Read Along: The Hunger Games, Part III

Posted by Susan in Book Reviews, Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult | 0 comments

Read Along: The Hunger Games, Part III

reviewed by SusanAshlea

Spoiler Warning: DO NOT read if you don’t want to be spoiled. There are major spoilers ahead!

Part III starts with Katniss taking off in search of Peeta.  She finds him in the most unusual place: buried in the mud next to a stream.  She somehow manages to pull him out of the mud in spite of his incapacitated state and finds out he has been brutally stabbed by Cato, one of the Career tributes.  Peeta kept Cato from killing Katniss after she dumped the tracker jacker nest on them.  In return, Cato slashed Peeta’s thigh to keep him from running anywhere.  He somehow made it to the stream and camouflaged himself in the muddy embankment. So much so that Katniss almost walked right past him.

Katniss takes special care of Peeta, washing the mud from him and cleaning his wounds.  She manages to get him to safety in a cave that’s been formed from the rocks.  She keeps him fed and keeps his fever managed. While they are in the cave Kat remembers what Haymitch told her about playing up the young lover aspect of their relationship.  After she kisses Peeta for the first time, they are rewarded with broth, which goes a long way to helping Peeta recover.  Unfortunately, they both notice that he has got blood poisoning in his leg and if they don’t get medicine soon,  it will spread to his heart and he will die.  It’s convenient timing when an announcement is made that a “feast” will take place at the Cornucopia for each of the tributes remaining. They both decide they won’t fall for the trap until a second announcement is made that an item each tribute needs the most will be at the feast.

Katniss ends up slipping Peeta some sleep syrup and slipping away to the feast. She is confronted by Thresh, the other District 11 tribute, who has mercy on her this one time for what she did by killing the tribute who killed Rue.  Kat grabs her item and runs back to the cave where she is able to administer the live saving medicine to Peeta, while Cato takes off after Thresh who has stolen Cato’s needed item. Eventually Thresh dies, leaving the number of tributes at four.  As Peeta slowly recovers, he and Kat venture away from the cave, hunting and gathering to build up his strength.  One of the tributes loses her life when she steals some berries that Peeta had gathered, not knowing they were poisonous.

Peeta and Katniss make their way back to the cave and try to rest until the next morning, where they decide to head back to the Cornucopia to face off with Cato.  They have truly built up a relationship, which has worked to their benefit in the arena, as the gamemakers, the Capitol and the general public believes the two are in love.  They end up in a brave face-off with Cato and mutated wolves who have come after them, intent on destroying all three of them.  In an act of mercy, Katniss kills Cato to put him out of his misery after he is mauled by the mutations, leaving Katniss and Peeta as the victors of The Hunger Games.

The two quietly await the trumpets that herald the end of the Games; instead they only get an announcement that repeals the previous rule change. Now only one tribute can win the games.  Heartbroken, Katniss and Peeta refuse to kill each other and instead they make a suicide back, deciding to eat the poisonous berries.  They berries no sooner enter their mouths before the trumpet sounds and the Hunger Games are over, declaring both Peeta and Katniss as winners.

The two arrive back in the Capitol with much fanfare, but what they don’t know is that Katniss is in deep trouble. The Capitol is incensed that she had defied them with her berry “trick” and they are out to get her. The only way she can stay out of trouble is to make everyone believe she was so in love with Peeta, that she was driven insane by the idea of losing him. As the two make their way home, Katniss realizes that even though she won the Games, she hasn’t escaped the Capitol. In her mind and in her heart, she knows the fight is far from over; it’s only just begun.

I hope you have all enjoyed the book! If anyone wants to discuss Book 2, Catching Fire, let me know in the comments!