twomanyfandomshelp

[twomanyfandomshelp]

[twomanyfandomshelp]

it still kills me how beetee in his games probably tried to break the arena and set the other tributes free but instead he accidentally killed them

[twomanyfandomshelp]

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

"Sometimes she cries because things are so beautiful and we keep messing them up. Because the world doesn't have to be so terrifying. That's on people, not the world."

Year Read: 2025

Rating: 4/5

Thoughts: Almost twenty years later, and I'm still letting Suzanne Collins break my fucking heart with this world. Fortunately, this book has a lot more in common with the original trilogy than it does with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (a well-intentioned but absolute slog of a read). While not as fast-paced as those--it takes half the book before the Games even start--she keeps it moving with a few unexpected twists on the reaping, parade, and interviews. Not surprisingly, I was anxiously flipping pages when Haymitch finally got to the arena.

There are some fun, gruesome surprises there, and I love the way it's never only about survival or rebellion, but about all the myriad people and actions and intentions that exist outside of the Games themselves. These might be YA, but they're not shallow by any sense of the word. As always, they remain politically and socially relevant in a way that's accessible to all audiences. There are a lot of themes about resistance and parallels to the very real political climate, but one of my favorites is in not accepting control or defeat as a given, especially when we greatly outnumber our oppressors.

The cast of characters remains excellent. Haymitch is an easy hero to pull for, a little sassy, a little bit of a rascal, but like Katniss he also cares deeply about the people around him. Maysilee came out of left field and easily became my favorite character as the mean, stuck-up rich girl who absolutely slaughters everyone in the Capitol about their fashion choices. Slay, queen. It's entertaining to pick out the cameos of characters or their relatives from other books as well, but I won't spoil any of them here.

I remembered how Haymitch's Games ended, and it's about as harrowing as expected watching him get from where he is in this book to how we know him from the original trilogy. Everything went down more or less the way I thought it would, but that doesn't take the absolute gut punch out of it. There are no happy endings here, and the tragedy is always that there could have been. It's a credit to Collins' writing that she can make such a gruesome premise still so compulsively readable.

[twomanyfandomshelp]

Something something Katniss and Peeta fell in love despite their Games, Lucy Gray and Snow fell in love because of their Games, and Lenore Dove and Haymitch fell in love without their Games.

[twomanyfandomshelp]

I recently discovered laundry stripping and y’all, no matter how much of a crock of shit you think fast fashion is, you’re underestimating.

[twomanyfandomshelp]

let 👏 bisexual 👏 girls 👏 love 👏 boys

[twomanyfandomshelp]

No shade but the ppl losing their minds learning that the Old Therebefore is a funeral song and that Lucy Gray was singing it bc she thought she was gonna die….like….yeah.jpg didn’t you read the first line of the song? Lucy Gray didn’t know about the snakes or that Snow put the handkerchief in there, no duh she thought she was gonna die. The thing that gets me though (and this is why I love Rachel Zegler’s performance of this scene) is that once she realizes the snakes aren’t attacking her, the song is no longer a funeral song; it becomes a big ol’ middle finger to the Capitol. Girly looked straight into that camera and said you hear that, motherfuckers? I’m staying right the fuck here

[twomanyfandomshelp]

haymitch's sentiment of there being no winners, just survivors is so important to me because all of them lost what truly matters to them as a result of winning

katniss with prim, peeta with his sense of self, haymitch with his girl and family oh coriolanus snow you're sick just wait until I catch you

[twomanyfandomshelp]

"I first saw the girl at the Hob when she was just a baby. Burdock was so proud of her, he toted her around everywhere. After he died in that mine explosion, she started coming alone, trading the odd squirrel or rabbit. Tough and smart, her hair in two braids then, reminding me for all the world of Louella McCoy, my sweetheart of old. And after she volunteered for the Games, that nickname couldn’t help but slip out." - Haymitch Abernathy, Sunrise on the Reaping.

[twomanyfandomshelp]

Am I the only one who, for some reason, can't not constantly think about the memorials Katniss references in the epilogue?

"The arenas have been completely destroyed, the memorials built."

Is there a memorial for all the children who were murdered in the hunger games? All 1,725 of them? Did someone manage to dig up the names of all the past tributes? Can Haymitch go to the capitol and run his fingers over the L in Louella's name? Can Katniss look at Rue's name, engraved in something permanent?

Is there a memorial for all the rebel soldiers who died while fighting the capitol? Does Finnick's name reside right next to Prim's on a big glossy slab of marble or granite?

[twomanyfandomshelp]

If the original hunger games triology would have been narrated by young Haymitch we would probably know under which star constellation Peeta's brothers were born.

[twomanyfandomshelp]

I honestly don’t know why people think that Katniss would tell us that Effie Trinket has a sister even if we assume that she knows this information. Katniss barely told us that Peeta has brothers. As in, we never learn the names of Peeta’s brothers. Katniss isn’t telling us a damn thing about Effie’s family members unless it is directly relevant to the plot.

[twomanyfandomshelp]

i swear there's something in that thing where a peacekeeper whipped katniss across her face and haymitch stepped in and used the "we need her face to look flawless for the cameras" excuse to stop him even though obviously none of them gaf about that, and that thing where plutarh saved lenore dove using the "i need her for the cameras" excuse, like haymitch stole the same shit that was used on his first worst day

[twomanyfandomshelp]

I'm gonna tell my kids this was Sunrise On the Reaping

[twomanyfandomshelp]

Wyatt. Wyatt Callow

whose luck just ran out.

In honors of Ben Wang <3

[twomanyfandomshelp]

Good-bye, Maysilee Donner,

who I loathed, then grudgingly respected, then loved. Not as a sweetheart or even a friend. A sister, I'd said.

Edit (update): Find Wyatt here!! <3

[twomanyfandomshelp]

Lenore Dove is so misunderstood and mischaracterized by the fandom it makes me sad to see.

She is not this manic, dream pixie girl. Her character very much shaped, flawed and real. Haymitch is able to oversee and ignore her “flaws” because he’s a 16 year old teenage boy who is madly in love with her, but it is not hard for us readers, to look between those lines and see how fleshed her character really is.

She is seen to act before thinking, making rash decisions which aren’t the best for her wellbeing. She is way too emotional, feels too many feelings and has too many thoughts and she doesn’t know how to articulate them into words because she’s an introvert and she fears her words being lost in translation.

She only reveals her unfiltered, (sometimes) dark thoughts to her loved ones, and often enough she does it by using metaphors so she can still backtrack incase she gets misunderstood because she still feels like her thoughts could be a burden to the people around her.

She is not a “Lucy Gray Rip-Off”.

Lucy Gray was a born performer. She loved to be on stage, she loved performing for her people and knew how to get the crowd on her side, how to keep them entertained.

Lenore Dove doesn’t sing in front of people. It makes her uncomfortable. She’s not a “Born Performer” nor does she know how to control a crowd, at least not in the way Lucy Gray did.

She’s a rebel. She’ll only use her voice when she realizes she absolutely HAS to. She’ll use it when she’s mad, and sad, and in despair.

She’ll go against the rules at any given time, especially when it comes to protecting her loved ones. She doesn’t realize nor care about any consequences at the time, she only acts because she’s in pain and wants to avenge her people.

She’s a sixteen year old girl who dreamt big in a world where dreaming was a luxury and not something many people can afford.

In spite of her dark, burdened thoughts, she had still kept her innocence and was able to dream of a world without the reaping, she had hopes that one day that dream could become a reality, no matter how crazy it sounded to others.

She also had dreams of growing up, having a loving family and living peacefully with her loved ones and her boy who she loved more than anyone and she was willing to die for him.