You're hideous, you know that, right?

Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch – this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy.

I'm almost there, almost to the barricade, when I thinks she hears me. Because for just a moment, she catches sight of me, her lips form my name. And that's when the rest of the parachutes go off.

If I feel ragged, my prep team seems in worse condition, knocking back coffee and sharing brightly colored little pills. As far as I can tell, they never get up before noon unless there's some sort of national emergency, like my leg hair.

Beauty that arose out of pain.

maybe it's that we are all so starved for something good to happen that we want to be a part of it.

Orange? Like Effie's hair?" I say. "A bit more muted," he says. "More like sunset.