Wounded

After a while I hear footsteps behind me. It’ll be Haymitch, coming to chew me out. It’s not like I don’t deserve it, but I still don’t want to hear it. “I’m not in the mood for a lecture,” I warn the clump of weeds by my shoes.

“I’ll try to keep it brief.” Peeta takes a seat beside me. “I thought you were Haymitch,” I say.

“No, he’s still working on that muffin.” I watch as Peeta positions his artificial leg. “Bad day, huh?” “It’s nothing,” I say.

He takes a deep breath. “Look, Katniss, I’ve been wanting to talk to you about the way I acted on the train. I mean, the last train. The one that brought us home. I knew you had something with Gale. I was jealous of him before I even officially met you. And it wasn’t fair to hold you to anything that happened in the Games. I’m sorry.”

His apology takes me by surprise. It’s true that Peeta froze me out after I confessed that my love for him during the Games was something of an act. But I don’t hold that against him. In the arena, I’d played that romance angle for all it was worth. There had been times when I didn’t honestly know how I felt about him. I still don’t, really.

“I’m sorry, too,” I say. I’m not sure for what exactly. Maybe because there’s a real chance I’m about to destroy him.

“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about. You were just keeping us alive. But I don’t want us to go on like this, ignoring each other in real life and falling into the snow every time there’s a camera around. So I thought if I stopped being so, you know, wounded, we could take a shot at just being friends,” he says.

Losing You

“Peeta, how come I never know when you’re having a nightmare?” I say.

“I don’t know. I don’t think I cry out or thrash around or anything. I just come to, paralyzed with terror,” he says.

“You should wake me,” I say, thinking about how I can interrupt his sleep two or three times on a bad night. About how long it can take to calm me down.

“It’s not necessary. My nightmares are usually about losing you,” he says. “I’m okay once I realize you’re here.”

Her Cousin

“He was poaching. What business is it of hers, anyway?” says the man.

“He’s her cousin.” Peeta’s got my other arm now, but gently. “And she’s my fiancé. So if you want to get to him, expect to go through both of us.”

Just Go to Bed

Someone gives my shoulder a shake and I sit up. I’ve fallen asleep with my face on the table. The white cloth has left creases on my good cheek. The other, the one that took the lash from Thread, throbs painfully. Gale’s dead to the world, but his fingers are locked around mine. I smell fresh bread and turn my stiff neck to find Peeta looking down at me with such a sad expression. I get the sense that he’s been watching us awhile.

“Go on up to bed, Katniss. I’ll look after him now,” he says.

“Peeta. About what I said yesterday, about running—” I begin.

“I know,” he says. “There’s nothing to explain.”

I see the loaves of bread on the counter in the pale, snowy morning light. The blue shadows under his eyes. I wonder if he slept at all. Couldn’t have been long. I think of his agreeing to go with me yesterday, his stepping up beside me to protect Gale, his willingness to throw his lot in with mine entirely when I give him so little in return. No matter what I do, I’m hurting someone. “Peeta—”

“Just go to bed, okay?” he says.

Formal Request

So I give up trying to make friends and go over to the archery range for some sanity. It’s wonderful there, getting to try out all the different bows and arrows. The trainer, Tax, seeing that the standing targets offer no challenge for me, begins to launch these silly fake birds high into the air for me to hit. At first it seems stupid, but it turns out to be kind of fun. Much more like hunting a moving creature. Since I’m hitting everything he throws up, he starts increasing the number of birds he sends airborne. I forget the rest of the gym and the victors and how miserable I am and lose myself in the shooting. When I manage to take down five birds in one round, I realize it’s so quiet I can hear each one hit the floor. I turn and see the majority of the victors have stopped to watch me. Their faces show everything from envy to hatred to admiration.

After training, Peeta and I hang out, waiting for Haymitch and Effie to show up for dinner. When we’re called to eat, Haymitch pounces on me immediately. “So at least half the victors have instructed their mentors to request you as an ally. I know it can’t be your sunny personality.”

“They saw her shoot,” says Peeta with a smile. “Actually, I saw her shoot, for real, for the first time. I’m about to put in a formal request myself.”

The Rest of My Life

Peeta would lose it if he knew I was thinking any of this, so I only say, “So what should we do with our last few days?”

“I just want to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with you,” Peeta replies.

Freeze

No one bothers us. By late afternoon, I lie with my head on Peeta’s lap, making a crown of flowers while he fiddles with my hair, claiming he’s practicing his knots. After a while, his hands go still. “What?” I ask.

“I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now, and live in it forever,” he says.

If It Weren’t for the Baby

“We’re already married,” says Peeta quietly. The crowd reacts in astonishment, and I have to bury my face in the folds of my skirt so they can’t see my confusion. Where on earth is he going with this?

“But … how can that be?” asks Caesar.

“Oh, it’s not an official marriage. We didn’t go to the Justice Building or anything. But we have this marriage ritual in District Twelve. I don’t know what it’s like in the other districts. But there’s this thing we do,” says Peeta, and he briefly describes the toasting.

“Were your families there?” asks Caesar.

“No, we didn’t tell anyone. Not even Haymitch. And Katniss’s mother would never have approved. But you see, we knew if we were married in the Capitol, there wouldn’t be a toasting. And neither of us really wanted to wait any longer. So one day, we just did it,” Peeta says. “And to us, we’re more married than any piece of paper or big party could make us.”

“So this was before the Quell?” says Caesar.

“Of course before the Quell. I’m sure we’d never have done it after we knew,” says Peeta, starting to get upset. “But who could’ve seen it coming? No one. We went through the Games, we were victors, everyone seemed so thrilled to see us together, and then out of nowhere—I mean, how could we anticipate a thing like that?”

“You couldn’t, Peeta.” Caesar puts an arm around his shoulders. “As you say, no one could’ve. But I have to confess, I’m glad you two had at least a few months of happiness together.”

Enormous applause. As if encouraged, I look up from my feathers and let the audience see my tragic smile of thanks. The residual smoke from the feathers has made my eyes teary, which adds a very nice touch.

“I’m not glad,” says Peeta. “I wish we had waited until the whole thing was done officially.”

This takes even Caesar aback. “Surely even a brief time is better than no time?”

“Maybe I’d think that, too, Caesar,” says Peeta bitterly, “if it weren’t for the baby.”

I Need You

“Katniss,” he says softly, “it’s no use pretending we don’t know what the other one is trying to do.” No, I guess there isn’t, but it’s no fun discussing it, either. Well, not for us, anyway. The Capitol viewers will be glued to their sets so they don’t miss one wretched word.

“I don’t know what kind of deal you think you’ve made with Haymitch, but you should know he made me promises as well.” Of course, I know this, too. He told Peeta they could keep me alive so that he wouldn’t be suspicious. “So I think we can assume he was lying to one of us.”

This gets my attention. A double deal. A double promise. With only Haymitch knowing which one is real. I raise my head, meet Peeta’s eyes. “Why are you saying this now?”

“Because I don’t want you forgetting how different our circumstances are. If you die, and I live, there’s no life for me at all back in District Twelve. You’re my whole life,” he says. “I would never be happy again.” I start to object but he puts a finger to my lips. “It’s different for you. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be hard. But there are other people who’d make your life worth living.”

Peeta pulls the chain with the gold disk from around his neck. He holds it in the moonlight so I can clearly see the mockingjay. Then his thumb slides along a catch I didn’t notice before and the disk pops open. It’s not solid, as I had thought, but a locket. And within the locket are photos. On the right side, my mother and Prim, laughing. And on the left, Gale. Actually smiling.

There is nothing in the world that could break me faster at this moment than these three faces. After what I heard this afternoon … it is the perfect weapon.

“Your family needs you, Katniss,” Peeta says.

My family. My mother. My sister. And my pretend cousin Gale. But Peeta’s intention is clear. That Gale really is my family, or will be one day, if I live. That I’ll marry him. So Peeta’s giving me his life and Gale at the same time. To let me know I shouldn’t ever have doubts about it.

Everything. That’s what Peeta wants me to take from him.

I wait for him to mention the baby, to play to the cameras, but he doesn’t. And that’s how I know that none of this is part of the Games. That he is telling me the truth about what he feels.

“No one really needs me,” he says, and there’s no self-pity in his voice. It’s true his family doesn’t need him. They will mourn him, as will a handful of friends. But they will get on. Even Haymitch, with the help of a lot of white liquor, will get on. I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me.

“I do,” I say. “I need you.” He looks upset, takes a deep breath as if to begin a long argument, and that’s no good, no good at all, because he’ll start going on about Prim and my mother and everything and I’ll just get confused. So before he can talk, I stop his lips with a kiss.

I feel that thing again. The thing I only felt once before. In the cave last year, when I was trying to get Haymitch to send us food. I kissed Peeta about a thousand times during those Games and after. But there was only one kiss that made me feel something stir deep inside. Only one that made me want more. But my head wound started bleeding and he made me lie down.

This time, there is nothing but us to interrupt us. And after a few attempts, Peeta gives up on talking. The sensation inside me grows warmer and spreads out from my chest, down through my body, out along my arms and legs, to the tips of my being. Instead of satisfying me, the kisses have the opposite effect, of making my need greater. I thought I was something of an expert on hunger, but this is an entirely new kind.

Nothing But Oysters

Johanna keeps watch while Finnick, Peeta, and I clean and lay out the seafood. Peeta’s just pried open an oyster when I hear him give a laugh. “Hey, look at this!” He holds up a glistening, perfect pearl about the size of a pea. “You know, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls,” he says earnestly to Finnick.

“No, it doesn’t,” says Finnick dismissively. But I crack up, remembering that’s how a clueless Effie Trinket presented us to the people of the Capitol last year, before anyone knew us. As coal pressured into pearls by our weighty existence. Beauty that arose out of pain.

Peeta rinses the pearl off in the water and hands it to me. “For you.” I hold it out on my palm and examine its iridescent surface in the sunlight. Yes, I will keep it. For the few remaining hours of my life I will keep it close. This last gift from Peeta. The only one I can really accept. Perhaps it will give me strength in the final moments.

“Thanks,” I say, closing my fist around it. I look coolly into the blue eyes of the person who is now my greatest opponent, the person who would keep me alive at his own expense. And I promise myself I will defeat his plan.

The laughter drains from those eyes, and they are staring so intensely into mine, it’s like they can read my thoughts. “The locket didn’t work, did it?” Peeta says, even though Finnick is right there. Even though everyone can hear him. “Katniss?”

“It worked,” I say.

“But not the way I wanted it to,” he says, averting his glance. After that he will look at nothing but oysters.

Think it through next time.

Here are some of my favorite lines from the first episode of Sherlock, A Study in Pink.

————————————–

John: You asked me to come, I’m assuming it’s important.

Sherlock: Oh – yeah, of course. Can I borrow your phone?

John: My phone?

Sherlock: Always a chance that my number will be recognised. It’s on the website.

John: Mrs Hudson’s got a phone.

Sherlock: Yeah, she’s downstairs. I tried shouting but she didn’t hear.

John: I was on the other side of London…

Sherlock: There was no hurry.

————————————–

Sherlock: What’s wrong?

John: Just met a friend of yours.

Sherlock: A friend?

John: An enemy.

Sherlock: Oh. Which one?

John: Well, your arch-enemy, according to him. Do people have arch-enemies?

Sherlock: Did he offer you money to spy on me?

John: Yes.

Sherlock: Did you take it?

John: No.

Sherlock: Pity, we could have split the fee. Think it through next time.

Hurray for Lestrade!

Sherlock: Anderson, what are YOU doing here on a drugs bust?

Anderson: Oh, I volunteered.

Lestrade: They all did. They’re not strictly speaking ON the drug squad, but they’re very keen.

 ————————————–

Sherlock: Shut up, everybody! Don’t speak, don’t breathe. I’m trying to think. Anderson, face the other way. You’re putting me off.

Anderson: What? My FACE is?!

Lestrade: Everybody quiet and still. Anderson, turn your back.

Anderson: Oh, for God’s sake!

Lestrade: Your back, now, please!

What a bad cabbie.

Sherlock: Are you all right?

John: Yes, of course I’m all right.

Sherlock: Well, you have just killed a man.

John: Yes, that’s true. But he wasn’t a very nice man.

Sherlock: No. No, he wasn’t, really, was he?

Frankly a bloody awful cabbie.

Sherlock: (chuckles) That’s true, he was a bad cabbie. You should have seen the route he took us to get here.

John: Stop it! We can’t giggle, it’s a crime scene. Stop it.

Sherlock: Well, you’re the one who shot him.

John: Keep your voice down.

I want to meet their mummy!

And my favorite part of the entire show… the conversation between Sherlock, John, and the guy I first thought was Moriarty, but turned out to be Mycroft. Classic!

————————————–

Mycroft: So… Another case cracked. How very public-spirited. Though that’s never really your motivation, is it?

Sherlock: What are you doing here?

Mycroft: As ever, I’m concerned about you.

Sherlock: Yes, I’ve been hearing about your “concern”.

Mycroft: Always so aggressive. Did it never occur to you that you and I belong on the same side?

Sherlock: Oddly enough – no.

Mycroft: We have more in common than you’d like to believe. This petty feud between us is simply childish. People will suffer. And you know how it always upset Mummy.

Sherlock: (increduously) I upset her? Me? It wasn’t me that upset her, Mycroft.

John: No. No, wait… Mummy? Who’s Mummy?

Sherlock: Mother. Our mother. This is my brother, Mycroft.(to Mycroft) Putting on weight again?

Mycroft: Losing it, in fact.

John: He’s your brother?

Sherlock: Course he’s my brother.

John: So he’s not…

Sherlock: Not what?

John: I don’t know… Criminal mastermind?

Sherlock: Close enough.

Mycroft: For goodness’ sake. I occupy a minor position

in the British government.

Sherlock: He IS the British government, when he’s not too busy being the British secret service or the CIA on a freelance basis. (to Mycroft) Good evening, Mycroft. Try not to start a war before I get home, you know what it does for the traffic.

John: (to Mycroft) So, when you say you’re concerned about him – you actually are concerned?

Mycroft: Yes, of course.

John: I mean, it actually is a childish feud?

Mycroft: He’s always been so resentful. You can imagine the Christmas dinners.

John: Yeah… No… God, no.

I now have a new obsession – BBC’s Sherlock. It’s one of the smartest shows I’ve seen in a long time, and I was smiling nearly the whole time I watched the first episode. I can’t really explain what it is about this show that I love so much – after all, I’m usually a bit of a purist whenever it comes to adapting my favorite books to movies or shows. In theory, I should have hated this completely – this is a Sherlock Holmes in the 21st century, this is a Sherlock Holmes that sends texts instead of telegrams, and rides cabs instead of hansoms. The story of A Study in Pink is only very, very loosely based on A Study in Scarlet. But what can I say? This is just… genius. Perhaps it is because while watching the show, I really get the feeling that the writers and creators have such respect and reverence for the original Sherlock Holmes stories written by the great Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The stories may be different, but these are the characters that fans have always known and loved. Benedict Cumberbatch is Sherlock Holmes, and Martin Freeman is John Watson.

The only thing I hate about this show is that each series only has 3 episodes, and we don’t know yet when the next series will be out. I hope it comes out really, really soon. Till then, I’ll be re-watching the past 6 episodes again and again.

Here are some of the things I remember about the concert:

1) The Indoor Stadium wasn’t really packed, but maybe that’s because the venue is too huge.

2) They started with Ignorance, one of their catchiest songs.

3) They sang Decode quite early in the show, unlike in Manila where they reserved it towards the end.

4) They had an acoustic set, which included Misguided Ghosts.

5) Hayley was wearing a strange pair of black and white leggings, as in one side is black, the other is white.

6)  They did not perform My Heart. Again. I’m losing hope of ever seeing them perform it live, especially with Josh-the-growler gone.

7) I thought Brick by Boring Brick was their encore, but surprisingly they closed the show with an older hit, Misery Business.

2. LUCKY by Sam and Quinn. Of course, one of the reasons is that this is one of my favorite songs of all time (I even used it in my wedding). As Santana said, this is just so freaking charming. The song suits both their voices as well.

3. HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN / GET HAPPY by Rachel and Kurt. This was the first time I heard the song, but there is just something so classic and catchy about this song.

2. LOSING MY RELIGION by Finn. I’ve never really seen him this angst-ridden before.

 

3. I LOOK TO YOU by Mercedes. It’s not my favorite song, nor is it my favorite Mercedes performance, but I didn’t really like any of the other songs that much so I’m picking this for my #3 spot. I wish they gave Tina and Quinn more backup parts though.

Here are the very few tender moments between the two tributes from District 12, the victors of the 74th Hunger Games.

He DID Love Her A Lot

I’ve just reached the door when his voice stops me. “Katniss. I remember about the bread.”

The bread. Our one moment of real connection before the Hunger Games.

“They showed you the tape of me talking about it,” I say.

“No. Is there a tape of you talking about it? Why didn’t the Capitol use it against me?” he asks.

“I made it the day you were rescued,” I answer. The pain in my chest wraps around my ribs like a vise. The dancing was a mistake. “So what do you remember?”

“You. In the rain,” he says softly. “Digging in our rubbish bins. Burning the bread. My mother hitting me. Taking the bread out for the pig but then giving it to you instead.”

‘That’s it. That’s what happened,” I say. “The next day, after school, I wanted to thank you. But I didn’t know how.”

“We were outside at the end of the day. I tried to catch your eye. You looked away. And then… for some reason, I think you picked a dandelion.” I nod. He does remember. I have never spoken about that moment aloud. “I must have loved you a lot.”

 Like the Sunset

At a few minutes before four, Peeta turns to me again. “Your favourite colour… it’s green?”

“That’s right.” Then I think of something to add. “And yours is orange.”

“Orange?” He seems unconvinced.

“Not bright orange. But soft. Like the sunset,” I say. “At least, that’s what you told me once.”

“Oh.” He closes his eyes briefly, maybe trying to conjure up that sunset, then nods his head. “Thank you.”

But more words tumble out. “You’re a painter. You’re a baker. You like to sleep with the windows open. You never take sugar in your tea. And you always double-knot your shoelaces.”

Then I dive into my tent before I do something stupid like cry.

Lamb Stew

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 favourite 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.

That’s What They Do

In the fluorescent light, the circles under his eyes look like bruises. “There’s still time. You should sleep.” Unresisting, he lies back down, but just stares at the needle on one of the dials as it twitches from side to side. Slowly, as I would with a wounded animal, my hand stretches out and brushes a wave of hair from his forehead. He freezes at my touch, but doesn’t recoil. So I continue to gently smooth back his hair. It’s the first time I voluntarily touched him since the last arena.

“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.”

Always

Only one figure stays huddled against the wall. “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 wrists 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.

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 ain. “Stay with me.”

His pupils contract to pinpoints, dilate again rapidly, and then return to something resembling normality. “Always,” he murmurs.

So Tired

While Cressida and Pollux make fur nests for each of us, I attend to Peeta’s wrists. Gently rinsing away the blood, putting on an antiseptic, and bandaging them beneath the cuffs. “You’ve got to keep them clean, otherwise the infection could spread, and –”

“I know what blood poisoning is, Katniss,” says Peeta. “Even if my mother isn’t a healer.”

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.”

“Was I?” The comment throws him into confusion. Some shiny memory must be fighting for his attention because his body tenses and his newly bandaged wrists strain against the metal cuffs. Then all the energy saps from his body. “I’m so tired, Katniss.”

Nothing Foolish

I get out the key, unlock Peeta’s cuffs and stuff them in my pocket. He rubs his wrists. Flexes them. 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 for ever.

Can’t Let Go

I raise my left arm and twist my neck down to rip off the pill on my sleeve. Instead my teeth sink into flesh. I yank my head back in confusion to find myself looking into Peeta’s eyes, only now they hold my gaze. Blood runs from the teeth marks on the hand he clamped over my nightlock. “Let me go!” I snarl at him, trying to wrest my arm from his grasp.

“I can’t,” he says.

The Dandelion in the Spring

Peeta and I grow back together again. There are still moments when he clutches the back of a chair and hangs on until the flashbacks are over. I wake 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 have happened anyway. That what I need 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.

So after, when he whispers, “You love me. Real or not real?”

I tell him, “Real.”

# 3 – Hungry Haymitch 

Haymitch in my head full-time. Horrifying. “I’ll keep the earpiece in,” I mutter.

“Excuse me?” he says.

“You sure? Because I’m equally happy with any of the three options,” he tells me.

“I’m sure,” I say. I scrunch up the earpiece wire protectively in my fist and fling the head shackle back in his face with my free hand, but he catches it easily. Probably was expecting me to throw it. “Anything else?”

Haymitch rises to go. “While I was waiting… I ate your lunch.”

# 2 – Half-Naked Finnick

She snags Gale, who’s in conversation with Plutarch, and spins him towards us. “Isn’t he handsome?”

Gale does look striking in the uniform, I guess. But the question just embarrasses us both, given our history. I’m trying to think of a witty comeback, when Boggs says brusquely, “Well, don’t expect us to be too impressed. We just saw Finnick Odair in his underwear.”

# 1 – Katniss Is Not a Mutt

Back in 13, Peeta’s rehabilitation continues Even though I don’t ask, Plutarch gives me cheerful updates on the phone like, “Good news, Katniss! I think we’ve almost got him convinced you’re not a mutt!”

Before you continue reading, let me give you a big SPOILER ALERT. I’m going to talk about how the book ends, so feel free to go somewhere else if you don’t want to read any spoilers.

Here are some things I liked (or not liked) about Mockingjay – in no particular order.

1. There wasn’t too much mushy gooey stuff happening between Katniss and Peeta – whether it’s real or not real (*wink*wink*). I mean, I like them both and wanted them to be together in the end, but I don’t really want to read too much lovey-dovey conversations. I mean, that’s what Edward and Bella are for, right?

2. The book did a good job of showing how broken and psychogically unstable a person can be after exposure to so much violence. You begin to understand why Haymitch is the way he is. After all, who wouldn’t want to escape reality if your reality is like that?

3. I actually liked how the Gale-Katniss relationship was concluded to pave the way for Peeta. In Twilight, the way the Jacob-Bella angle was closed off was seriously pathetic – Jacob imprinting on Bella’s child. C’mon. But here, with Katniss never really knowing whether Gale was responsible for Prim’s death – it’s just haunting and so final.

4. I’m not sure I like the idea of President Snow dying because he choked on his blood while laughing too hard. It’s not exactly the ending I envisioned for him.

5. However, the way Katniss assasinated President Coin instead of Snow is truly something I didn’t expect. Although I’ve been ambivalent about Coin from the start - never really knowing on which side she is, I sort of wanted some kind of confrontation between Katniss and Coin.

6. Another thing I didn’t expect was how Peeta’s first action upon seeing Katniss was to try to kill her. I mean, who on earth would have seen that coming? For that twist along, I think Suzanne Collins deserve a round of applause. It’s like you keep waiting for Peeta to make an appearance, but when he does, it’s not the Peeta you expect.

7. I don’t like the way Finnick died though. It was too low-key for such a major character for both books 2 and 3.

8. I had the feeling that another major character would die towards the end, but I didn’t want it to be Prim. Because the entire story started when Katniss volunteered for the Hunger Games to save Prim’s life, and in the end it was still Prim who dies while Katniss survives.

9. I like the relationship that developed between Katniss and Johanna. I bet if they both weren’t so prickly, especially with each other, they would actually become pretty good friends.

10. Though it may seem like a contradiction to the first point I raised, I was a bit disappointed that there were so few tender moments between Katniss and Peeta.

Here’s Leslie Mann on the left and Diane Lane on the right.