#-to the point we see them at during the 74th and into the mockingjay

[zoebelladona]

tbosas is to me like 1984 by george orwell. with accurate and relevant commentary of modern society. but that doesn't mean i have to like it lol

[caesarflickermans]

What's sparked the rebellion? Was it Katniss' volunteering for Prim, Rue’s death, the berries, or was it before all of that?

How does many THG victors joined or being recruited for the rebellion?

Thoughts?

Thank you 😊

@curiousnonny

What's sparked the rebellion? Was it Katniss' volunteering for Prim, Rue’s death, the berries, or was it before all of that?

i'd reject the notion that there's "the rebellion". if we talk about the capitol group around plutarch (and tigris and cressida and caesar) then we inevitably are talking about people who

"[...] have been, for several years, part of an undercover group aiming to overthrow the Capitol" (CF)

but that means little to bonnie and twill, where their home district has only been plotting since the 74th games, so roughly six months at best:

Ever since the Hunger Games, the discontent in District 8 had been growing. It was always there, of course, to some degree. But what differed was that talk was no longer sufficient, and the idea of taking action went from a wish to a reality. The textile factories that service Panem are loud with machinery, and the din also allowed word to pass safely, a pair of lips close to an ear, words unnoticed, unchecked. (CF)

in mockingjay, haymitch asks during what moment katniss alone had touched the rebels. many come up with different opinions, and while i'd argue it's the accumulation, the total sum of them all, that made katniss the mockingjay, personal rebellion, the want to revolt, can start at many different times:

"[...] So, let's all be quiet for a minute. I want everyone to think of one incident where Katniss Everdeen genuinely moved you. Not where you were jealous of her hairstyle, or her dress went up in flames or she made a halfway decent shot with an arrow. Not where Peeta was making you like her. I want to hear one moment where she made you feel something real." (MJ)

The moments begin to come thick and fast and in no particular order. When I took Rue on as an ally. Extended my hand to Chaff on interview night. Tried to carry Mags. And again and again when I held out those berries that meant different things to different people. Love for Peeta. Refusal to give in under impossible odds. Defiance of the Capitol's inhumanity. (MJ)

so i'd say there's many different moments for the 74th in particular, and for rebellion in general.

but i'd like to return to the captiol rebellion, because that's my small litte niche interest, and i'd like to point to several things here:

SC: Propaganda decides the outcome of the war. This is why Plutarch implements the airtime assault; he understands that whoever controls the airwaves controls the power. Like Snow, he’s been waiting for Katniss, because he needs a Spartacus to lead his campaign. There have been possible candidates, like Finnick, but no one else has captured the imagination of the country like she has. (Collins interview, 10th anniversary)

“Not just against the other tributes, but the Capitol, too,” I say. “You know they didn't expect that to happen. It wasn't meant to be part of the arena. They never planned on anyone using it as a weapon. It made them look stupid that he figured it out. I bet they had a good time trying to spin that one. Bet that's why I don't remember seeing it on television. It's almost as bad as us and the berries!” I can't help laughing, really laughing, for the first time in months. Peeta just shakes his head like I've lost my mind—and maybe I have, a little. “Almost, but not quite,” says Haymitch from behind us. I whip around, afraid he's going to be angry over us watching his tape, but he just smirks and takes a swig from a bottle of wine. So much for sobriety. I guess I should be upset he's drinking again, but I'm preoccupied with another feeling. (CF)

those statements have made me develop a theory, namely that plutarch gained inspiration from haymitch's games and the first bread crumbs of a rebellion began right then and there. haymitch's backstory is given a whole chapter in catching fire, and it feels a rather purposeful decision to give so much time to the second quarter quell. outside of the obvious "haymitch's end is shown as a warning to the younger generation and serves as a warning to katniss and peeta, too" i feel like the connection with the rebellion nonetheless exists: the forcefield. using the forcefield against the capitol happens in both, an it was enough to make me think:

what if plutarch gained inspiration from the second quarter quell, and in turn haymitch's games, and began to think on a rebellion through using the arena to his advantage? he is young enough for it to aid in his ambition to become head gamemaker--a strong enough person who can manipulate and aid from the outside.

katniss and haymitch are mirrors of the other, so why not a mirror in this regard, too? after all, we know that plutarch has been waiting for a mockingjay for at least ten years--since finnick's games, as SC mentioned him--so his initial inspiration lies before that. there's no other relevant event mentioned other than the second quarter quell.

How does many THG victors joined or being recruited for the rebellion?

this, again, is my personal headcanon.

other than haymitch, the other person of note we know existed back then was caesar flickerman. he's seen interviewing haymitch. i headcanon caesar to have been in his first years of his career, and having went from excited to reserved; he's noticed there's something off, that the capitol has been manipulating their perception on the games, and he's grown to resent what they present. with a closer touch to the tributes, plutarch decides on the brave step of recruiting caesar to the cause--not without some hiccups.

together, they are the mind (plutarch) and the heart (caesar) of the rebellion. plutarch does the planning, recruits the spies, finds opportunities to exploit the system where he can. caesar recruits the victors; he's always been close to them, always been kind (katniss herself observes that about caesar). caesar is the best person to ask for propaganda on both sides; he can let tributes rise and fall, he can determine who receives attention an who does not. he can use the interviews to the advantage of the rebellion.

out of all people within the capitol, katniss is in contact with people who are directly responsible to her district. her prep team. cinna. portia. effie. outside of those, she only really is in contact with caesar. and caesar, in contrast to the other ones, knows every tribute, every victor.

if you are planning a rebellion through the arena, you'd ideally want someone on your side who can read the tributes and their potential, and who would be close enough to recruit them without making it seem suspicious.

caesar is the only one who fits that bill, and he's the best person to recruit the victors.

[nerdypotatoe5]

The Hunger Games, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes SPOILERS (BOOKS AND MOVIES)

ok so I'm sure that by now everyone has seen the posts about how brilliantly Suzanne Collins wove her prequel into the story.

So this will also be such a post. Not a particularly detailed one but hey xD

Anyway - AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

I adore how before Lucy Gray disappears, she tells Snow - I'm going to look for katniss. And then 64 years later, Katniss Everdeen wins the 74th Hunger Games with the meadow song, with a Mockingjay token and by cleverly playing the system (even if it wasn't her intention).

Of course, this reminds Snow of how he played the system in Lucy Gray's favour, he remembers that song from 12 and the Mockingjays that sang after Lucy Gray disappeared.

The parallels are brilliant! And every time that I think about them, I'm once again reminded just how much and why Coriolanus Snow despised Katniss. Not only was she a symbol of rebellion, but she also carried symbols from a past that he wanted to erase. And sure, no one else alive that can hurt him in the capital remembers, but what if someone digs just a little deeper, notices and checks something that appears to be just a little off?

And with so many coincidences surrounding Katniss, is it really a wonder that he assumed that a ghost of his former lover was coming to haunt him from the grave?

There are definitely more parallels out there but I'm currently too tired to think of them xD.

God, I love the world of the Hunger Games. It's so brilliantly written with wonderfully written characters that make me want to continue peeling back their layers just to see what makes them tick. Suzanne Collins truly wrote a masterpiece.

Also I did really enjoy the new movie. I ended up watching it in a language that isn't my native language and was pleased to have understood the majority of what was said xD. The fact that I had read the book previously definitely helped! XD

The sound track was to die for though! Everyone's singing was beautiful. Rachel Zegler's voice really haunted some scenes and gave me chills on more than one occasion. Hearing Can't Catch Me Now during the end credits was great. I've seen some people say that it really explained what happened to Lucy Gray after she disappeared and yeah, I can see where they are coming from. I just really liked how the lyrics tie the end of the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes with what happens in the Hunger Games. Olivia Rodrigo did a brilliant job with the lyrics.

Ok so this rambling has turned into a review. 😅

Anyway, my only complaint is that we did not see a lot of the Covey in the movie and that the connection between Katniss' dad and the Covey wasn't hinted at.

Having said that, the fact that Katniss' dad taught her those songs and how to hunt wasn't something that was mentioned in the Hunger Games movies (from what I remember of them) so it makes sense that that was left out.

Overall, the movie was amazing. Would recommend - 9/10.

The books are of course a very steady 9.5/10 for me xD.

At some point I'll probably need to make a post about the actors that played Sejanus and Dr. Gaul. They were fantastic! Having said that, the whole cast was really well cast and everyone played their role really well. I was very satisfied with the casting and with everyone's performance.

[cowboymater]

i feel like i should justify the decision to expand haymitch’s family in my full-length fic of his games (16k words up now but it’ll be ~110k when i'm done)

in mockingjay, haymitch tells katniss that snow killed his mother, brother, and girl[friend] two weeks after his games. this feels like a pretty intentional parallel to katniss, who had her mother, prim, and gale as the people she was close to pre-games

and i understand making the parallel, esp when there’s only really a passing line abt his family, but i feel that a fleshed-out narrative (mine at least) is better served by enhancing the contrast between haymitch and katniss. let me explain:

haymitch goes into his games and wins them by embarrassing the capitol. his family is killed as punishment, and he descends into alcoholism to cope

snow doesn��t really have the option to kill katniss’s family, but if he had, i think it’s unlikely she would react the same way as haymitch. more probably she’d end up like johanna: angry, with nothing left to lose. when prim eventually dies she does shut down for a while, but we still see her get back up to assassinate coin

this is because, imo, katniss has a fairly dominant fight response. the gamemakers are ignoring her during her assessment? shoot at them. peeta says he likes her during his interview? lies, clearly, shove him into a large and breakable flowerpot. in mockingjay we see her butt heads with haymitch on this front, when she tears out the earpiece bc he’s telling her to retreat and she wants to take down the bomber jets

point: katniss had to develop this specific stress response because there was nobody there to take care of her, to fight the battles for her

haymitch, however, is very big on flight. he spent his entire games ignoring the mountain, the clear focal point of the arena, and getting as far from the action as he possibly could. he still fights when it comes down to it, but it’s never his first choice. after snow kills his family, he spends the next couple decades hiding at the bottom of a liquor bottle; while avoidance is understandable, remember that johanna suffers the same fate but goes down a very different path

haymitch (in my fic) still has to take on the role of provider as the eldest sibling and the only one eligible for tesserae. but w/ the additions there’s multiple parental figures to bear the load of raising his siblings, which serves as a buffer, and gives him the ability to practice avoidance instead of having to take initiative and confront everything head on

i feel that it makes a stronger contrast, at least for my purposes. katniss has no real support system when she goes into her games, and she gains one afterward (haymitch, cinna, peeta). expanding the abernathy family roster gives haymitch a support system that disappears after his games

i will be honest and say i do not remember my rationale for adding both a father and little sister, but for the grandmother i wanted to give him someone in his immediate life who had been alive before the games. haymitch displays a sort of defiance that nobody else really has the balls for, because to them the hunger games have been a thing forever. through his grandmother he's gained the perspective that yeah, this isn’t all-encompassing, the arena has to end Somewhere

it also hammers home one of my favorite things about the hunger games, which is the message of collective action and community. katniss might have been the face of the revolution, and her role is indispensable, but so is the role of everybody else. even just to make it out of the 74th games took a village: cinna crafted an image, peeta crafted a narrative, haymitch finagled sponsors. it’s because she gained this support system that she managed to accomplish what she did, in her games and still afterwards, and it’s because haymitch had his ripped away that he was lost for so long

because this is not a fix-it fic that means i now have to write a scene where they All get executed. which actually makes me a little nauseous to think abt. but them's the breaks ig

[mariesstudying]

What are your thoughts on the District 11 tributes in the 74th (Rue and Thresh) and 75th (Seeder and Chaff) The Hunger Games?

How do you think life differs between Distinct 11 and 12?

*Spoiler alert*

What do you think about the inserted scene of rebellion in District 11 in the first movie (scene after Rue's death)?

Thank you :)

@curiousnonny

I love this question

So (unsurprisingly) I LOVE the relationship between Katniss and Rue. Rue is a Prim replacement, both for Katniss and the reader, however, she also mirrors Katniss in some ways. Rue is the oldest in her family, tasked with keeping her siblings safe and fed whenever her parents couldn't. Rue was a sweet, kind child who died too young, which is the whole point, the Capitol doesn't care about these children because if they did, why is a 12-year-old in a death ring with 18-year-olds. Despite how horrified we readers/viewers are, I doubt anyone in the districts felt anything more than a passing sympathy (and the Capitol people just don't care much at all) because a 12-year-old girl's fate is par for the course in the hunger games. Thresh is a character we know far less about because Katniss only really interacts with him once and otherwise only observes him from a distance. I've always viewed him as someone who knew he wouldn't make it but tried to stay alive as long as he could, likely trying to help Rue from a distance where possible. He seems somewhat stoic in the films (if I remember correctly) which likely was a tactic he decided upon to keep himself safe and survive as long as he could. I don't really have any thoughts about Seeder and Chaff because we see little of them but Chaff is noted to drink like Haymitch, meaning he has adopted a coping mechanism after winning the games that is common amongst victors.

Life seems quite different between districts 11 and 12 despite both being overlooked districts. The main differences we learn are that things are far stricter in District 11 and children are put to work. In District 12, it's clear that Peacekeepers don't really do much, Katniss even sells her game (which is illegal for her to even get) to the head peacekeeper. In District 11, they are much more strict on the members of the districts. This is likely because District 11 (being in charge of agriculture) is much more important to the Capitol than coal. District 11 also has the children working. In District 12, no one works in the mines until they are 18 and have graduated from school. Since Peeta works for the family bakery, we know that District 12 children likely help out in family businesses but not the district's primary export. This particular difference likely impacts the survival of the tributes during the hunger games. The children of District 11 probably are more physically strong due to working from childhood whilst the children of district 12, in addition to the malnutrition, don't have that advantage.

I really like the inclusion of that rebellion scene in the film. It's a great foreshadowing scene to the uprisings that occur in catching fire, connecting them to Katniss instead of them being spontaneous. It's also a way to show the audience the strength of the districts, connecting to the rebellion in Mockingjay. Rue's death may not be shocking to district 11, it's happened before, but the love and care Katniss showed Rue sparked them into action, which in the books is shown through them sending her bread. It isn't Katniss' badass skills which spark the districts to rebel, it's the love and care she demonstrated to someone from another district she had no reason to care about that did, which is so important to the message of the books/films.

[mynightshining]

In The Hunger Games, it's heavily implied Peeta killed a young female tribute in the 74th hunger games while on the hunt for Katniss with the careers. A cannon doesn't sound after the careers attacked her. And Peeta goes back to finish the job. We never know for sure if he actually did kill her or waited for her to die on her own. In the timing of things, however, it would likely take too long for her to die on her own than the careers would prefer. In fanfiction, this moment is often portrayed as a mercy killing to end her suffering. Foxface is an unintentional victim of Peeta's. The kill is unintentional, but she died from the berries he gathered. Peeta tries to kill Cato multiple times: when he fights him after the tracker jackers, and when they fight on the cornucopia.

In Catching Fire (book) we only see Katniss's perspective of the end of the arena. Either Johanna or Peeta kills Brutus, those are the only two available to do so. We'll never know, although Collins probably knows exactly what happens during Katniss and Peeta's separation at that point. In the movie, however, Peeta kills another tribute once the timer goes off. They fight by the platforms in the water, both of them go under the water, a cannon sounds, and Peeta emerges victorious.

In Mockingjay, Peeta murders Mitchell, a soldier on the Star Squad, after he's been triggered by Boggs stepping on a landmine. Peeta tried to kill Katniss (again), Mitchell intervened, and Peeta kicked him into a pod. I believe, Peeta may have also killed Peacekeepers as they were escaping the underground tunnels although I cannot remember if he had a weapon at that point.

Peeta's kill count is at least 3. He isn't innocent. We also shouldn't put sole blame on Gale for the bombs. Yes, he created the idea with Beetee, but he was not the one who gave the order for the bombs to be dropped nor was he the one who sent a 13 year old Prim, who wasn't even a trained medical professional by 13's standards, to the front lines. All of that blame belongs to Coin. Gale was used for his intelligence and knowledge regarding snares and hunting. I don't believe him to be entire blameless (the Nut for example), but he also was a teen who was being used and manipulated by a powerful government to their own selfish ends just like Peeta and Katniss.

Peeta never killed a person once throughout all three books meanwhile Gale caused countless deaths through his bombs including Prim. It's clear who the better one is from that alone.

I'm sure Peeta killed at least two people over the course of the series, one of them being a young girl.

[southsidestory]

I’m in a Hunger Games mood, so I’m gonna give y’all my unasked for reviews of each book (while unapologetically wearing my Everlark glasses). Here we go!

In terms of plain quality as a novel, The Hunger Games wins for me. It’s so tightly plotted, the world building is immersive, the conflicts are compelling, and I love how focused the story is on Katniss and Peeta.

In the later books the world opens up, we meet so many more characters, and Katniss’s other relationships—with Gale, with Haymitch, with her mother, with Prim, with the other victors—are explored in greater depth. Which is awesome! But I love the (forced) intimacy that the 74th Games creates for Everlark. It’s complicated and messy and absolutely fascinating. What’s more, it expertly sets up the central challenges that Katniss and Peeta will deal with in the rest of the trilogy.

Catching Fire is the book I enjoyed reading most. First, because Finnick Odair is one of my all-time favorite characters, and definitely my fave in THG series. I love how Katniss has all these negative assumptions about Finnick and many of the other victors, but getting to know them forces her to accept that they’re just flawed, complicated people surviving their trauma, exactly like her.

The clock arena was a brilliant and brutal idea, and the ending was such a WTF moment that I immediately dove into Mockingjay afterward.

Best of all, we get maximum doses of Everlark all through this book. The bedsharing on the train. Peeta illustrating the plant book for Katniss. Their sunset scene on the rooftop of the Training Center. So much Everlark goodness that it’s practically a banquet.

The only major flaw I can lay at Catching Fire’s door is that the concept of sending Katniss and Peeta back into the arena feels a little contrived. BUT the execution is excellent so I’ll happily forgive that.

And then there’s Mockingjay. Which I’m going to spend too much time talking about sorrynotsorry.

I have what I suspect may be some unpopular opinions regarding the third book. First, I actually really liked Mockingjay, and I think a lot of Everlark fans don’t?

I understand why! Katniss spends a large portion of the book separated from Peeta, and when she finally gets him back... well, we all know how that turns out. However, while those things are difficult to read, I think they’re good narrative choices. During Peeta’s captivity, we finally get to see the depth of Katniss’s feelings for him. She doesn’t realize it, but her love is astoundingly obvious. Her longing for him is palpable—which is what makes their reunion all the more heartbreaking.

Peeta getting highjacked is so tragic, but imo the book needed it. Up until this point, Peeta is a beacon of goodness. Certainly he has flaws, but Katniss doesn’t really see them, and to some extent she takes his love for granted. The highjacking destroys all of that. While it’s painful to read, it’s also really fucking interesting. And it takes Katniss’s grudge against Snow to a new level. What he did to Peeta is beyond unforgivable, and after it happens, she is out for blood. Peeta’s excruciatingly slow recovery keeps the reader on tenterhooks, wondering, Will he get better? Will he regain his love for Katniss? Will he ever be the Peeta I know and love again? It’s A+ conflict with high af stakes.

But perhaps what I loved most about Mockingjay is the characterization and story lines for the other victors. Haymitch’s involuntary sobriety, and the possibly even less enjoyable role as the resident Katniss Whisperer lol. Finnick airing all of Snow’s dirty laundry, even though it means revealing that he’s a rape survivor to a public that has been slut shaming him for years. Johanna’s morphling addiction and severe PTSD, and how she and Katniss finally find common ground.

Now for the things I *didn’t* like about Mockingjay.

#1 is unsurprisingly Finnick’s death. It happens in such a horrible way, and I think Collins chose to do it because she knew that Finnick dying would hurt the worst, not because it serves the story best. Prim’s death is gutting, but it’s narratively necessary. Finnick’s death is for shock value.

The pods scattered throughout the Capitol is a horrible idea. That makes no goddamn sense. It’s clearly only there for the “Welcome to the 76th Annual Hunger Games” line and all that it entails, which is not a good enough reason. Katniss and Peeta have already been through the arena twice, they don’t need to trod through a knock-off arena in the last book. It’s repetitive, and unlike the Quarter Quell, it’s not executed well enough to overcome how contrived it is.

I’ve got other gripes, namely all the Galeniss moments. But I will freely admit that it’s because they’re a NOTP, not because those scenes are unnecessary or poorly done. On the contrary, they’re very necessary and very well done. I just don’t like them lol

But then there’s the ending to Mockingjay. It’s perfect. It concludes on exactly the right note. The ending recognizes the longevity of Peeta and Katniss’s trauma, as well as the cost of war, but it still wraps everything up on a hopeful note. After three books full of death and destruction, Katniss and Peeta are allowed to find peace and recovery. It’s as happy of an ending as books like these can possibly have, and it’s 1000% earned. No small feat.

From an Everlark perspective, I could not be more pleased with the end. I’m sure all I have to say is the word “Real” for everyone to understand why. Collins stuck the landing like Simone Biles on floor, and I have great respect for that.

Tagging @awhiskeyriver @rosegardeninwinter @muttpeeta and @badnovels because you’re all wonderful writers and I’m really curious about your opinions. I’m not expecting or looking for perfect agreement—and in fact, I’d love to hear other perspectives! Even if you think I’m dead wrong 😂

[posthungergamessyndrome]

so here’s my long overdue review of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes that no one asked for. I finally read the book, well listened to the audiobook, coz i dunno how to read a book anymore. 

This book was everything I expected it to be and also not. Definitely the first two parts was easily predictable, we all kinda assumed that was the general arc that story would take. So while I found the first two parts enjoyable, learning more about the history of the games and learn more of Capitol, i wasn’t really hooked until the third part.

But let me say this first tho, Ms. Suzanne Collins, you never disappoint. Also I have questions and I hate that she wasn’t able to go on a book tour (I haven’t read her Q&A tho). 

I still have the same qualms as i did about the prequel as i did before I read it. While I get the early records of the games were shoddy, and the 10th Hunger Games was erased but for one copy hidden in some vault, that doesn’t matter, what matter is Snow knows.

So If Snow had that relationship with the Games and Lucy, the first victor of d12, a lot of the decisions he made in the trilogy made no sense.

I get it, he wanted to forget, it’s decades until Katniss came along. While there might be parallels, Lucy and Katniss are very different characters. But all I can think off is the reason he didn’t kill Katniss sooner, was it really because she would end up a martyr or rallying cry for the district, which happened anyways, or he was practically disassociating the moment Katniss was reaped?

Were Katniss and Peeta unintentionally triggers to so many of his hidden traumas that’s why he made so many misteps? Katniss singing the meadow song to Rue, triggered. Peeta mentioning the Valley song, triggered. Mockingjay, triggered. The Hanging Tree, triggered. 

Was he so busy crying in the shower that he wasn’t able to stop Seneca Crane from making bad calls during the 74th Games? Two winners from the same district, would Snow really okay’d that himself?

And also, I’ve always thought that anything he did towards Peeta was coz he wanted to hurt Katniss. But no, he wanted to hurt that boy. Peeta reminds him of his young self, at least the young person everyone saw him as, charming, smart, and loyal. And in a way, had Peeta been born in the Capitol and was among Snow’s contemporaries, Snow would have seen him as his ultimate rival. 

Coz Snow was smart and knows how to manipulate people, but Peeta does it a lot better and a lot more successfully. With Snow, it’s right in front of his face and he still misses it. Often he is so close to getting it. How could he not have thought of the star-crossed lovers angle? How??  When one Peeta Mellark thought of it?

Which idk if there’s fanfics of that yet, but I need to read them asap, Katniss and Peeta and teen Snow, make it happen.

(But I was looking at my notes and I wrote probably the reason Snow didn’t think of the star crossed lovers angle because it was about his survival not about Lucy’s. Lucy was at best, seen as his possession. Even at the moments he was honestly in love with her, he still saw her as someone belonging to him only. )

Snow had two relationships going on: with Sejanus and with Lucy. I did find his relationship with Sejanus more interesting, because I think it’s that relationship that shaped him more that his relationship with Lucy.

I did like and even at some points enjoyed their Slytherin-Hufflepuff BFFship going on, coz despite how Snow let us know what he really thinks versus what he actually says, he was drawn to protect Sejanus, even though he’s reluctant about it or insist that he was made to do it or it’s also to benefit himself.

And I’m not saying there’s queerbaiting in this book, but certain pairings in this book makes more sense to ship than Johanna and Katniss. 

With Lucy, i know many were wary or didn’t want Snow to have a relationship with her. For me i was open to it, at least intrigued to see where it will go or how will it be handled. 

Honestly while it is still better written than most YA romances, I found it very insta-love. Again, my sense of timeline in this novel might be different coz I was listening to the audiobook instead of reading it, but they fell in love pretty quick. 

While listening to the audiobook, i thought, if their  relationship is at this point it must have been weeks since the reaping and the games haven’t started yet, and then Snow says it’s just been five days. They were making out I think by day 3 or something. 

Maybe because I knew they relationship was doomed from the start and we know how Snow ends up, I was amused by certain moments in their relationship, coz all I can think about it is, oh honey no. 

but also, I am mad that Ms. Collins is capable of writing amazing fluff moments in the midst of a dystopian world, and she wastes them on Snow and Lucy? Where was all that for Katniss and Peeta? i was given crumbs in the trilogy, Snow and Lucy made out so many times, at one point I even thought they were going to sleep together, like how dare you Ms. Collins.

For the many years we debated the meaning behind The Hanging Tree, Ms Collins, said no hun, this is what the songs means, let me tell you it’s origin story. And omg Suzanne, that was fucked up. Thanks.

One of the things I was worried about for this prequel is that while it is set in the future, the messages in it will seem outdated because a lot has changed since the trilogy came out. 

But she wrote this book well before it was announced in 2019, before it was released in 2020, but she still made it very relevant for today and I think the messaging of this prequel would be more resonant in the future, like the trilogy is.

She touched upon how we really value children, and that immediately reminded me of school mass shootings and how we haven’t done anything about it. She lives in Sandy Hook when the shooting happened so this makes sense she makes a statement about it. And now we are sending kids to school in a middle of a pandemic for political reasons not because we are concerned about their education. 

And there’s also mentions of a pandemic in a middle of a war,  let’s say it was a whole mental experience alternating between listening to the audiobook and watching the news on January 6. 

I also loved the lines: “why do people think the only thing they need for a revolution is anger?” and “we pour money into industries not people.”

While it’s almost unbelievable that the modern hunger games was merely a student group project by a bunch of privileged rich kids and one person who thinks slavery is okay ended up writing the whole thing anyways, that’s basically how this country and our system of governance was founded. 

Dr. Gaul is also every Security and Development professor I had in grad school who teaches that war never ends and it’s not about winning it’s about control to a class of future leaders at the state department, white house, and pentagon. i mean, it’s the cornerstone of US foreign policy since end of WW2.

While also listening to this book, I am dead sure that Suzanne could write a different version of Catching Fire where Katniss and Peeta were mentors and they uncover the hidden 10 hunger games tape, and it still will be a be hella of a story.

It also makes sense that the two characters that could possibly tell us or Katniss the connection of Snow to Lucy were the ones who can’t talk: Mags and Tigris. 

obviously lucy ended up in 13, possibly related to Alma Coin coz where else will she get that personal hatred against Snow? 

Snow could have at least picked Clemensia or Lys, but Livia? i guess make sense since her offspring ended up being Plutarch’s assistant. 

I feel like if i read the prequel before the trilogy, it would be a different reading experience. But at the same time, Snow, while he had his moments, is an unlikeable character even as an anti-hero, and his moral stand point is something i dont agree with, coz you know, he’s basically a republican. it’s like reading a book about a young Mitch McConnell, doesn’t matter if the system hurt him sometimes, as long as it hurts others more and keeps him in control, and i gag. I don’t think i would finish reading the prequel if i started with it instead of the trilogy. 

but it does solidifies my theory that Snow’s evil is not because he is out of touch with the rest of panem, he knows suffering that’s why he knows how to exploit it. He is not oblivious to the problems, but he arrived at different conclusions or convictions, because again he supports the system that controls his enemies, even if the system is cruel to him too. Again, a Republican. Don’t be one, don’t date one. 

I do wonder tho if he made good with champagne tuesdays when he became president. 

I don’t see how this prequel works as a movie adaptation tho, even if turned into three parts. It makes more sense for it to be a series, so if lionsgate hasn’t declared bankruptcy before they can adapt this into screen, maybe with the state of movies right now due to the pandemic, they will be more convinced to make this into a series for Netflix or to launch their own streaming service.    

[ears-awake-eyes-opened]

From Chapter 16 onward

...I spent the second half of my Catching Fire reread not caring much about the Quell, which is less interesting writing in my opinion than the 74th Games. Instead my mind was stuck on page 216 wondering about “...when the other elevator opens. Haymitch and Effie join us, looking pleased about something.” At that point in the book on that elevator ride, what would they both have been pleased about, and why don’t I get to know!?

And I kept wondering what was going on with Effie during the Quell. Her usual escort duties until Katniss and Beetee broke the arena apart? Or at what point was she taken away before that? Did she never reappear after not being able to say goodbye to the kids the night before? Otherwise Haymitch would have had to work to keep her out of the loop because Effie would have wanted to have her nose in all the deals as she probably usually did. I can see her annoyed about so many bread gifts. “Really, Haymitch!?” she’d say, “Can’t we send them a more interesting picnic?”

But the uprisings were already happening in the districts, so when were the escorts taken away? Maybe it WAS simply never returning from the night before. And why don’t I get to know these details!!? Maybe a reread of Mockingjay will enlighten me.

The primary reason I want to reread Mockinjay at this point is to see more of book-Haymitch’s characterization and to search (probably in vain) for some mention of how Chaff died, because I didn’t remember that he survived until almost the end of the Quell. I’m pissed that SC shows us nothing of him in the arena. This is what I mean about being tired of always having to view everything through Katniss’s lens. As a reader, first-person perspective is always frustrating for me. I want omniscience.

The two Quell scenes I enjoyed most this time around were... 1) Katniss’s description of the marriage ceremony in 12. I had forgotten those details, and that’s a muse for sure because 12 is where my Hayffie heart wants to live now. I look forward to doing something with that. And 2) Peeta’s words about painting as the woman from District 6 is dying. It’s even more touching than that point in the film because it shows how deeply Peeta understands people. He knows painting is important to that woman, so he takes her to that world of creation in order to soothe her in death.

[intothemindofsarah]

Who Were the Unsung Heroes of The Hunger Games?

Before taking Literature for Adolescents, I had read The Hunger Games trilogy in middle school and hadn’t watched the movies (except for Catching Fire). After revisiting the trilogy by watching the movies for the first time, I wanted to highlight some characters that I consider to be unsung heroes, people receiving little recognition for their great deeds. Main characters such as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are heavily praised for their honorable deeds throughout the entire series, leaving little room to recognize characters who help advance the plot. Of course, there are many standout characters, but this post will highlight three people (one from each book/movie) who I thought deserved more recognition for their efforts leading to Katniss’ success in overthrowing the government.

Thresh (The Hunger Games)

Thresh, a male tribute from District 11, the same district Rue was from, fought valiantly during the 74th annual Hunger Games, and most notably, spared Katniss during the games. This act of heroism was acknowledged after his death in Katniss’ and Peeta’s speech when they visited District 11 in a later movie. However, it wasn't evident, at the time of his sacrifice, how significant it would be to the rebellion. When Katniss was retrieving medicine for Peeta, she was ambushed by Clove, who had the upper-hand until Thresh overheard her bragging about Rue’s death. In response to her insensitive comments, Thresh killed her and spared Katniss as a token of appreciation for the kindness she showed Rue. Though Katniss’s relationship with Thresh isn’t the same as with Rue's, the two have a mutual understanding of how devastating her death is, considering she was very young in comparison to the other tributes. His one act of compassion helped Katniss and Peeta survive the Hunger Games and motivated Katniss to seek justice for everyone victimized by the games.

Johanna Mason (Catching Fire)

When the audience first gets introduced to Johanna Mason, we see her strip in front of Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch, solidifying her character from that point as a bold and tenacious woman. Not only did Johanna vocally show her disdain for the atrocities of having a Hunger Games, but she also played a crucial role in Katniss' survival during the Quarter Quell. Even with her awareness of Plutarch Heavensbee's plan to rebel against President Snow, she made sure Katniss remained safe during the games, even going as far as pretending to kill her so she can remove the tracker placed by the Capitol. Johanna was also one of the people, among Peeta and Annie, who was captured and tortured by the Capitol. The movies don't focus on her torture as much as the books do, but from what the audience can gather, it's undeniable that Johanna is an asset to the rebellion. One of the most remarkable qualities about her is the way she carries herself as she doesn't let anyone sway her from her beliefs, cementing her value as a hero.

Finnick Odair (Mockingjay)

Perhaps one of my favorite characters, aside from Cinna and Rue, Finnick Odair, comes off as arrogant at first but shows his softer side when he cares for Mags, his mentor, as best as he can during the games. Like Johanna, he was aware of the brewing plan to rebel against President Snow, so he made sure to become an ally for Katniss and Peeta. He remains a faithful ally throughout Mockingjay by fighting for the rights of Panem's citizens. Although Plutarch made Katniss the face of the rebellion, Finnick exhibits the same leadership qualities as Katniss, which is why it doesn't come as a surprise when he steps in for Katniss to send a message to the districts. It was also pleasant to see him marrying Annie as it juxtaposes the gruesome nature of the Capitol and the rebels fighting. Finnick sacrificing his safety, despite having a "happy ending," made his death, being ambushed by the Capitol's mutts, in Mockingjay, even more tragic. Death or not, Finnick's efforts shouldn't go unnoticed as he fuels others to continue fighting for the rebels' cause.

The book to film adaptation, in my opinion, was accurate, with few details missing. However, the exclusion of plot points, like the extent of Johanna’s torture or inclusion of Peeta’s parents (limited in comparison to the books), didn’t detract from the overall quality of the production of all four movies. One of the reasons why the trilogy garnered a lot of popularity amongst YA readers was how the books highlight critical themes like the inequities of class differences and the relevance of found family, which is prevalent in our issues in society today. Keeping these themes in mind, I would be interested to see how The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes uphold them when I do end up reading the book.

[pattyg1992]

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: President Snow’s Prequel

I’ve been anticipating the prequel to The Hunger Games for a few months now. Like many I had no idea what the story would be about until now. President Coriolanus Snow as a teenager during the early days of the Hunger Games. I’ve been fascinated by the character ever since Donald Sutherland portrayal (although I got into the books at the same time the first film was released). More than that I wanted a different perspective in Panem. What got to see it from Katniss’ point of view. Of someone who grew up in the poorest district in the country. Now we’re seeing it from the viewpoint of someone from the richest. The Capitol had always caught my attention, but we never really learned why the people acted or thought the way they do. How they justified watching children die the way they do. Having a more in- depth story of how those in the Capitol lived in comparison to the districts. As much as I loved Katniss as a character, we only saw Panem through her point of view. Seeing the world through a new pair of eyes and perspective will help us understand it more. #SPOILER ALERT FROM THE EXCERPT# ***************************************************************************************************************************************************We learn plenty of new things about the Capitol, President Snow, and the Origins of The Hunger Games. For one thing, President Snow is a senior in his final year of the Academy. From what I can tell it’s possibly an elite boarding/private school for the Capitol’s elite families. Some of the children have parents that are bankers or energies secretary. Snow comes from a family with power and influence but no money. He along with 23 other top students are recruited into the Games mentor program. With the most successful mentor given a financial reward. (Snow hopes to win to pay for his tuition to the University.) This is the 10th Hunger Games. The arenas have red been built yet but the Capitol Arena (formerly used for sports and entertainment before the Dark Days) is an old amphitheater the tributes fight to the death. Think the ancient Roman gladiator games with crowds of people watching the action unfold in person. The Games aren’t that popular yet with most residents of the Capitol not being comfortable enough to watch children kill each other for entertainment just yet. The tribute parade and interviews aren’t a thing just yet (although Snow hints as a mentor he might be called on to coach them for interviews for the first time). His role seems to be a mix of escort/mentor. At this point the concept of Victors mentoring tributes isn’t a thing just yet. The mentors are given tributes based on how influential their families are. Livia Cardew (assumed to be an ancestor of Fulvia Cardew, who in the books was Plutarch’s assistant in 13. Effie replaces her in the Mockingjay films.) is assigned the boy from District 1. Snow is assigned the girl from District 12. (For those familiar with the books there was an only one victor before Haymitch who was dead by the time of the 74th games. Many are a speculating this girl is the victor.) How ironic that the first victor from 12 possibly helped the Rise of Snow while the last victor contributed to his fall. Like Effie, Snow appears disappointed to be assigned with an insignificant district. During the first decade of Games he noted district 1 & 2 (who he describes as better fed and Capitol loving) have produced the most successful victors while two other districts are close contenders. District 4 is one them which is unsurprising considering it’s a Career District in the books. Surprisingly, District 11, where Thresh and Rue call home is also considered an district to watch out for. Other things we learn is that the Dean of the Academy, known as Highbottom created the Games. It’s assumed he feels guilty about this due to the fact that he’s a morphling addict and is barely functioning. All of the new tidbits learned is exciting and I can’t wait to learn more.

[theballadoffinchesandsaints]

*SPOILERS for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes*

Okay, “Crash” by EDEN is so wholeheartedly Snow’s internal crisis of seeing Katniss and thinking of Lucy Gray. First, links to the song, Second, analysis time.

Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/track/0uxC9yUi8uPtNPo6HRshRM?si=KKAPVc7iTUSDcOEeBbr3tw

Lyrics link (though all the lyrics are cited in order in the analysis below): https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/eden/crash.html

Strap in folks, this is going to be a long one.

“It’s been a few years since you’ve been gone/There’s been a few tears, but that was years and years ago” It’s been so long since Lucy Gray left that Snow has been able to mostly bury the memories and emotions, but it was still a heartbreak

“Yeah, I grew up to be exactly what you wanted/Yeah, I’ve been living out the dream that you dreamt up” This line is bitter in the context of Lucy Gray and Snow. In Snow’s mind, Lucy Gray betrayed him first and turned him into the callous dictator he is. In some ways, this was their real dream, though. Snow now has enough power to influence the games and save tributes if he chooses to, he just doesn’t use that power the way Lucy Gray would want him to

“It’s been a few years, but more to come/It’s been a few yeats since I’ve felt sure of what I want/And I woke up today and found that you were waiting here for me and I thought/Woah, old friend it’s bittersweet/How could you do this to me/How could you do this to me?/Yeah” This is when Snow first sees Katniss at the reaping with her big first impression and later as he sees all the other similarities between Katniss and Lucy Gray: the district partner as a close ally, the singing, the rule-breaking. It brings up the part of him that almost ran off into the woods with Lucy Gray decades ago. While most of the feelings that this bring Snow are negative, it’s still a little bittersweet. He can’t deny the couple of happy memories he has of him and Lucy Gray. It’s even relatively safe to assume that they are some of his happiest, if not the happiest, moments in life that were only tainted after the fact. Snow feels betrayed by the world. He has worked so hard to get away from the mockingjay that haunts his past and here comes a reincarnation of Lucy Gray with a pin of the birds as a district token.

“Cause you are not who you think you are/There’s no grain on these brown eyes/But they can be green if they really want” First off, the female singer that starts here is the image of Lucy Gray he conjures in his mind. These lines are similar to Lucy Gray’s Rousseauvian ideals: all people are truly good at heart, and the world may try to make you worse, but you can turn yourself back into a good person if you try. Lucy Gray tried repeatedly to get Snow to understand this while they were together in direct contradiction to Snow’s Hobbesian ideals of a strong and strict government to control the inherently faulty people that make up the world. It is an internal argument now, but Hobbes has won years ago in Snow’s mind. However, Katniss’s similarities to Lucy Gray remind Snow of the other perspective he never quite understood and still cannot truly compete with his Hobbesian tendencies.

“And I can bend your words/But they say exactly what hurts the most/But silence is better than fake laughs/Or faking were always up” This is in reference to the moment in the woods when Lucy Gray realizes Snow is responsible for Sejanus’s death. She tried to find a different explanation for Snow’s “responsible for three deaths” line, to see the good in him, but she can’t. So she pretends she’s still planning to run away with Snow until she finds a good moment to get away.

“loose grip/The world bends around you/And living through cracked screens/We fold down to what we want/Out of love/We talk through lines/We’re made of smoke/And just in time/We drift away/Diffusing light/Confusing times/Growing up/Or cascading down?” these lines are sung by both the guy (Snow) and the girl (Lucy Gray in Snow’s mind). At first they reference the confusion of their final encounter. With the mockingjays singing and Snow firing bullets haphazardly, the chaos could be compared to the world bending, screens cracking, smoke, and all the other metaphors in these lines. Not to mention the internal confusion of making a radical change as to the course of your life in an instant while the person you love tries to kill you. Both are forced to make these changes without much consideration. So they ask themselves, “is this me finally making the mature, correct decision for my life? or am I giving up my one chance at happiness?”

“Cascading down/I’m hurting now” Back to only Snow now. This is just a brief confirmation that he is not over Lucy Gray. It’s quickly replaced by anger in the next lines, but it happens

“But change comes slow/If you hate what’s in your head/The fuck would you speak your mind” All of Snow’s anger at Sejanus comes back at now. Snow always blamed his own misfortunes on a trickledown effect from Sejanus’s revolutionary tendencies. If Sejanus hadn’t gotten involved with rebels, Snow would never have shot Mayfair and felt the need to run away with Lucy Gray. If Sejanus has just stayed in his place, Snow wouldn’t have had anything to turn him into and Lucy Gray wouldn’t have had a reason to run away from him in the woods. There’s also anger towards Lucy Gray here about her idea of intrinsic human goodness that seems absolutely absurd to Snow.

“In search of lost time/Just 21 so I’m young and I’m stupid/Only 16, yeah I think you should’ve known” For a moment, Snow longs for the life that, according to him, he could have had with Lucy Gray if Sejanus hadn’t interfered. 21 isn’t much of an explicit reference to anything in TBOSAS, this is three years after the book’s events. It can be reasonably assumed that, at this point, Snow is really starting to get the hang of poisoning his enemies and allies to gain power, something he might now consider stupid with both the physical and mental ramifications of being a mass murderer. It’s not exactly that Snow wishes those people were still alive, but that he is upset his enemies found out about it and could release the information. As for 16, that is the exact age Lucy Gray is in TBOSAS. In this line, Snow tells his mental manifestation of Lucy Gray that she should have always known he’d be like he is today. He may regret some things, but he must clamp down on the world with an iron fist to avoid anarchy...and to fill his need for power.

“I think you’ve fucked me up/I think, I think you’ve fucked me up/And I’ve got nothing to say to you/It’s been a few years and I moved on/Couldn’t nake it disappear, oh I tried so hard to be strong” Snow is fed up with himself for the flashbacks and romantic thoughts he’s having. He is livid that anyone could affect him this way 60 years after they’d last seen each other. He buried the memories for decades, but a pair of tributes from district 12 have brought them all back up. In that way, Lucy Gray has “fucked [him] up.”

“But I grew up today and faced that I’m not just lonely/Don’t feel much better, but I guess that it’s a start” At the end of Mockingjay, Snow faces the fact that he is going to be brought down by victor from district 12 that reminds him so much of the girl he loved. He recognizes that the problem now goes beyond one of flashbacks and regrets. He knows he’s going to die, so he can just enjoy the show of one last hunger games.

tl;dr The male vocalist in this song is Snow who is forced to face memories of mainly Lucy Gray, but also Sejanus, during the 74th and 75th Hunger Games and the rebel war. The female vocalist is a manifestation of Lucy Gray triggered by Katniss that reminds him of both their happy memories together and their horrific falling out.

[softpeetabread]

Can you imagine what it must've been like to watch Katniss' and Peeta's Games, and then the Quarter Quell? Like we get a lot from Katniss and in the movies, a couple of glimpses from the audience for the 74th hunger games, but during the QQ, imagine the crowds, on the edge of revolution, watching your victors die off. I imagine Haymitch keeping a close eye on Peeta, but then when he hits the force field and he momentarily dies, I wouldn't blame Haymitch if he started screaming or better yet, panic internally because without him, everything would go to shit. I hate saying it like this, but Peeta made a great point during Mockingjay when he said he didn't owe Finnick for reviving him because he did it for Katniss to continue, not because he cared about him. Maybe that was the case, but I think after seeing Katniss' hysterical reaction to almost losing Peeta, he started developing care for them both. Back to the audience, the people from District 12 must have been so anxious to watch Peeta and Katniss AGAIN, and then Peeta gets shocked and I can imagine a collective wave of "NOOOO!!" go off from everyone. Like he cannot die this early in the Games! I'm trying to picture his family's reactions and am sad to say his mother would be like "I told you he was going to die", but his father and brothers would probably be in tears. AND THEN HE IS REVIVED. And I think everyone else would be as well. I just like thinking about everyone else's perspectives. Its so much fun.

[nicoolios]

The Power of the Dystopia

What do nanotechnology, young adult dystopias, and zombies learning to love again have in common? As the old meme says, the answer may surprise you. By nanotechnology I mean Michael Grant’s BZRK trilogy, by young adult dystopias I will focus mostly on The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and by zombies learning to love again I am referencing Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies. Each of these books will be discussed in great depth in how they relate to the common theme of power in the following collection of literary criticisms. Power surfaces in BZRK through the obsessive lengths the characters go to to maintain it with superior technology and firepower. The Hunger Games refrains from the subject of actively maintaining power, but its story accurately depicts a society where power is exploited to keep its poorer citizens in line. The zombies in Warm Bodies regain power in a world that exists to destroy them by relearning language. Again, each of those topics will be explained at the introduction’s conclusion in their individual essays, but I will add a bit more clarity later on in these opening remarks.

This issue, which puts power front and center in the spotlight, tackles problems pertinent to the world we live in today by using a wide variety of popular books to reach the widest reader base possible. All of them can be considered young adult fiction, but each series pushes the boundaries of the genre. The Hunger Games specifically doubles as political commentary, BZRK is hardcore science fiction written for the eyes of teenagers, and Warm Bodies is technically a zombie romance.

As previously stated, The Hunger Games is political commentary, which only gets all the sweeter the more the political scene in the United States and around the world goes south. The main character Katniss lives in District 12, the poorest of the twelve districts, and is forced to hunt illegally to keep her mother and sister fed. District 1, the wealthiest district home to people so rich they take medicine to force themselves to throw up at parties so they can continue eating the fanciest, most expensive food, holds the Hunger Games every year to keep all the other districts in line. All three books in the series have the same background: the rich exist to stay rich, and the rich have all the power, so when District 13 starts the rebellion it sends them into a panic. The entirety of Mockingjay, the third book of the trilogy, is about that very topic. Money plus power equals bad guy, especially in this series. In regards to the essay on The Hunger Games, not only is there a common theme of power in all three books and all four movies, there are also real-life connotations for both the people spending money on the series and the young adult genre in general. While the essay specifically talks about the genre and what political books do for readers of young adult fiction, The Hunger Games just so happens to be the most popular representation.  

BZRK also deals with money and power and rich people trying to control the universe, but this time it is set in contemporary New York, rather than the fictional Panem. In this universe nanotechnology, which was originally developed to cure cancer, is instead weaponized and is used by both the good and the bad guys. The bad guys, the Armstrong twins and their lackeys Nexus Humanus, want to use nanotech to brainwash the planet into their cult through “sustainable happiness.” The good guys, BZRK, want to protect free will by using their own nanotechnology, biots individually linked to one user, to manipulate others. The whole concept is built on shady deals and backwards justification on both ends of the stick. Both sides think they are in the right, think they are the ones with access to the most power, both already have access to the money and resources that will get them that power. The Armstrong twins spend the series doing everything they possibly can to become rulers of the world, while their second in command Bernofsky goes mad with power and wants to destroy the world with nanobots that feed on carbon. Most of BZRK New York’s plotlines are about playing catch up to Nexus Humanus and holding on to what little power they have. By the trilogy’s conclusion the proper balance that everyone was fighting over has been restored, eliminating the need for technology-based power.

A book about zombies learning to love again seems like a stretch. How could power possibly be involved? Half the main characters are dead. And judging by the movie, there is no possible way for the former dead to regain the power they lost upon getting into their current predicament by reteaching themselves how to speak and act human again. But there it is. The movie is a better illustration of it, but the novel still details R, an incredibly articulate zombie, struggling through a language barrier to communicate with his human captive turned friend turned girlfriend Julie. At the beginning the most R can get out are a few grunts to the zombie he deems his best friend, M. When Julie finds herself the survivor of a zombie attack but the only member of her group still alive and unable to make it back home, she ends up at the airport R lives in. The two of them form a relationship different from the usual zombie eats human, even though R ate Julie’s boyfriend during the attack where they met. Julie teaches R English, pop culture, and how to be human again. The zombies must fight to prove they can become what they once were again, first and foremost by Julie demonstrating R is physically able to love her. As they become living again they go through their own revolution.

These essay’s order in this collection is due to their subject matter and relativity to the real world. The Hunger Games takes place in a fictional country similar enough to our own to make accurate political commentary. BZRK takes place in real life New York, and its plot is one that might happen with how quickly nanotechnology is developing. Warm Bodies’ setting is never specified, but the aftermath of the apocalypse is clear, and for all we know it could be right next door to where we grew up. They move from the clearly fake to the it might just be real, from this could never happen to me to holy crap, this might be happening right now. Please see the meanings these novels preach, what lurks between the lines. Right now this kind of commentary is more important than ever. With people being censored and completely silenced right and left, these books are clearly about power and its consequences, both by exploiting it and by regaining it.

"If Peeta and I were both to die, or they thought we were....My fingers fumble with the pouch on my belt, freeing it. Peeta sees it and his hand clamps on my wrist. ‘No, I won't let you.’ ‘Trust me,’ I whisper. He holds my gaze for a long moment then lets go. I loosen the top of the pouch and pour a few spoonfuls of berries into his palm. Then I fill my own. ‘On the count of three?’ Peeta leans down and kisses me once, very gently. ‘The count of three,’ he says. We stand, our backs pressed together, our empty hands locked tight. ‘Hold them out. I want everyone to see,’ he says. I spread out my fingers, and the dark berries glisten in the sun. I give Peeta's hand one last squeeze as a signal, as a good-bye, and we begin counting. ‘One.’ Maybe I'm wrong. ‘Two.’ Maybe they don't care if we both die. ‘Three!’ It's too late to change my mind. I lift my hand to my mouth taking one last look at the world. The berries have just passed my lips when the trumpets begin to blare. The frantic voice of Claudius Templesmith shouts above them. ‘Stop! Stop! Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victors of the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark! I give you - the tributes of District 12!’” (The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins).

Young Adult dystopias have been an important part of American culture for so long it feels like they have always been there. As children we had The Hunger Games, which later spawned Divergent, The Maze Runner, Uglies, and countless others. In school we read 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, A Clockwork Orange, and the list goes on and on. Their movie and television show adaptations are everywhere. Everyone has a favorite example. So when Moretti's data suggests the genre bubble will burst in the coming years, it is kind of hard to believe. The genre is still going strong, and for good reason. Young Adult dystopias have something the classics neglect: diversity. Katniss Everdeen is a physically and mentally disabled woman of color surrounded by other females, people of color, people with disabilities, people from every walk of life. When The Hunger Games shot up the best sellers list Katniss inspired Tris Pryor in Divergent, Teresa in The Maze Runner, and Tally Youngblood in Uglies. The sheer volume of books and characters guarantees there is something for everyone. Everyone turned out to be mostly adult women and teenage girls. It is the reading power of the latter that presents my point: so long as we live in the world we do, with the current political climate active, and with a steady stream of strong female characters willing to stand up to oppressors, there will be a need for the genre. Multiple people see that need and write books based upon what they think needs to be said. This bubble, much like the superhero movie one, will stay untouched until the world proves it has no need for that kind of fiction anymore. Therefore, I think the genre is here to stay for years to come.

Seeing yourself in a character on the big screen or on the page is so incredibly important. Some little girl with hearing issues read about Katniss' ear trauma and saw herself; if for whatever reason she was unable to get it fixed, related to Katniss refusing surgery to restore her hearing. Or someone living under an oppressive government learning first that they should fight back and then it is okay to do so. Or that people bullying you for something outside your control deserve to be called out on their behavior. Or any number of things prevalent in what makes it big in the genre these days. The books that make it big pave the way for even greater diversity to truly reach the entire reader base. Those might carry on as something no one has ever heard of, but reach the right audience and lives can be changed. I feel like the genre will be around for quite a while. Not just because it is one of my favorites to both read and write for, but also because it is important. We are faced with the possibility of the complete destruction of life as we know it. Someone must recognize what is going on and do something about it. At this point they might as well be fictional, but that is the only way to get the ball rolling.  

“Tell me something, Noah. Which is more important: freedom or happiness?' What was this, a game? But Nijinsky wasn't smiling. 'You can't be happy unless you’re free,' Noah said" (BZRK, Michael Grant).  

Michael Grant's BZRK trilogy depends upon nanotechnology to further its plot, give motivation for characters and their development, provide multiple bad guys, and generally make BZRK what they are. One of the main character's father invented biots, part human machines smaller than the head of a needle, capable of acting on the controller's behalf within a body. The good guys, BZRK, use biots reluctantly to fight the bad guys, Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation. AFGC is a cover for the cult Nexus Humanus which wants to take away free will to guarantee eternal happiness. This war is mostly fought at the nano level. Even during "macro" fights, with guns and fists, the focus is always on protecting the nano. Emphases placed on the nano and neglecting the macro, which is only protected by BZRK's enforcer Caligula, exists because of only looking at the available technology and how to improve it. When the original tech, designed to cure cancer, fails and is proven archaic, BZRK only wants to move forward with more advanced biots. Benjamin argues for only looking to the future, for using tech to get and maintain power. The Armstrong twins (founders of AFGC) only maintain their power through superior firepower and lots of unethical manipulation. Under the guise of innocent gift shops across the globe they plot to control world leaders and, therefore, everyone on the planet. That is an extension of Benjamin's philosophy. AFGC has money and manpower, giving them the ability to accomplish their goals. BZRK only has the money, but its members are determined to prevent doomsday. Their conflict over who's in control spans three novels.

There is a connection here with how the world is going today. We even touched upon it in class. For the longest time everyone was obsessed with the technology of tomorrow made today. Classic standbys like books or physical music or playing outside fell by the wayside as electronics fell in the hands of the youth. Why use what cavemen did when you can use what Marty McFly did? For the longest time my younger sister and I were the only kids on our street playing outside. We made fun of our neighbors three doors down for having a pool and never going in it. My parents still can't drag me out of ours. At restaurants we read books, my sister drew and I wrote or, heaven forbid, actually talked to each other. Then, out of nowhere, that changed. The many, many little kids living in the cul-de-sac behind us were outside screaming at all hours of the day. One time we saw our neighbors in their pool. Tables around us when we went out to eat started implementing a no phones rule. The shift was real and, according to the Internet, commonplace. Retro was becoming hip again. We aren't the only people who feel that way, but we're the ones making it happen.  

"In my mind I am eloquent; I can climb intricate scaffolds of words to reach the highest cathedral ceilings and paint my thoughts. But when I open my mouth, everything collapses” (Warm Bodies, Isaac Marion).  

Whoever controls language controls culture. Whoever controls the culture has all the power. Whoever has all the power writes all the rules, determines humanity's fate, and generally determines the ongoing nature of life. While a lot of stories tackle that concept, Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion handles it without beating around the bush. It's about the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse, sure, but it is told through the point of view of a very articulate zombie. The narrative hints rather heavily at the main character, R, being the only zombie outside of the Boneys capable of higher thought. It is only with the help of a human that he learns basic speech. The surviving humans are the only ones capable of speech, of making sure human culture does not die out. Them being able to talk makes them superior to zombies, even after zombies become human again at the novel's conclusion. The settlement the novel focuses on is run based on that fact. It is only poetic that the leader, Colonel Grigio, is the father of the woman R is in love with and the one who sparks the change from zombie to human. Colonel Grigio controls the whole narrative, both the book's and the city he runs. Zombies are to be shot on sight, anything dead must stay out of the walled city, and the language he uses to spread that information reflects how deeply rooted his control extends. On the other hand, R is the first zombie capable of replicating full human speech. By the end the other zombies learn speech as well. Them relearning speech perfectly coincides with them wrenching power from the Boneys in their twisted society and, a bit later, wrenching power from the humans when they rejoin the society they used to know. Language lets them write their own culture again, this time as rediscovered human beings.

I feel like not a lot of zombie books take advantage of exploring the concept of retaking a culture through language. It is a topic that is easily applicable to the genre. World War Z comes close, but that is the best example I can think of. What is happening right now with millennials and gen z is the closest real-life example. I tried tackling the concept in my own zombie novel Flowers Die specifically because I am unable to find anything quite like Warm Bodies or even World War Z on bookshelves. The main character comes back from the dead, but because she reanimated through the original radiation and not a classic bite, she is still fully mentally articulate and, later, verbally as well. As the apocalypse spreads zombies like her become increasingly rarer. She joins the military and fights to take back the culture she once knew by force. Her and her friends are superior by nature. Her husband, who eventually dies to prove the point, used to be a lawyer, defending traditional culture with evolving language. Later on, she meets a young woman trapped by isolation in the woods bound by her lack of language and loss of the culture that raised her. Reintroduction to what she used to know helps bring her back. This is all a work in progress, but as the old saying goes, if you want something specific you have to write it yourself.

[theastrophilearchitect]

Recent reads #1.

In February, I formatted my wrap-up actually as a wrap-up, but I didn't really enjoy making myself write about every movie and every show and every audiobook, so I've decided to cut the movies and tv shows unless I specifically want to review one, and just do recent reads every ten books I want to talk about, ignoring rereads I have literally nothing to talk about, and not filling two of my weekly post slots per month first with a tbr, then with a wrap-up. I have other things to talk about.

So, here's ten books I read recently.

1. Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Hoo. So I finally read this, and, ultimately, I did enjoy it, but it was about two hundred pages too long. I'm sure if the first three/four hundred were condensed, the characters wouldn't feel so developed, but I think it would be worth it to increase the pace. If the pace of this book were on a graph, it would be flat until the last fifty pages, at which point it would increase exponentially.

Anyway, to this book is set in a (technically dystopian) sci-fi future, in which humanity is living on a planet called Detritus, where the crew of a ship called the Defiant crashed during a battle with the alien race of the Krell. This was several generations ago, and for several decades, the original crew split into groups, because when in groups of over a hundred, the Krell could sense, attack and kill them. Fast forward several decades, after a huge battle, humanity now lives together again, partially on the surface. Skyward follows Spensa Nightshade, daughter of a coward from the Battle of Alta, when humanity came back to the surface. Spensa wants to be a pilot, to battle the Krell, defend humanity, and eventually escape past the debris field surrounding Detritus. Then she finds a ship. A ship, broken and run-down, but more advanced than anything humanity has, and fixable. And it talks.

I'm going to keep this one brief because I have a lot to say about this book, and am planning to make a full review, but for now: I was so bored throughout the first three hundred pages. I didn't particularly care about the characters--of whom I felt there were too many--and found Spensa irritating, which bothered me particularly because this book is written in first person. Then, events, action, character arcs, and I left this book absolutely desperate for the next. I think my main issue with this was just the amount of set-up required for the clearly epic saga Sanderson is planning

On the plus side, its sequel Starsight came out in November, so, if all goes to plan, that should be around the third or fourth book on this list.

Rating: um. Last hundred or so pages I feel deserve full five stars, but I think the first few hundred drag this down to about 3.73 stars, specifically.

2. Ghosts of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, Kelly Link, and Robin Wasserman

Honestly, I wasn’t going to read this Shadowhunters novella bind-up. I haven’t read any of the other bind-ups. I only actually decided to read it because I was running out of audiobooks I wanted to listen to, and this was the only Shadowhunters bind-up on Audible. But I’m so glad I did.

So this novella bind-up is set in the world of the Shadowhunters and basically follows Jem Carstairs from the end of the Infernal Devices, up to its epilogue and then beyond. It was released after the Mortal Instruments, the Infernal Devices and the Dark Artifices, but before the Last Hours, the Eldest Curses and the Wicked Powers (obviously, because the Wicked Powers doesn’t even have a title for book one yet). The earlier novellas set up the Last Hours, the later ones the Wicked Powers, and probably the Eldest Curses, too, but I don’t really remember.

I didn’t enjoy the Mortal Instruments, and after reading City of Bones, I listened to the rest as audiobooks so I could read the other series, which I did love (even if I felt the Dark Artifices was unnecessarily long). Chain of Gold, the first book in the Last Hours has been out for just over a year now, and has definitely been the most hyped Shadowhunters book in the recent years, so I can’t wait to get to it, and am so glad I read this and got to know a little about the characters, though I don’t think you need to have read this to read Chain of Gold.

Rating: 4.3 stars. (Yes, apparently I’m doing decimals other than .5 now).

3. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

I finished this audiobook on March 19th, which says something about how my reading’s going this month. Actually, this is the fourth book I read in March 2021, because I also listened to the Mockingjay audiobook this month in my preparation to read this, but I didn’t think it was necessary to include it in this list because I’ve read it so many times before. Four books in twenty days isn’t bad--it’s more than most people read, but still. Especially when three of the four are audiobooks.

So, this book follows Coriolanus Snow, Panem’s president in the original series, as he acts as a mentor in the 10th Hunger Games. These Games are very different to the 74th we see in The Hunger Games, and every character in this book (minus the one character under the age of ten) was alive during the war. Since there have obviously only been nine Games before now, the tributes obviously couldn’t have victors from their districts as mentors the way Katniss and Peeta do, and this is the first year they have any form of mentoring. There’s no training, watching isn’t mandatory, this is the first Games in which they have sponsorships etc. Coriolanus is assigned the female tribute from district 12, and finds himself questioning his morality.

I really wasn’t sure what the point of this book was. It showed more inequality within the Capitol than what the trilogy exposed us to, but it didn’t seem to contain the same message as the Hunger Games, partly because Coriolanus essentially had a negative character arc, so as to become the tyrant, and partly because we knew how it would end. (Spoiler: Coriolanus falls in love with his tribute, but we knew it couldn’t work out because he couldn’t and wouldn’t marry someone from the districts, but he had a wife and daughter in the trilogy.) I don’t understand why Collins is trying to get us to sympathise with this villain--I love sympathetic villains, and anti-heroes, morally grey characters etc., but Snow just isn’t that in the trilogy, so it has little impact.

Granted, I did find the insight to his mind interesting, and the book was very entertaining--and had an excellent narrator--but I just didn’t see the point. I think this had the potential to garner five stars from me, but it just adds so little to the original story, I can’t do it.

(Leena Norms on YouTube made an excellent spoiler review on this book that goes much more in-depth about symbolism, themes etc. You can find it here)

Rating: 4 stars.

4. Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

I read this in three days. I’m not a huge contemporary person, but hell yes. This book? Mwah.

We follow Eliza Mirk, your typical teenage outsider. She hates high school, and is just waiting for graduation. Online, however, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the hugely popular web comic Monstrous Sea. Then she meets Wallace Warland, a Monstrous Sea fan who Eliza soon discovers is actually RainMaker, the most popular Monstrous Sea fanfiction writer. We have romance, we have geeky stuff, we have relatable hatred of school.

I listened to the audiobook (a running theme of audiobooks here, because I was currently very slowly reading House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas, which is 800 pages. If your book’s going to be more than 600 pages, make it two books. Please.), which was a little disappointing because I later found out the book has Monstrous Sea comic strips in it, which are in the audiobook, you just don’t get the visuals. Regardless, the narrators were excellent, and I loved this as my intro to the contemporary genre.

Rating: 4 stars.

5. Sea Witch by Sarah Henning

This was the last book on my audiobook list before I gained a ton more, and though it wasn’t mind-blowing, it was enjoyable, and I do want to read the sequel. Or rather, listen to it.

This book takes place before the game of the Little Mermaid, and follows a young woman who will become the Sea Witch. One day, a girl drowns as her friends fail to save her. Three years later, a girl with nearly the same name arrives in her friends’ lives, though no-one but Evie recognises her, and Evie must help her get the prince to give her true love’s kiss to save her.

The plot wasn’t especially exciting and the characters weren’t especially interesting; the plot was rather predictable, but the writing was excellent and it was enjoyable nonetheless.

I’m curious as to where the sequel will go, because this book’s epilogue is set 50 years after the climax, but I assume it’ll be the retelling of the actual Little Mermaid story.

Rating: 3 stars.

6. House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas

I didn’t want to love this book as much as bookstagram does. In fact, over time, my love for Maas’s Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses has faded, especially earlier this year when I listened to the Throne of Glass audiobooks (my second read through), and was struggling by the end, because it took itself way too seriously, and it felt like it was just continuing for the sake of it (I stand that the entire eight-book series could have been four or five books at most, and that’s including the prequel). In contrast, this just didn’t drag. I was intiially overwhelmed by the 800 pages, but, God, it was worth it.

The Crescent City series is set in a modern-day fantasy, with modern technology, but where humans, angels, shifters, fae, and a thousand other kinds of supernatural creatures, live side by side. Bryce Quinlan is half-fae, a party girl, living like tomorrow doesn’t exist, until her best friend, and her best friend’s wolf pack, are murdered. Two years later, a similar string of murders starts up again, though the supposed killer remains imprisoned, and Bryce is recruited by the city government to investigate, with the help of Hunt Athalar, an enslaved fallen angel, who Bryce is incredibly thirsty for.

I made notes while reading this. I had many thoughts, throughout 800 pages.

Maas just really wants to write kind-of-fae protagonists: every one of her books (bar Catwoman: Soulstealer) has a protagonist who isn’t always entirely human, and who isn’t always entirely fae.

It felt like this was only classed as adult instead of young adult so she could use the word ‘fuck’ three times per page--her previous books being young adult didn’t stop her writing graphic smut scenes.

In the first three hundred pages, the main cast walked into the road and halted traffic so many times (being like twice)--Jesus, can we just let the poor drivers be?

This book never really explains the Gods in this world. There’s so much lore, and worldbuilding, but the Gods are never really explained.

Lehabah’s character reminded me so much of Iko from The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, and I am so here for it.

‘...Bryce mused, toying with her toes. They were painted a deep ruby. Ridiculous, he told himself. Not the alternative. The one that had him imagining tasting each and every one of those toes before slowly working his way up those sleek, bare legs of hers.’ Right, so the Umbra Mortis has a foot fetish.

Looking back through my notes, I made this one--’I get that it’s more fun to write attractive characters, but not every no-name needs to be drop dead gorgeous’--which is hilarious to look back on because the character I was specifically referencing turned out to be a very big name, but still.

I did enjoy every second of this book, but I still think it could have been condensed. God only knows how many words were in the first draft of this book.

A lot of the words for things in this--Midgard for Earth/the mortal world; Vanir for the supernatural creatures--are from Norse mythology, and I’m so here for it.

By the time the actual truth of the mystery came out, I’d already been given so many assumptions and alternatives as to what happened, that, having finished the book, I can barely remember the actual truth. We were given at least four versions of the story.

Finally, Bryce and Hunt spend literally this entire book lusting after each other, and we hear about their fantasies about each other at least twenty times, but they literally never have actual, penetrative sex. There are explicit scenes, sure, but the most action for himself Hunt gets is alone in the shower.

Anyway, I loved this. It was 1000% better than previous books by Maas, and I want book two immediately. (Maybe not immediately; I’d like to read other books, but still.) I finished it on March 31st, and it was my 30th read of the year, actually completing my Goodreads goal for the year--it was intentionally low because I only read 23 books last year, but in the shortest quarter of this year, I already met my goal. I’m leaving the Goodreads official goal at 30, because I don’t want to push myself too far, but I have a silent goal of 100--if I keep up this pace, I can read about 122 books, but we’re going to keep quiet, because I sincerely doubt I’ll manage that.

Rating: 5 stars.

7. Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

God, this surpassed Skyward. I think part of that is because I already knew a lot of the characters, and Spensa is significantly less annoying in this one. It follows an incredibly different storyline to the first, but still has the same vibes, and was, frankly, a fantastic sequel.

I will say this series reads very young, and it’s very difficult for me to imagine the characters as adults.

Also, called the romance, and they kiss in this one, and it’s actually very anticlimactic. The two characters are in completely different places for most of this book, so there’s not much development, but my God. 

This book, this world... ahhhhh. If you don’t like science fiction, you won’t like this series, but otherwise, just read it. You won’t regret it.

Rating: 4 stars.

8. Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater

First off, I love the US cover for this, but the UK one is so much better, and you can fight me on that.

This is the first book in the Dreamer Trilogy, a sequel series to The Raven Cycle, centred on the wonderful Ronan Lynch. The existence of this book was actually why I decided to reread The Raven Cycle--I listened to the audiobooks in, I think, 2018, and didn’t pay a huge amount of attention, which was, in retrospect, a horrible idea, given how complicated the storyline is, but I wanted to read this series, so a reread was required. And, as we know, I’m so glad I did, because I absolutely fell in love.

I do wish this book had more of the other Raven Cycle characters--you’ve obviously got Ronan and his brothers, and Opal, but there was so little Blue, Gansey and Adam. Adam was actually in quite a few scenes, but he’s my least favourite of the main four; Gansey had some texts and Blue had a single phone call, except that chapter was from Declan’s perspective, so we only got Ronan’s end.

Regardless, Stiefvater, as usual, introduced some amazing new characters, more worldbuilding, and I love the way she gives the antagonists’ perspective, too. There’s about a month, as of today, before the sequel comes out, and, fair to say, I can’t wait.

Rating: 4.2 stars.

9. A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas

I hate this cover change. Utterly inferior to the original covers.

In all honesty, my love for SJM has faded over the last few months--though I do now think House of Earth and Blood may have revived it--but I did still enjoy this. So now let’s go through the notes I made as I went!

First off, though, this is the fourth book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, focusing on Nesta and Cassian, but I’m not saying anything else so as to avoid spoiling the first three.

The opening reads like fanfiction. The introductions, the inciting incident--I’ve never been a huge fanfic reader, but this reads like fanfic setup. 

SJM’s apparently going on a Norse mythology surge, what with Vanir in Crescent City and Valkyries here, but I’m really, really here for it

Elain Archeron feels irrelevant. She has imapct on Feyre and Nesta, sure, but she has no agency of her own. People ship her with Azriel, solely because she’s the unmated Archeron sister; he’s the unmated bat boy, but I’m not sure how I feel about that.

I sincerely hope we get more context as to Amren’s origins. There was a little in this, but not enough to satisfy me.

SJM has an obsession with masculinity. Little to a fault, honestly--every one of her male characters in described in some way, shape or form as the epitome of masculinity and ‘male arrogance’, and it irritates me to no end. Honestly, her books all feel like vessels for a sub/dom kink. Just saying.

‘As if she’d been freed from a cage she hasn’t realised she’d been in.’ I didn’t make note of it, but she this was the second time Sarah tried to test whether or not we’d notice this blatant manipulation of the ‘breath they didn’t realise they were holding’ cliche.

Stop capitalising the word ‘Made.’ It’s really not that difficult, and it’s ugly.

And as for the 70% of this book that is purely smut: hate that Nesta’s scent was disguised because Cassian’s ‘essence’ was all over her. What does that mean and why does even her scent submit to him??

Literally all of her female characters fall into the minority of women capable of orgasm from purely penetrative sex: it’s unrealistic, and I’m not entirely convinced SJM understands how the female body works. Also, in both this and Crescent City, she kept saying ‘her breasts pebbled’, and I still have no idea what that means.

I did, however, really enjoy seeing the Winter Solstice celebrations again.

I enjoy the smutty scenes as much as the next reader, but the latter fifth of this book, when they finally stopped shagging and got on with the plot, were so much better than the earlier ones.

Regardless, I did really enjoy this book, and come out with a hugely positive opinion, mostly because I enjoyed the last hundred pages so much.

Rating: 4.1 stars.

10. The Sky Blues by Robbie Couch

I cannot get Robbie Couch’s name right. I keep thinking it’s Crouch, and I don’t know why. Anyway.

This was the Booksplosion book of the month for April, and is very much not my typical thing. I am, however, trying to branch out my reading from purely fantasy and sci-fi, so here we are.

This book follows Sky Baker, an openly gay high school senior in Michigan, who is planning a promposal for his crush. Who may or may not be straight. Then, his promposal plans are exposed to the school in a homophobic, racist email-blast. That’s basically it, which doesn’t seem to me like a lot, but then most books I read aren’t 300-page standalones.

The narrative is a little cliche. We get an appearance-by-mirror on page four, which didn’t exactly give me much faith. There were, of course, also the times Couch pretended he wasn’t using the let-out-a-breath-they-didn’t-realise-they-were-holding cliche: ‘took a burden off my shoulders I hadn’t even realised was weighing me down.;’ ‘a million pounds I hadn’t even realised had been weighing me down for days.’ A nice metaphor, but cliche nonetheless.

It contains so many pop culture references, which are really entertaining in 2021, but will probably really date this in a few years.

Also, minor spoiler: we didn’t even get to see the actual prom. There was the whole build-up to it, the month before, the weeks before, the day before, and we never even got satisfaction.

Regardless, this was an easy, wholesome read, and I think it’ll be a good part of my entry to the world of contemporary.

Rating: 4.1 stars.

And those are my recent reads.

[katamount]

Was the mockingjay a symbol of the rebellion before Katniss wore the pin in the games?

At first glance, Madge’s visit with Katniss after the reaping seems straightforward, but upon rereading — and knowing the importance of the mockingjay as a symbol of the rebellion — Collins’ description of the “urgency about [Madge’s] tone” feels much more freighted with significance. Also, it would appear that in her choice of words, Collins is signaling to the reader to take note of the pin (which had also appeared in chapter 1): “I hadn’t paid much attention to it before, but now I see it’s a small bird in flight.” (emphasis added)

As the scene unfolds in chapter 3, Madge presses Katniss to take it: 

“Here, I’ll put it on your dress, all right?” Madge doesn’t wait for an answer, she just leans in and fixes the bird that my dress. “Promise you’ll wear it to the arena, Katniss?” she asks. “Promise?” [emphasis added]

Why the urgency with Madge pinning the mockingjay on Katniss before she departs for the Capitol? And would Madge have known that the mockingjay had any association with the rebellion after the Dark Days? My feeling is that if Madge knew the mockingjay was associated with the rebellion in any way, in all likelihood, her father would’ve known it too. And if that were the case, Mayor Undersee almost certainly wouldn’t have allowed her to wear the pin on reaping day. (And that would be true even if he were a rebel sympathizer, because Madge wearing the pin could have dangerous repercussions for both of them.)

We learn later, in Catching Fire, that the pin had belonged to Madge’s aunt, Maysilee Donner, who had been a tribute in the 50th Games, along with Haymitch. This will (I hope) be fodder for another post when we get to CF in the reread. But, as far as I know, the text does not explicitly say whether Maysilee wore the pin during her Games. 

Katniss doesn’t recognize the bird on the pin as a mockingjay until she is on the tribute train, and as soon as she does, she observes that mockingjays are “something of a slap in the face to the Capitol.” She explains how the Capitol muttation jabberjays spied on the rebels — and after the rebels realized it, they turned the tables and “fed the Capitol endless lies, and the joke was on it.

So... the birds were abandoned to die off in the wild. 

Only they didn’t die off. Instead, the jabberjays mated with female mockingbirds creating a whole new species… [emphasis added]

Mockingjays are associated with the earlier rebels because they co-opted the jabberjays, and they symbolize the rebellion, because despite the Capitol’s attempts to eradicate it, its principles lived on. Later, in Catching Fire, Katniss tells us:

A mockingjay is a creature the Capitol never intended to exist. They hadn’t counted on the highly controlled jabberjay having the brains to adapt to the wild, to pass on its genetic code, to thrive in a new form. They hadn’t anticipated its will to live. [emphasis added]

Presumably, Katniss only knows about the earlier rebels’ use of the jabberjays because her father told her the story. Similarly the principles of the rebellion survived and were passed along between generations and with other trusted district residents.

Would Madge have known about the origins and associations of the mockingjay? Obviously Katniss has better knowledge of the flora and fauna of the district than almost anyone, and had a father who espoused anti-Capitol beliefs. But in CF, she also mentions that mockingjays are very common, so Madge probably would’ve been aware of them, even if she hadn’t been given a mockingjay pin that had belonged to her late aunt. (And why a mockingjay pin would’ve been in the Donner family for a long time — as Madge says in CF — is a whole other question.)

Do we know how prevalent mockingjays are across Panem? Aside from 12, we learn Rue was familiar with them in 11, and Twill (who is from 8) points out the mockingjay that appears in the old footage of 13, which implies Twill probably knew about them in 8. The more widespread the birds are, the more likely that the story of their association with the rebels would have spread across the districts. 

Madge is a bit of a cipher in the trilogy, with a small but significant role. She’s one of a very few people Katniss likes and trusts, she’s not stuck up about her status as the mayor’s daughter, and she holds her own when Gale is a jerk to her. In several ways, I feel Collins suggests that Madge is nobody’s fool. But Collins is a little cagey with her implications about Madge’s motivations. Madge’s sense of urgency while giving the pin to Katniss implies that there’s an important reason for it — but it’s odd that her district token (“one thing to remind [her] of home”) would be something she’d never seen before that day. But on the other hand, in CF (after Katniss learns the pin once belonged to Madge’s aunt), K mentions that the mockingjay is an odd choice “because of what happened in the rebellion. With the jabberjays backfiring on the Capitol and all.” In her response, Madge seems to downplay its significance, and imply she’s not aware of its symbolic associations with the rebels: “‘But mockingjays were never a weapon,’ said Madge. “They’re just songbirds. Right?” [But I like @arabeth-thea’s idea that Madge may have believed that her home was bugged, which would lead her to make an evasive remark like this to protect both of them.] 

Regardless of whether Madge knew that the mockingjay was beginning to be associated with the underground rebellion, textual evidence implies that in the Capitol, the mockingjay was not widely recognized as a symbol of the rebellion prior to the 74th Games. In chapter 10 of THG, Cinna pins the mockingjay on Katniss’ shirt just before she enters the arena, and tells her, “It barely cleared the review board. Some thought the pin could be used as a weapon, giving you an unfair advantage. But eventually, they let it through.” (emphasis added) We don’t know who sat on the review board, but it makes sense that it would include a few Gamemakers, who presumably are well-connected in the Capitol. (Of course, it’s plausible that it might include someone with ties to the rebellion as well.) But a review board examined and discussed the mockingjay pin at some length (as a potential weapon) and concluded it did not pose a substantial threat. I love the irony that it posed a much more potent threat as a symbol. 

Why did Madge wear the pin on reaping day? My feeling is that Maysilee probably did not wear the pin in the Games, because if she had, it would’ve been much too much of a provocation for Madge to wear it that day. (Plus, did the families of fallen tributes get their children’s tokens back?) The text (CF) supports (at a minimum) the idea that Madge wore the mockingjay pin for personal reasons, to honor her aunt who died in the Games. But that in itself is a subtle political act — a quiet form of protest against the Games and the lasting impact they had on Madge’s family. However, I’m warming to the idea that Madge must have known about the mockingjay’s association with the rebellion, partly because I can’t think of any other likely explanation for her urgency in giving the pin to Katniss and practically insisting that she wear it in the arena. 

Some have argued that Madge might have believed she’d be reaped that day, but I’m not convinced of this, and she would’ve had only a handful of slips. Unless the drawing was rigged — perhaps the Capitol would like the idea that no one is safe from the reaping, not even the mayor’s daughter. (And if the Capitol suspected him of anything, that would be a cruel way to punish him.) Or we learn later that victors’ children are sometimes reaped — maybe a fallen tribute’s relative could’ve provided a compelling story line for Capitol viewers. 

Madge, like any child of a public figure, would’ve been aware that her behavior reflected on her father — and that probably made her more aware of her image than the average teen in 12. Madge’s wardrobe choices — a white dress and the pin — (and her remark to Gale, “Well, if I end up going to the Capitol, I want to look nice, don’t I?”) suggest that just in case she was reaped, she was prepared to make an impression. In her white dress, she would’ve looked fresh and innocent, and the pin would’ve helped Haymitch develop her story line. 

The lore about mockingjays’ association with the rebellion must have been fairly widespread, but perhaps mockingjays hadn’t yet emerged as a recognized (fully fledged?) symbol of the underground rebellion. Sometimes there’s an idea whose time has come, and I love that Madge had a hand in making that happen, literally pinning it on Katniss.

[edited to add paragraph about the mockingjay probably not being a widely recognized symbol of the rebellion in the Capitol before the 74th Games]

image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irenika_w/6798170904