The Shrieking Shack

Catching Fire chapters 5-6

This week we're back on our string section stuff. We play a rousing game of Classical or From Something? (it'll make sense) that spins out in some unexpected directions before getting to work on this episode's pair of chapters, which are... fine? Good, even? But one thing's for sure: the road trip movie dream is dead, and we can't help but feel a little bummed about it. On the other hand we get some great Snow menace, some Effie comic relief, and some movement in the plot that's definitely interesting even if we're unsure about the direction the story is going currently.

(Content warning for this week: Chapter 6 features a pretty mean and cynical portrayal of eating disorders. If you'd rather skip our incredulous reactions to excerpts from the text, skip 00:38:40 through 00:40:41.)

Catching Fire chapters 3-4

The PAX pox won't keep me away from recording! We've got lots to catch up on after taking a week off for travel, and we spend some time chatting about the PAX trip (thanks to everyone who came to say hi!) and Liz's exciting new musical venture. We've got two rich chapters to discuss this week too, with mostly high highs and a few low lows. What works? Katniss's character development! Peeta's new role! What doesn't work? Katniss's District 11 savior stuff still feels kind of disrespectful. What might work? The Quarter Quell, but how could they possibly make the Games more evil?!

Plus, when we open card packs we learn what the Cornucopia looks like in the movie and ??????????

Catching Fire chapters 1-2

Onward to book two! We started the next installment of the trilogy, and we might have had more fun with these two chapters than we had with the entire last book. Who knew that what this series needed was a Bond villain? These chapters are a little short, but they introduce an irresistibly fun bad guy and get us incredibly excited for a road trip through the districts of Panem. Plus, we have some official Hunger Games trading cards from 2012 to crack open...

We've finished The Hunger Games, and we're feeling a little rowdy! We celebrate the end of the book (and Liz's birthday!) by immediately checking in on what sort of Relatable Hunger Games Content we can find. We take a quiz about how our taste in decor would affect our chances in the Games (really), read incredibly mean grandmas commenting on Williams-Sonoma cooking videos, and see what the Hunger Games subreddit has to offer--all that and a discussion about the final chapters of the novel and our thoughts on the book as a whole!

The Hunger Games chapters 23-25

How did both of us manage to go 15 years without learning what the big twist of this book was?

Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for scams! We apologize for our accidentally-prophetic bonus episode last week and discuss the market for 2000s internet nostalgia. Then we've got two action-packed chapters to discuss--well, actually, one is action-packed and the other is steamy. Kind of? It's attempting to be? We're still not sold on this Peeta guy, but there's plenty else interesting going on here. As we get closer and closer to the end of this book, one question lingers on our minds... who will win our game of spot the fake dystopian YA novel?!

The Hunger Games chapters 19 & 20

We saw Asteroid City! We chat a little bit about our latest movie outing (mild? spoilers? Hard movie to spoil!) but not for long--because it's Freak Day, the fateful day when everyone went crazy and started biting each other. Or something? Maybe we should be reading that book instead, because the third act of this one is starting a little... slow. Katniss is flustered by Peeta, who she's seemingly decided is Good Now, which we're having a hard time buying--but on the bright side, this chapter had some really gory field dressing scenes that kind of rocked!

P.S Sorry my audio is a little overcompressed still! I thought I'd corrected things, but my settings still aren't quite right.

The Hunger Games chapters 14-18 (concluding act II)

We've got Mario on the mind! Specifically Mario RPG, the game with the fakest sounding name ever that we have a lot of fond memories of. This leads us through a whole tangent about retro gaming setups, but we can't talk about that for long--we've got a lot of book to talk about! This week we finish out the second act of the novel, which sees Katniss getting her first kill(s), teaming up with Rue, and clearing an enemy camp Far Cry style. There's a lot that works (action! thrills! character dynamics!) and a lot that works less (mid-game patch notes! Peeta!) but one thing is for sure: we want Katniss to win now no duos.

P.S Apologies for my sort of crunchy audio this week! My perfect angelic cat who has never done anything wrong sat on my audio interface the other day and I only noticed how out of place the settings were after recording, so my mic was picking up a bunch of chair/room noises.

The Hunger Games chapters 12 & 13

We went to the movies! We talk a bit about the new Spider-man movie (no spoilers) and the trailers we saw ahead of it before discussing our action-packed pair of chapters for the week. Katniss is mostly looking for water in these ones, but there are also some dastardly villains chasing her who have been trained from birth for combat (as long as it's not ranged combat or tree climbing). We still find a lot to talk about though--sports channel graphics packages, wrestling personas, reality tv, and more!

The Hunger Games chapters 10 & 11

It's game time! Where we dropping? Well, it turns out that in the Hunger Games arena, everyone drops in the same spot no matter what. Will Katniss score some good loot, or will she get taken out by a guy warping around on a laggy wireless collection?

That's right, we're finally in the Hunger Games section of the Hunger Games. We're having a great time too--these chapters went down smooth, and we have a brisk discussion about Peeta's many faces, Katniss's toxic gamer chat, and the gritty realism of someone sprinting while throwing six ka-bars. Finally, we take it to our new third segment for a round of spotting the fake dystopian novel premise!