oh haymitch, they could never make me hate you

Oooooohhhh, where to even begin with this long-awaited read. I read it slowly and steadily like I do with most books, though I'm thinking of potentially carving out a day to just sit and reread this in one sitting for a rollercoaster of an experience (if I can find the time and have the emotional bandwidth). I had to stay up pretty late to finish this one; putting it down just wasn't an option. But trying to wrap my head around the terrible series of events that make up the last 50 to 100 pages or so was even more gnarly to have to do in the wee hours of the morning. I truly don't know where to start in commending Suzanne Collins for the work she's done within the department of dystopian fiction and writing as a craft, but maybe I'll start with how well she consistently creates and portrays characters. This narrator at the story's beginning---this unsuspecting boy with a simple life and young love he never wishes to be parted from---is not the Haymitch Abernathy fans have only been able to know him to be in the original series. The beginning narrator is not the end narrator, because too much has been changed and lost in the middle, and I think that's masterful character development as well as authorial understanding of how to get from Point A to Point B in a logical fashion that's also entertaining to read. I really latched onto the concept of Haymitch playing the role of a rascal, of stepping into the skin of a character type he ends up playing too well. It starts with the need for an image that might win him sponsors and distract from foul play, and ends with substance abuse as a result of deep grief. I also latched onto the strange alliance Plutarch Heavensbee and Haymitch create, and loved seeing how this book sows the seeds that blossom into full blown rebellion during Katniss Everdeen's era. All of the subtle but important connections back to President Snow and Lucy Gray consistently blew my mind, too. There's so much more I could say about the uniqueness of the Games' arena itself, but I don't want to tiptoe into spoiler territory and also feel like I wouldn't really describe all my individual thoughts about the psychological aspects of the arena well enough. I need to do some more thinking on the significance of this book during our current apocalyptic-adjacent time. This is also a book I think deserves close reading and careful attention considering the width and depth of this series' fanbase and purpose in the literary canon. At the risk of sounding rather dramatic: How different would so many of our opinions on justice, sacrifice, and human capacity for love and hate be today if we didn't have The Hunger Games on our shelves? On a less dramatic note: I just really want to give Haymitch (among many other characters in this book) a big hug.



Some of my favorite quotes from Sunrise on the Reaping:

​"As much pain as my loved ones feel now, how long will it be until I am just a memory?"

"And while Lenore Dove will forever be my true love, Louella is my one and only sweetheart."

"In the same way you instinctively know the waxed pears on the table lack juice, this girl lacks Louella's essence."

"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."

"But you can't keep Effie down."

"We hold each other so tight it's like we're one person."

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