Suzanne Collins (2008)
Part 1: The Tributes
Chapter 1
“When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim’s warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress.”
“Men and women with hunched shoulders, swollen knuckles, many who have long since stopped trying to scrub the coal dust out of their broken nails, the lines of their sunken faces.”
“District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety.”
“Even at home, where I am less pleasant, I avoid discussing tricky topics.”
“From this place, we are invisible[.]”
“Good hunting partners are hard to find.”
“… and thereby ensure we will never trust one another.”
“It’s too bad, really, that they hold the reaping in the square — one of the few places in District 12 that can be pleasant.”
“… and who hasn’t broken the law?”
“It’s the same story every year.”
“Twelve were defeated, the thirteenth obliterated.”
“And may the odds be ever in your favor!”
Chapter 2
“It was as if the impact had knocked every wisp of air from my lungs, and I lay there struggling to inhale, to exhale, to do anything.”
“The odds had been entirely in her favor. But it hadn’t mattered.”
“[W]here the word tribute is pretty much synonymous with the word corpse, volunteers are all but extinct.”
“He’s looking at me with a pained expression on his face. He doesn’t know me really, but there’s a faint recognition there. I am the girl who brings the strawberries.”
“I stand there unmoving while they take park in the boldest form of dissent than can manage. Silence.”
“It is an old and rarely used gesture of our district, occasionally seen at funerals. It means thanks, it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone you love.”
“He’s surprisingly strong for such a wreck.”
“”More than you!” he shouts, pointing directly into a camera.”
“Oh no, I think. Not him.“
“… but his blue eyes show the alarm I’ve seen so often in prey. Yet he climbs steadily onto the stage and takes his place.”
“Once in a while, she’d stir, get up as if moved by some urgent purpose, only to then collapse back into stillness.”
“Starvation is never the cause of death officially. It’s always the flu, or exposure, or pneumonia. But that fools no one.”
“I stood mesmerized by the heat and the luscious scent until the rain interfered, running its icy fingers down my back, forcing me back to life.”
“It was too much. I was too sick and weak and tired, oh, so tired.”
“The heat of the bread burned into my skin, but I clutched it tighter, clinging to life.”
“It didn’t occur to me until the next morning that the boy might have burned the bread on purpose.”
“Exactly how am I supposed to work in a thank you there? Somehow it just won’t seem sincere if I’m trying to slit his throat.”
“Of course, the odds have not been very dependable of late.”
Chapter 3
“Crying is not an option. There will be more cameras at the train station.”
“My voice has risen to a shout. In it is all the anger, all the fear I felt at her abandonment.”
“Perhaps it is a sickness, but it’s one we can’t afford.”
“The baker’s not a very talkative man in the best of times, and today he has no words at all.”
“Maybe there will be enough fondness to keep her alive.”
“”How different can it be, really?” says Gale grimly. The awful thing is that if I can forget they’re people, it will be no different at all.”
“And they could recreate songs. Not just a few notes, but whole songs with multiple verses, if you had the patience to sing them and if they liked your voice.”
Chapter 4
“A kind Peeta Mellark is far more dangerous to me than an unkind one.”
“The woods became our savior, and each day I went a bit farther into its arms.”
“Plants are tricky. Many are edible, but one false mouthful and you’re dead.”
“I didn’t trust her. And some small gnarled place inside me hated her for her weakness, for her neglect … Prim forgave her, but I had taken a step back from my mother, put up a wall to protect myself from needing her, and nothing was every the same between us again.”
“If I’m going to cry, now is the time to do it. By morning, I’ll be able to wash the damage done by the tears from my face.”
“Peeta is still eating, breaking off bits of roll and dipping them in hot chocolate.”
“I step away from the window, sickened by their excitement, knowing they can’t wait to watch us die.”
Chapter 5
“Days of hunting and gathering for this one meal and even then it would be a poor substitution for the Capitol version.”
“”And what do we do with coal? We burn it,” says Cinna.”
“The animals are so well trained, no one even needs to guide their reins.”
“No one will forget me. Not my look, not many name. Katniss. The girl who was on fire.”
“”You should wear flames more often,” he says. “They suit you.””
Chapter 6
“And what’s she basing our success on? Our table manners?”
“But here there would be no shortage. Ever.”
“We knew the pair was in trouble as soon as we saw them. But we only watched.”
“And the birds began to sing again, as if nothing had happened.”
“You don’t forget the face of the person who was your last hope.”
“I wonder if she’ll enjoy watching me die.”
Chapter 7
“My slumbers are filled with disturbing dreams.”
“It’s not easy to find a topic. Talking of home is painful. Talking of the present is unbearable.”
Chapter 8
“They wouldn’t kill them, would they? Why not? What do they care?”
“Scores only matter if they’re very good, no one pays much attention to the bad or mediocre ones.”
Chapter 9
“Betrayal. That’s the first think I feel, which is ludicrous. For there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trust first.”
“Then she composes herself and beams at me. “See, like this. I’m smiling at you even though you’re aggravating me.”
“”Whereas when you open your mouth, you come across more as sullen and hostile.””
“Maybe he can make me look so wonderful, no one will care what comes out of my mouth.”
“The creature standing before me in the full-length mirror has come from another world. Where skin shimmers and eyes flash and apparently they make their clothes from jewels.”
“My spirit. This is a new thought. I’m not sure exactly what it means, but it suggests I’m a fighter.”
“It’s a plan. Or at least a straw to grasp at.”
“There will be no blackouts tonight.”
“I’ll say this for Caesar, he really does his best to make the tributes shine. He’s friendly, tries to set the nervous ones at ease, laughs at lame joke
Part 2: The Games
Chapter 10
“”Who cares? It’s all a big show. It’s all how you’re perceived.””
“”Silly and sparkly and forgettable.”
“And there I am, blushing and confused, made beautiful by Cinna’s hands, desirable by Peeta’s confession, tragic by circumstance, and by all accounts, unforgettable.”
“”And after that?” I ask. “Stay alive,” says Haymitch. … And we only nod. What else is there to say?”
“Finally, I am too restless to even stay in bed. I pace the floor, heart beating too fast, breathing too short.”
“”I didn’t want to miss the party. It’s for us, after all.””
“Nervousness seeps into terror as I anticipate what is to come.”
“I’m conscious only of a strong wind with the hopeful smell of pine trees.”
Chapter 11
“Being in the woods is rejuvenating. I’m glad for the solitude, even though it’s an illusion[.]”
“I know it’s a girl now, I can tell by the pleading, the agonized scream that follows. Then there’s laughter and congratulations from several voices.”
Chapter 12
“Universally, solidly hated by all but those from their own districts.”
“But nothing seems to change … the birds, the sameness to the trees.”
“I have to stop and rest frequently, although I know the only cure for what ails me requires continued searching.”
Chapter 13
“I should draw my knife as a precaution, but I doubt my ability to hold it for long.”
Chapter 14
“Someone’s screaming, a long high-pitched scream that never breaks for breath. I have a vague idea it might be me.”
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
“Destroying things is much easier than making them.”
Chapter 17
“An acrid smoke fills the air, which is not the best remedy for someone trying to regain the ability to breathe.”
Chapter 18
“Believe it or not, there was once music in my house, too. Music I helped make.”
“But the words are easy and soothing, promising tomorrow will be more hopeful than this awful piece of time we call today.”
“Numerous animals have lost their lives at my hands, but only one human. I hear Gale saying, “How different can it be, really?””
Part 3: The Victor
Chapter 19
“I want to run away. Disappear into the woods… Go and hunt while my mother and Prim attend to what I have neither the skill nor the courage to face. But there’s no one here but me.”
Chapter 20
“A happy story? This will require a lot more effort than the soup.”
“Momentarily, I’d felt a pang at killing something so fresh and innocent. And then my stomach rumbled at the thought of all that fresh and innocent meat.”
Chapter 21
“Feasts always result in fatalities.”
“It’s strange to be so physically close to someone who’s so distant.”
“”You better run now, Fire Girl,” says Thresh.”
Chapter 22
“Because when he sings … even the birds stop to listen.”
“And right when your song ended, I knew — just like your mother — I was a goner.”
“So, in a way, my name being drawn in the reaping was a real piece of luck.”
Chapter 23
“No, I noticed just about every girl, but none of them made a lasting impression but you.”
“He’s at something of a disadvantage because most mentors have a partner, another victor to help them[.]”
“… whereas I’ll see the strings attached to it.”
“For some reason, I badly want it to be my moon, the same one I see from the woods around District 12. That would give me something to cling to in the surreal world of the arena where the authenticity of everything is to be doubted.”
“And beyond that, he will always be the boy with the bread.”
Chapter 24
“One way or the other, dead or alive, I have the feeling I’ll escape it today.”
“But we make the trip anyway just to confirm what we already know.”
“If the Gamemakers want us in the open, then in the open we will be.”
Chapter 25
“”Then we won, Katniss,” he says hollowly. “Hurray for us,” I get out, but there’s no joy of victory in my voice.”
Chapter 26
“Why don’t they leave? Why do they stay to watch? And now I know. It’s because you have no choice.”
“Everything is about them, not the dying boys and girls in the arena.”
“I am still the “girl on fire.””
“The damp, moldy smell beneath the stage threatens to choke me.”
“When I left the arena, when the trumpets played, I was supposed to be safe.”
“But the Hunger Games are their weapon and you are not supposed to be able to defeat it. So now the Capitol will act as if they’ve been in control the whole time.”
Chapter 27
“There’s this sort of upbeat soundtrack playing under it that makes it twice as awful because, of course, almost everyone on-screen is dead.”