this is fucking brilliant and i want to see it DESPERATELY. obviously the progressive warping of the simpsons story into a post-apocalyptic cultural mthis is fucking brilliant and i want to see it DESPERATELY. obviously the progressive warping of the simpsons story into a post-apocalyptic cultural myth is fascinating and extremely well-done but i'm just as impressed by the slow unfolding of information in the first act through dialogue alone--the gaps in the info we have are brilliant and terrifying. i would be frothing to act in this if i could fucking SING...more
i don't think i'm alone in saying that this was my least favorite book in the trilogy the first time around. of course, the first time around, i was ei don't think i'm alone in saying that this was my least favorite book in the trilogy the first time around. of course, the first time around, i was eleven and i was here for blood and guts and flashiness. so obviously a book with less of those things was not going to impress me as much. but now i'm back with better analytical skills, and (cf my reviews of the firsttwo) suzanne collins is a fucking genius.
now, i will confess that the pacing in this book is much less breakneck than in the first two. but honestly, i think that's a good move; it gives the characters time to breathe. it is absolutely insane to me that there are people in the reviews complaining because "ooh, katniss is so much less cool in this one! where's the badass katniss from the first two books who doesn't care about boys or spend time introspecting?" guys, katniss is fucking seventeen and this is the first time in five years that she hasn't had to repress mountains of trauma all at once to survive. of course she's going to break down! i love that she's a total wreck in this book, because it's well-written and realistic and because she deserves to be. i love that she is not, in fact, in charge of the rebellion, that she's actually a figurehead, that being the mockingjay involves a lot of the same hollywood bullshit as being a tribute. it's about the commercialization, baby! it's about katniss being a puppet!
and i love that this book does not pull punches. my god, these books are not afraid to go There. (view spoiler)[the fact that katniss did everything she did to protect her sister and it ended up sparking a revolution but it still didn't fucking save prim. jesus CHRIST. and dear god, finnick. that was the death that hit me hardest the first time around, and honestly, the second time around too. (hide spoiler)]
what else is there? gale. i do not like him. peeta i am dearly fond of (like katniss, he is serving much less cunt than usual in this book, but, like, look at the circumstances), but gale fucking sucks, man. i don't even mean the war criminal behavior; i mean that he is physically incapable of being normal to katniss instead of jealous and controlling and possessive, and it sandpapers me. that said, i do wonder about his portrayal as representative of radical rebellion. i don't totally agree with this post (i think calling peeta a moderate misses some of the point of the political game he, katniss, and gale are all playing), but it makes a really fucking good point about how most of the "good" characters in this book are the ones who didn't want to be rebels and got unceremoniously shoved into the position. but what's wrong with wanting to spearhead a revolt against the government brutalizing and tormenting everyone you know? and i wish that aspect of his character--the righteous rage, and the toll holding all of that rage must take on him--got more page time; i think he more than any character gets shafted in this book.
this, of course, begs the question: does this book have a both-sides-are-bad problem, a look-the-rebels-were-just-like-the-bad-guys-all-along! problem? i waver about this. i think yes and no. i mean, it's certainly arguable, particularly with coin and snow + in the peeta-gale peace-revenge dichotomy that of course ends up tilting toward "violence is always bad uwu!" in the end. but i also think the main point here is, overwhelmingly, that war is hell no matter who's winning. there were a lot of small moments that struck me this time around, when katniss noted the human costs of war among the capitol and districts alike. the portrayal here isn't perfect, of course, but i don't think "the atrocities committed in war, even just war, are horrifying and there is so much unnecessary loss of life" is a centrist take. and in the end it's (view spoiler)[coin who is the major problem, not the people rightfully angry at the capitol; it's not like they reinstate the old capitol after snow and coin are both dead, you know? (hide spoiler)].
All those people I loved, dead, and we are discussing the next Hunger Games in an attempt to avoid wasting life. Nothing has changed. Nothing will ever change now.
also the scene where (view spoiler)[katniss shoots coin instead of snow (hide spoiler)] remains one of thee most iconic scenes ever fucking written i do not CARE. as always these books have an insane amount of power to stick in your brain forever and ever. there is a reason no one will ever be the hunger games again because suzanne collins already wiped the floor with every shitty half-hearted apathetic apolitical replica that sprang up in her wake
also holy shit they really called the avox girl lavinia huh. fucked up...more
see my review of the first book, except i remembered most of the plot points from the first book, and i fully forgot half of the insane shit that happsee my review of the first book, except i remembered most of the plot points from the first book, and i fully forgot half of the insane shit that happens in this one. the slower first half lulled me into some sort of false security (i wasn't mad, just thinking, "okay, so this one is more about the political side of things, i knew that") and then the games hit and holy shit this book has crack in it.
to be clear, i do think the slower start is a good idea; yeah, it loses the breakneck tension of the first one a little, but this book is just as much about the aftermath of the games as it is about the actual killing field. and now that i'm not eleven, i can properly appreciate how this book makes "this sixteen-year-old is the figurehead of the rebellion" work: because she IS a figurehead. katniss never has any idea what the fuck is going on. that's not her fault, but it's a lot more believable than so many other dystopias' "and THIS TEENAGER heads the uprising BY THEMSELF!" + it allows for a thorough examination of the toll that existing as this figure of revolution (half by accident, no less) takes on a person. also! more worldbuilding! politics! district lore! i fully forgot about the scene where (view spoiler)[gale gets whipped (hide spoiler)] and it felt like walking into an electric fence!
and then the fucking games oh my godddddd. i am actually tempted to say this book might be better? than the first one? not that the first one isn't incredible, but there's something about the quell arena and the concept of a quell and the ensemble cast here and the complex thing happening between katniss and peeta that makes me insane. again, collins pulls off an incredible amount of character work for a very large cast in very short, crisp, sparing writing, which, how the fuck. how do i know and love finnick and johanna and beetee and mags this dearly after 200 pages maximum. AND THE SHEER LEVEL OF ICONIC SCENES PACKED INTO THIS BOOK? the (view spoiler)[ poison fog? the clock reveal? fucking MAGS?????? "if it weren't for the baby." THERE IS NO DISTRICT TWELVE. (hide spoiler)] no one ever did it like the hunger games again and no one ever fucking will...more
weird feelings about this one. i was very excited and very apprehensive, and... in the end i'm just a little underwhelmed.
THE POSITIVES: - lucy gray i weird feelings about this one. i was very excited and very apprehensive, and... in the end i'm just a little underwhelmed.
THE POSITIVES: - lucy gray i love you. lucy gray baird i LOVE you. frankly, i found her much more interesting in almost every way than snow; i understand why this book is from snow's point of view, but man, lucy gray was the standout character here.
- though snow is also well-written! one of the dangers of writing a villain prequel is that you run the risk of oversympathizing with your villain, and in this case, when the villain of the hunger games is a fascist who makes children fight each other to the death, that, uh, wouldn't be. a good look. but of course suzanne collins is too skilled a writer to pull the "oh, but he had it hard!" card; though snow has been through a great deal of trauma, and he's far more than a cartoon 2D villain, it's also clear that he sucks. his trauma, his emotions, his (sometimes) genuine care for other people--none of this cancels out his classism, manipulation, or absolute willingness to throw other people to the wolves to get ahead. and dear god, the guy thinks he's soooo progressive for thinking that maybe one (1) district person might not deserve to die, just because she's ~not like other district people.~ it's admirable that collins made this book readable even though i did want to physically fight snow every chapter
- on that note: of course collins is better than this, too, but i am so glad this book did not do the "this guy was good until a girl broke his heart... then he turned EVIL!" thing. all of the roots of what snow will become (the desperate ruthlessness, the inflated sense of self-importance, the disdain for the districts and anyone socially beneath him) are present on the first page; the book isn't about snow turning bad so much as it is about all the worst parts of him festering.
- seeing the games develop was interesting! and being on the outside of it, looking in with the capitol students, was eerie and effective. in the trilogy proper, you're hand in hand with katniss the whole time; her desperation for survival becomes yours. but here, you have to sit with the up-and-coming figures of the capitol, watching the games on TV, and you get to hear all of the commentary sensationalizing the games and all of the capitol students acting like their stakes are also life-or-death when the most they stand to lose is scholarship money. people are dying, kim
- most importantly: the hunger games always has shit to say. the hunger games is never fucking around. the trilogy delved into the horrors of sensationalism and the ethics of rebellion; here, collins focuses more on the self-deception of elites and how they justify their exploitation of the poor and underprivileged, and also lots about the kind of worldview that leads one to do something like the hunger games (this is a text in conversation with hobbes and locke, which is clear from the epigraphs; the idea of the social contract crops up multiple times). it doesn't feel like a book that was written just to make money; it feels like collins had something to say.
THE NEGATIVES: - unfortunately, that thing was often boring. look, this book is too long. i'm sorry. it is too long and the pacing is wonky and by the end i couldn't believe it was still going. this might be the prose (katniss's narrative voice, plus the first-person present-tense urgency of her narration, is much more gripping than snow's more detached headspace), but it also might just be that snow is an asshole, and it's much less interesting to spend time with him than it is with katniss. at no point was i excited to find out what happened to him; i was reading mostly to find out what would happen to lucy gray. the trilogy was impossible to put down; this book was hard to pick up.
- it makes sense that everyone in the capitol is a less serious character than everyone in the districts, because part of the capitol is that it's over-the-top and everyone worries about silly irrelevant things like clothing. but man, these characters were fucking cartoonish. i think the greatest flaw of this book is that collins' skill with characters from the trilogy feels nowhere to be found. people have written extensive fanfiction and meta on characters from the original trilogy who never even get last names (see cato, thresh, rue, foxface, etc; never mind characters like johanna and finnick, who get two books in the spotlight), because every character leaps to life no matter how briefly they're on the page. but the characters in this book, with the exception of lucy gray, snow, and sejanus, are palpably flatter. as this review says:
Too many new characters are introduced, but none of them are memorable. There is not one person of Haymitch's caliber, or Cinna’s, or Effie's.
it's been maybe a week since i finished the book, and i couldn't name more than, like, one of snow's capitol classmates or explain why you should care about them. (dr. gaul deserves a note, but i can't decide if i liked her character or not; i enjoy what she represents symbolically to snow as a potential worldview, but she didn't feel particularly believable as a character).
- on that character note: tigris is CRIMINALLY underused. why did collins dangle tigris content over our heads and then give her no plotline or arc and barely any important scenes and also not explain anything about her estrangement from snow... please i want to see more of her...
ultimately, i'm glad i read this, but while i could reread the original trilogy over and over, i'm not sure i'll read this one again. i don't think it's a stain on the original hunger games, but unfortunately it is simply not of the same caliber....more
the first (and only prior) time i read these books, i was eleven. no, i don’t know why my parents let me either. i remember being captivated but not pthe first (and only prior) time i read these books, i was eleven. no, i don’t know why my parents let me either. i remember being captivated but not permanently obsessed, and then i kind of forgot about it until recently, when various friends and tumblr posts reminded me that THG was—kind of based, actually? maybe not worth being disregarded along with every other 2000s-2010s YA dystopia?
turns out, yeah, it is incredibly based, and also really really fucking good.
this is the blueprint for shitty YA dystopias, yes, but it's not a shitty dystopia itself; it's the shining outlier in the genre (its only possible companion here is uglies but i don't remember uglies particularly well)—because every derivative dystopia that trailed in its wake focused on love triangles and One Girl Who Is So So Special, which isn’t the point of the hunger games at all. the hunger games works because it has something to say. it’s not incidental that the main character is a girl of color from a poverty-strangled appalachian-coded region. nor is it incidental that the capitol viewers care more about prettying up the tributes and manufacturing romantic storylines than the fact that they're destroying teenagers, mentally and literally. the pop culture concept of these books (i blame the movies) as a “team gale, or team peeta?” thing just underlines collins’ point: society cares about instant gratification and entertainment, however horrifying, not the real human lives of the underprivileged. and the book itself makes the reader complicit, because you too are a spectator. everything the gamemakers do to make the game more interesting also makes the book more interesting for you. you, too, are watching children kill each other, and enjoying it.
beyond themes, the other thing i appreciate most now that i have a critical brain is the pacing. this book is under 100k words. the writing is sparse and matter-of-fact. and yet it never feels underdeveloped. the first chapter alone fully creates katniss’s world in vivid color and sets up honestly most of the rest of the series. the other tributes are featured only briefly but still feel so lifelike that people have written thousands on thousands of fanfictions about characters whose full names we never know. collins knows exactly which details to include to flesh everything out while also keeping the text snappy and gripping; it’s a pacing masterclass.
also every scene in this book is fucking iconic. the reaping scene? “because she came here with me”? the feast? the fucking MUTTS? RUE??? how did suzanne collins do this. thg you will ALWAYS be famous
(also, collins also wrote the gregor the overland series, which blew my fucking mind when i was nine??? the more you know)...more
me when i visit my girlfriend which means i can read all of his canadian plays
anyway, i think ho ka kei is a genius. both of these are true modernizatme when i visit my girlfriend which means i can read all of his canadian plays
anyway, i think ho ka kei is a genius. both of these are true modernizations of greek tragedies, which is to say, modern not because the language is updated but because they're placed in the contexts modern people tangle with, concerned respectively with imperialist theft and brutal police responses to student protests.
in both cases, i think i would have enjoyed these more if i could see them (some of the humor seemed a little awkward/random through text), but iphigenia especially is still arrestingly good. the ending left me genuinely shaken; it's a play intimately concerned with the questions of whose stories are told and how these stories shape the repeating patterns of violence in our societies. also, probably the best orestes and pylades outside of anne carson.
ORESTES I am no hero, No man, No nothing Without you. I think you're everything.
antigone didn't grab me quite as hard, but man, does the story of government forces brutalizing student protesters hit a little different for me these days. this one draws heavily from hong kong's umbrella revolution, though it's set in a fictional and unnamed city; very fascinated by what ho ka kei chose to change from the original play and why (eg. kreon being the father of antigone and ismene, not their uncle, with the whole incest backstory wiped away). really good ismene here, even if antigone herself didn't make me as crazy as she usually does.
ANTIGONE Your shame does not erase my brother from my blood!
in sum: plays good. i need to see iphigenia and the furies on taurian land right now or i'll die
CHORUS Your pa, Your own blood, He was far too late To see How you are Seventeen already, forever. It rains for you, Antigone. Though Is it rain or drifting ash?...more
“We weren’t very good at this,” she repeats. “And we took everybody else with us. But we weren’t all bad. We had potato crisps, and ice cream, and
“We weren’t very good at this,” she repeats. “And we took everybody else with us. But we weren’t all bad. We had potato crisps, and ice cream, and we built farmhouses and wrote songs and told stories. Maybe next time will be okay. Maybe we’ll turn into something better at changing once we fly.”
love brooke bolander short stories. love getting thrown into a deep end of gorgeously inventive prose + "what the fuck is going on" and then watching the answer to that unpeel very very slowly until i'm in tears ✌️ <-- in tears
how do i sell this without spoiling it. patching the premise together is half the pathos of it. if you care about conservation and animals that have gone extinct and also about humanity and storytelling you should read it here online for free. what if the world's last human girl was raised by three aunts who definitely Aren't human but love her even though they have every reason not to. i'm a shell...more
"this book is really fucking bad, but at least it's, like, entertaining, so two stars," said i, before i reread some excerpts from this book and reali"this book is really fucking bad, but at least it's, like, entertaining, so two stars," said i, before i reread some excerpts from this book and realized that it is actually just really really fucking bad. 0/10 stars for worldbuilding -10/10 stars for thee misogyny...more
one star for the concepts and the shakespeare. look, i understand and appreciate the conversation mr. huxley was trying to have. but, like... noah fenone star for the concepts and the shakespeare. look, i understand and appreciate the conversation mr. huxley was trying to have. but, like... noah fence... couldn't he have put his social analysis and philosophizing into a story that was... even a LITTLE bit good? even a little? there was genuinely no plot in this book. i literally did not care about any characters. not one (1) character. according to the notes at the end of this book, when it was first published, a reporter stated that "Mr. Huxley does not really care for the story - the idea alone excites him." and, like. what else is there to say?...more
this was a solid three-star book but i'm knocking off a whole star for the plot revolving around ableism. peace sign
things this book has going for it:this was a solid three-star book but i'm knocking off a whole star for the plot revolving around ableism. peace sign
things this book has going for it: - awesome concept! genuinely really cool setup + worldbuilding! - the prose is a little janky sometimes but for the most part it works really well for the mood of the story - there are some good characters in there! not all of them. but some good ones!
strikes against this book: - the entire plot is caused by an autistic four-year-old who is treated, genuinely, like an object or an animal for the ENTIRETY of the book. his sister treats him like a burden; she's forced to call him the R word at gunpoint to further HER development and he has no reaction. he's described as screaming like an animal (MULTIPLE times) and apparently he doesn't feel emotions like "normal" people? if you replaced him with a magical object or even like. a cat or something. almost nothing would change. there's more info here (http://disabilityinkidlit.com/2013/07...), written by an autistic author, which i would recommend reading, but basically? mr. grant the ableism jumped the fuck out...more
this book is wonderfully strange in the best of ways, like... the worldbuilding? perfect. the plotting? amazing. the way that each story ties togetherthis book is wonderfully strange in the best of ways, like... the worldbuilding? perfect. the plotting? amazing. the way that each story ties together in a way that feels seamless when the larger story at hand is considered? 10/10. i think the only thing that stopped me from giving this five stars is that i feel like i never really connected with most of the characters; the scifi/fantasy elements were much more interesting than the characters themselves. also, we are in the future. where are the gay people...more
The start was a little slow, but about a quarter of the way through it picked up and then I couldn't put it down. WoThis book said nonbinary RIGHTS...
The start was a little slow, but about a quarter of the way through it picked up and then I couldn't put it down. Wonderful characters (including the main character, who had a fantastic narrative voice) and weird in a really, really great way, but the thing that stood out most to me was that this was SUPER cathartic to read as a nb person, especially as a nb lesbian. I felt deeply connected to Kivali in a way that I haven't felt connected to even other LGBT characters in fiction and this book felt like something special and personal. Definitely one of my favorite recent reads :3c...more
(2022 monthly goals: whichever book has been on my TBR longest)
i mean, it's... fine? it's fine. it was entertaining. the political aspect was good for(2022 monthly goals: whichever book has been on my TBR longest)
i mean, it's... fine? it's fine. it was entertaining. the political aspect was good for a YA novel (actual discussion of debt and capitalism and taking down systems in a dystopia! a dystopia that actually has teeth!) though even that could have used a bit more nuance (view spoiler)[uhhhhhh what was that thing about the virus at the end shutting down medical patches for people who need them? we're not even gonna debate about that? (hide spoiler)]. my issue is that the writing style just feels so unpolished. very first-draft. the head-hopping must have been on purpose, but it drove me fucking insane (please just let me settle into a POV please please). this reads like it has all the ingredients for a great story, but like it also needs a lot more editing, and i'm not sure how much interest i have in the sequel. shoutout to syd for the gay rights though (also knox is definitely bi idc)...more
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