Katniss reaches out to her support system at last and, in her own words, "Slowly, with many lost days, I come back to life."
SHE'S HEALING! SHE'S HEALING! THIS BOOK IS GOING TO HAVE A HAPPY ENDING AFTER ALL!
She and Peeta and Haymitch make a great big photobook/scrapbook of all the people they've loved and lost, who've died and need to be remembered. We learn Annie had a son by Finnick. Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch fall into a comfortable, normal routine. People come back to District 12, plow the ashes, plant food, build a factory to make medicines.
Oh and also...
"Peeta and I grow back together."
Squee!
"There are still moments when he clutches the back of a chair and hangs on until the flashbacks are over. I wake up screaming from nightmares of mutts and lost children. But his arms are there to comfort me. And eventually his lips. On the night I feel that thing again, the hunger that overtook me on the beach, I know this would've happened anyway. That what I needed to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that."
I LOVE THIS PARAGRAPH LIKE YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE. KATNISS HAS HER HOPE BACK Y'ALL. SHE HAS MADE HER PEACE. SHE HAS HAPPINESS AND SERENITY NOW. BECAUSE PEETA WAS THERE FOR HER. AND SHE WAS THERE FOR HIM. AND TOGETHER THEY FOUND THE STRENGTH TO HEAL, TO CARRY ON, TO LIVE AGAIN.
ALSO, SNICKER AT THE IMPLIED PEETA/KATNISS SMEXINGS.
"So after, when he whispers, 'You love me. Real or not real?'
I tell him, 'Real.'"
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! SHE SAID IT! SHE CONFESSED! OH MY SHIPPER'S HEART!
Epilogue-
Katniss ponders her game of thinking about every act of goodness she's witnessed, and how this game helps her face each new day, as she watches her children play in the meadow.
*dies of happy shipper glee*
BABIES! PEETA AND KATNISS GOT MARRIED AND HAD BABIES! MY LIFE AS A SHIPPER IS NOW COMPLEEEEEEEEEEETE!
---
IN CONCLUSION, THAT WAS THE MOST AMAZING EPIC THING EVER AND I LOVED IT TO PIECES. A little bummed at how dark and depressing it got and how much (needless I thought) character death there was. And how Gale turned out to be really unlikeable. BUT EVERYTHING ELSE WAS MADE OF WIN AND PURE GOODNESS.
OH HUNGER GAMES HOW I LOVE THEE!
BUT ANYWAY, THERE ARE THINGS TO FLAIL OVER AND SQUEE AND CRY ABOUT!
Chapter 21-
Katniss and Co. shoot down Peeta's begging to be killed or kill himself (via their special-issued nightlock pills, so named for the berries Katniss defied the Capitol with in the first book).
They take some rest and a breather and wait for Snow's statement on the Mockingjay's "death".
"I poke around in the pile, about to settle on some cod chowder, when Peeta holds out a can to me. 'Here.'
I take it, not knowing what to expect. The label reads LAMB STEW.
I press my lips together at the memories of rain dripping through stones, my inept attempts at flirting, and the aroma of my favorite Capitol dish in the chilly air. So some part of it must still be in his head, too. How happy, how hungry, how close we were when that picnic basket arrived outside our cave."
Aww... mental flashback to the cave scene in the first book. WHY ARE YOU TWO STILL SO CUTE?!
Snow makes his announcement, Coin cuts in with a counter-announcment, the group ducks into the Capitol's underground tunnels in order to make their way to the the City Circle with the President's house. Pollux becomes their guide, since he was an Avox (had his tongue cut out) and worked in the tunnels for several years.
"We're halfway down the first tunnel when I realize what was so remarkable about the exchange. Peeta sounded like his old self, the one who could always think of the right thing to say when nobody else could. Ironic, encouraging, a little funny, but not at anyone's expense. I glance back at him as he trudges along under his guards, Gale and Jackson, his eyes fixed on the ground, his shoulders hunched forward. So dispirited. But for a moment, he was really here."
The squad stop for the night and while Katniss is on watch, she and Peeta have a nice conversation about Peeta's memories and the effects the tracker jacker venom had on them. And we get this epic quote:
"'You're still trying to protect me. Real or not real,' he whispers.
'Real,' I answer. It seems to require more explanation. 'Because that's what you and I do. Protect each other.' After a minute or so, he drifts off to sleep."
D'aww!
Oh and then something in the tunnels with them starts hissing Katniss's name. Yeah. Ms. Collins is the master of mood whiplash.
Chapter 22-
Peeta joins in with the hissing voices and Katniss almost kills him but fortunately he snaps out of it just in time. The squad flees through the tunnels, running and hurrying now that they know they're being tracked by muttations. Messalla of the camera crew gets melted by a light ray.
*whimper* Ouch. Bad way to go.
AND THEN WE SEE THE MUTTATIONS THAT ARE HUNTING THEM AND THEY ARE GIANT WHITE LIZARD THINGS THAT SMELL LIKE BLOOD AND PRESIDENT SNOW'S ROSES. HOLY COW.
AND MORE 13-ERS BITE IT BUYING TIME FOR THE OTHERS TO ESCAPE.
AND THEN CASTOR AND HOMES AND FINNICK GET TORN UP BY THE MUTTS.
D:
NOOOOOOOOOOO FINNICK! FINNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK! WHY?! I LIKED YOU!
*sniffle* Allow me a moment to mourn the loss of Finnick.
Peeta huddles against the wall, his eyes dialating, on the verge of losing control of himself. I love this part to epic shippy pieces so I'm just going to quote it in full.
"'Peeta,' I say. There's no response. Has he blacked out? I crouch in front of him, pulling his cuffed hands from his face. 'Peeta?' His eyes are like black pools, the pupils dilated so that the blue irises have all but vanished. The muscles in his wrist are hard as metal.
'Leave me,' he whispers. 'I can't hang on.'
'Yes. You can!' I tell him.
Peeta shakes his head. 'I'm losing it. I'll go mad. Like them.'
Like the mutts. Like a rabid beast bent on ripping my throat out. And here, finally here in this place, in these circumstances, I will really have to kill him. And Snow will win. Hot, bitter hatred courses through me. Snow has won too much already today."
"YOU ARE NOT TAKIN' MAH BOY AWAY FROM MEH YOU EVIL EVIL MAN!"
"It's a long shot, it's suicide maybe, but I do the only thing I can think of. I lean in and kiss Peeta full on the mouth. His whole body starts shuddering, but I keep my lips pressed to his until I have to come up for air. My hands slide up his wrists to clasp his. 'Don't let him take you from me.'
Peeta's panting hard as he fights the nightmares raging in his head. 'No. I don't want to...'
I clench his hands to the point of pain. 'Stay with me.'
His pupils contract to pinpoints, dilate again rapidly, and then return to something resembling normalcy. 'Always,' he murmurs."
EPIC ROMANTIC COOLDOWN KISS OF LUUUUURRRVE!
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Chapter 23-
Katniss and her rapidly-diminishing group get back up to street level. They're in an unevacuated portion of the Capitol now, and thus need to be extra careful not to be identified. They grabs some disguises from the apartment they're in. Cressida guides them to an insider's safehouse and we meet Tigris, who hides the group in the cellar of her fur store. They take some much-needed rest.
This exchange happens:
"I'm jolted back in time, to another wound, another set of bandages. 'You said the same thing to me in the first Hunger Games. Real or not real?'
'Real,' he says. And you risked your life getting the medicine that saved me?'
'Real.' I shrug. 'You were the reason I was alive to do it.'"
Aww, thank you book for that nice flashback to why I fell in love with them in the first book.
Katniss and Co. continue to hang out at Tigris's and eventually formulate a plan to make themselves up, join the throngs of refugees in the Capitol streets, and hide in among the ones slated to be given shelter in Snow's mansion.
Gale and Peeta have a nice chat about their girl.
Chapter 24-
After a day or so of resting and gathering information, the group suits up, gets made up by Tigris (who was a former stylist of the Games), and splits up. Cresidda and Pollux lead the way, Gale and Katniss follow, and Peeta bring up the rear on the off chance he can cause a distraction at an opportune time. Before they leave, this cuteness:
"I feel a kind of desperation rising up in me. It's like I'm back in the Quarter Quell, with Beetee giving Johanna and me that coil of wire.
'Listen,' I say. 'Don't do anything foolish.'
'No. It's last-resort stuff. Completely,' he says.
I wrap my arms around his neck, feel his arms hesitate before they embrace me. Not as steady as they once were, but still warm and strong. A thousand moments surge through me. All the times these arms were my only refuge from the world. Perhaps not fully appreciated then, but so sweet in my memory, and now gone forever."
Poignant farewell Peeta/Katniss hug. Aww.
The plan seems like it's working... AND THEN THE REBELS BREAK THROUGH TO THE CITY CIRCLE AND START SHOOTING AND THE PEACEKEEPERS SHOOT BACK AND ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE AS EVERYONE IS RUNNING ALL OVER THE PLACE AND THERE IS ABSOLUTE CHAOS. AND THE REFUGEES GET CAUGHT IN CROSSFIRE AND KATNISS AND GALE ALMOST GET CAUGHT BY ONE OF THE PODS AND THEN GALE'S CAPTURED BY PEACEKEEPERS AND KATNISS MAKES IT TO THE CITY CIRCLE.
AND IN THE CITY CIRCLE ARE A BUNCH OF CHILDREN THAT GET BLOWN UP WHEN A CAPITOL-MARKED HOVERCRAFT APPEARS AND DROPS SILVER PARACHUTES. AND THEN WHEN THE REBEL MEDICS COME IN TO HELP, A SECOND SET OF BOMBS GOES OFF AND KILLS A BUNCH OF THEM TOO INCLUDING-
!!!
PRIM! NOOOOOOO!
Chapter 25-
So... after watching her sister die Katniss is broken. Like, seriously broken. Physically, mentally, emotionally, the whole package. She is just a WRECK. (And the chapter beginning is fairly Mind-Screwy as a result.)
Oh and since she got hit with one of the fireballs from the explosions she didn't get to see the Rebels succeed in taking the Capitol and imprisoning Snow. Too busy having her skin regrafted. When she's able to get up she wanders the mansion aimlessly, in a state of mental catatonia.
She is officially the biggest Woobie of the books now.
In her wandering she makes her way to Snow's rose garden, and snips one to pin over his heart when she executes him. He's there, in chains, and chats with her. (And coughs up blood, likely a side-effect/condition of his imbibing too much poison over the years, to immunize himself and deflect suspicion from him. How poetic.) He tells her it wasn't the Capitol who dropped the bombs on the children, but the Rebels, under the instruction of Coin.
Crap. I knew Coin was evil! I just knew it!
Chapter 26-
Being the mental mess she is, Katniss can't process this accusation and starts to consider it. Recognizes Gale's design/hand/thinking/whatever in the two-fold bombs strategy. Dammit Gale you turned out to be really unlikeable as a character didn't you? Considering the evidence both ways, Katniss seeks out Haymitch, but he's drunk so he can't help her and she goes off and finds some silks to bury herself in and sleep and have nightmares.
Her prep team comes and finds her and gets her ready for the execution and we learn that Effie Trinket is okay. Awesome.
Gale finally decides to pay her a visit and Katniss looks at him and realizes that she and he are too much changed by their experiences to be compatible anymore. HOORAY! SINK THAT GALE/KATNISS SHIP COLLINS! SINK IT! She also confronts him about the hovercraft bombs. To his credit, he really doesn't know whether or not it was his design exactly that made up the two-fold bombs that killed her sister. But the methodology and thinking behind the bombs remains his and thus he will forever be connected in Katniss's mind with the death of her sister. You uh, didn't have to sink the ship THAT hard Suzanne.
Before the execution there's a quick meeting with Coin and the remaining victors. Coin states that she feels Snow's execution won't be sufficient retribution for the Districts.
She proposes a final symbolic Hunger Games using Capitol children.
OH HELL NO LADY! YOU SO DID NOT JUST CROSS THE MORAL EVENT HORIZON BY SUGGESTING THAT! PERPETUATING AND CONTINUING THE CYCLE OF REVENGE NEVER EVER SOLVED ANYTHING!
She needs to die now.
Peeta is appalled of course and votes no. Ditto Annie. (Poor Annie! She's a widow now. *mourns again for Finnick*) Johanna and Enobaria are game. Katniss, either because she's still really messed up in the head or because she realizes now that Snow was telling the truth and is playing along in order not to arouse Coin's suspicion, goes along with the plan and votes yes. Haymitch too, probably because he realizes he shouldn't blow Katniss's cover. The meeting adjourns and they head to the square for the execution.
Katniss takes her place and arms her awesome bow. She aims at President Snow.
She adjusts her aim a little higher at the last minute and shoots Coin.
YEAH-HAAAA KATNISS!
Chapter 27-
Katniss attempts to commit suicide after this deed but Peeta stops her. She's arrested and put into her old room in the previous two Hunger Games and basically spends the chapter trying to die. Haymitch comes and gets her and tells her her trial's over and she's free to go. Plutarch fills us in on the way back to 12. Pandemonium errupted. Snow started laughing and then coughing and choked to death on his own blood. (Again, how fitting.) They elected Paylor, a minor character rebel from District 8, instead. Katniss's psychiatrist managed to get her off on an insane plea and she was freed but confined to District 12 until further notice.
Once home in her house on the Victor's Row, Katniss sits in a chair and angsts and stares into the fireplace, still very VERY mentally messed-up. Various characters come in to take care of her and make sure she's okay. Including Peeta who brings some Primrose bushes to plant for her. (This drives Katniss to finally destroy that rose Snow left for her in Chapter 1.)
Eventually, Katniss gets off her butt and hunts some. That night... the cat finds her. The freaking cat is still alive. Miracle of miracles. Katniss has a bit of a breakdown and yells at the cat-"'She's dead, you stupid cat. She's dead.'"-and then has a nice cry and the cat gets over his dislike of her to comfort and protect her. Katniss reaches out to her support system at last and, in her own words, "Slowly, with many lost days, I come back to life."
SHE'S HEALING! SHE'S HEALING! THIS BOOK IS GOING TO HAVE A HAPPY ENDING AFTER ALL!
She and Peeta and Haymitch make a great big photobook/scrapbook of all the people they've loved and lost, who've died and need to be remembered. We learn Annie had a son by Finnick. Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch fall into a comfortable, normal routine. People come back to District 12, plow the ashes, plant food, build a factory to make medicines.
Oh and also...
"Peeta and I grow back together."
Squee!
"There are still moments when he clutches the back of a chair and hangs on until the flashbacks are over. I wake up screaming from nightmares of mutts and lost children. But his arms are there to comfort me. And eventually his lips. On the night I feel that thing again, the hunger that overtook me on the beach, I know this would've happened anyway. That what I needed to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that."
I LOVE THIS PARAGRAPH LIKE YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE. KATNISS HAS HER HOPE BACK Y'ALL. SHE HAS MADE HER PEACE. SHE HAS HAPPINESS AND SERENITY NOW. BECAUSE PEETA WAS THERE FOR HER. AND SHE WAS THERE FOR HIM. AND TOGETHER THEY FOUND THE STRENGTH TO HEAL, TO CARRY ON, TO LIVE AGAIN.
ALSO, SNICKER AT THE IMPLIED PEETA/KATNISS SMEXINGS.
"So after, when he whispers, 'You love me. Real or not real?'
I tell him, 'Real.'"
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! SHE SAID IT! SHE CONFESSED! OH MY SHIPPER'S HEART!
Epilogue-
Katniss ponders her game of thinking about every act of goodness she's witnessed, and how this game helps her face each new day, as she watches her children play in the meadow.
*dies of happy shipper glee*
BABIES! PEETA AND KATNISS GOT MARRIED AND HAD BABIES! MY LIFE AS A SHIPPER IS NOW COMPLEEEEEEEEEEETE!
---
IN CONCLUSION, THAT WAS THE MOST AMAZING EPIC THING EVER AND I LOVED IT TO PIECES. A little bummed at how dark and depressing it got and how much (needless I thought) character death there was. And how Gale turned out to be really unlikeable. BUT EVERYTHING ELSE WAS MADE OF WIN AND PURE GOODNESS.
OH HUNGER GAMES HOW I LOVE THEE!