For Nan's last birthday on Earth, I'd gifted her a self-produced Tuvan throat singing album, comprised of nine original works encapsulating what she m
For Nan's last birthday on Earth, I'd gifted her a self-produced Tuvan throat singing album, comprised of nine original works encapsulating what she meant to me. She'd responded with her usual kindness, often texting me to say she and Flip were listening to it. I'll be the first to admit I'm an unpolished throat singer, but she found something to compliment in every track. That's just how she was.
These free Apple Books tie-ins to the Severance TV show (this short story and The Lexington Letter) are such essential reading for super-fans, imo.
The You You Are is an excerpt from Ricken Hale's self-help book, which we saw glimmers of in the show and which are so fucking funny, and his narrative voice throughout is just delightfully off-beat and pretentious and strange and earnest.
But most surprising, I think, is that this book also offers some real insight to Mark and Gemma's relationship, and what this quartet was like in happier times before, and it's also a heartfelt meditation on grief which unexpectedly punched me in the heart later on. Ricken genuinely loved his sister-in-law so much, and I'm in my feelings about this family after this little short story....more
Remember: your outie requested to join the Severance Program, so it's important that you respect their choice. Please help preserve their work/life ba
Remember: your outie requested to join the Severance Program, so it's important that you respect their choice. Please help preserve their work/life balance.
These free Apple Books tie-ins to the Severance TV show (this short story and The You You Are) are such essential reading for super-fans, imo.
My heart aches now for Peg Kincaid and Peggy K; the Lexington Letter is a great example of rebellious communication between innie/outie, another type of relationship between the severed halves, another attempt at carving out some independence and freedom, and a little more expanding of the worldbuilding. The MDR employee manual at the end is also funny/chilling/awful. Great stuff. 3.5 stars rounded up.
Also: the fact that the head newspaper editor who kills the anti-Lumon story is named Jim Milchick has me ...more
No way to control the outcome of the reaping or what follows it. So don’t feed the nightmares. Don’t let yourself panic. Don’t give the Capitol that.
No way to control the outcome of the reaping or what follows it. So don’t feed the nightmares. Don’t let yourself panic. Don’t give the Capitol that. They’ve taken enough already.
I didn't actually intend to blaze through this book so quickly, especially since I was already in the middle of another read, but it turns out I'm deep in my Hunger Games feelings all over again: I blew through this book the very day it came out, in a frenzied reading rush, my eyeballs eventually falling out of my skull by 10pm. I just couldn’t stop turning the pages. It's been literal years since I one-shotted a book this way, so I'm so grateful that it showed I can still read like this tbh.
I admit I was skeptical at first, feeling like Collins might be wringing blood from a stone, wondering what else new can she add to this narrative, especially when we already knew the broad strokes of Haymitch’s games and his life. What else new is there to say?
Turns out, once again, I am won over!! The NYT review called this book propulsive, brutal, and devastating, and I agree. This book goes fucking hard early on, and some of the things that happen are truly horrifying in new unexpected ways. The memes are already circulating that no matter what kind of bad day you’re having, Haymitch Abernathy is having a worse one, and reading SOTR felt like falling off a cliff and bouncing off all the rocks on the way down.
It’s not perfect, and I have some nitpicks about execution, but overall it’s a totally riveting ride, dark af but with a glimmer of hope, and that's one of the things I appreciate most about its message: revolutions take time and effort from a lot of people over the course of years, there's no one single guaranteed silver bullet, but you need to keep trying. The dangers of implicit submission and accepting the status quo just because the authorities tell you to. In 2025, this is more pertinent than ever.
Some of my criticisms from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes do remain: a lot of the character cameos are too convenient and contrived, tying things off in a tidy bow. This is probably the most divisive element of this book, and where people’s mileage will vary widely. There’s a lot of old familiar faces appearing, in ways which sometimes feel blatantly fan servicey � but also I, as a fan, felt selfishly catered to and some of those cameos were like personal gifts to me personally!!, so I ultimately didn’t mind.
For the new characters, I especially loved Maysilee Donner; she’s so fantastic. District Twelve also takes on more texture: the way the community cares for each other, the friendships and found family, Haymitch’s dynamic with Katniss� parents (!!!). Capitol-wise, it’s fascinating seeing the fledgling beginning of the real rebellion, because we all knew it didn’t actually start with Katniss, it was already set in motion years before. I love that this underscores that The Hunger Games is not a Chosen One narrative: it’s taking the right figurehead to mould them into the tool you need; it’s luck and good timing. Revolutions take work and commitment and time.
The pacing and structure did surprise me a little: it’s fully like 50% pre-Games, maybe 45% in the arena, then 5% wrap-up, which feels a little quick and rushed for an ending; but that portion of the book is also Haymitch’s inevitable yearslong nadir, so how much do we want to wallow in that anyway? Speeding past the misery makes sense, I think.
I haven’t really mentioned Haymitch’s romance at all and that’s because it’s one of the weaker elements imo; Lenore Dove is more fridged girlfriend and plot motivation and budget Lucy Gray Baird rather than a real character, which is regrettable. I cared so much more about Haymitch’s evolving dynamic with his district partners and the other kids, and the future implications of his victor friendships. I love the way things echo the original trilogy, and Katniss and Haymitch’s similarities. And even within this repetitive framework, I appreciate that Collins still finds ways to do something new, like the surprising circumstances of Haymitch’s reaping.
Broadly speaking, despite its flaws, I really liked this. I don’t know if I explicitly want Collins to keep going back to this well, but each time I doubt her and each time I keep being pleasantly surprised. I’m a little less obsessed with this than TBOSAS � since it’s not uncharted territory, the revelations aren’t quite so revelatory, it was more like filling in the details of a picture we already saw in outline � but I still appreciate its existence. I guess I just never tire of this setting and these characters.
=============
Some detailed spoilery discussion below �
� Loved meeting Katniss� parents and finding out that Haymitch used to be besties with her dad. Oh, my feelings. Katniss� dad punching Peeta’s dad in the knee to save his life also feels so, so appropriate.
� EFFIE. This was probably the most contrived cameo and I’m sure other people are mad about it but I just . My Haymitch/Effie agenda remains strong!! I canNot believe she got to be his Cinna and the only sympathetic person by his side and the last thing he saw before he went into the arena. Again, this was probably the most fanficcy element but I’m so here for it. Seeing her origins was a treat: she’s a silly frivolous little thing but she’s got a good heart and does genuinely care about people, and there’s more authenticity to her vs the others in the Capitol.
� There was a single deranged moment where I thought Lenore Dove might be Lucy Gray’s illegitimate child accidentally conceived with Coriolanus, before I realised the timelines didn’t line up lmao. Still, as someone who is regrettably TBOSAS-pilled, I love that Lucy Gray still haunts the narrative, her ghost rippling out across the years, her pin(s) like a narrative thread spinning through the ages to hit Snow in the face.
� The epilogue made me burst into tears!! The parallels between Katniss and Louella, and the new added significance to him calling Katniss sweetheart. Haymitch’s ghosts almost quite literally following him out of the grave. The FOUND FAMILY OF IT ALL.
� A big theme in this book is how the victors/oppressors get to tell the story and rewrite history and work their propaganda. That said, I feel like the retcon about Haymitch’s games doesn’t fully work because why wouldn’t any of them have mentioned it to Katniss during the later rebellion? Maybe they were purposefully hiding the knowledge from her that there had already been a failed rebellion attempt in case that would be too demoralising to hear, idk.
Things wot I didn’t particularly like, and which docks the star: � So as mentioned I was ultimately fine with the plot contrivances & conveniences, but I do think it makes the world feel smaller rather than larger. We don’t meet any new victors, they’re all coincidentally the old faves we already know. I like that it takes a village to make a revolution happen, but I do wish there had maybe been some new faces too so it’s not just ~happenstantially~ the exact same players involved as before.
� I ??think?? the implication is that Lucy Gray was Maysilee’s grandmother, and Lenore Dove was probably descended from another female Baird cousin like Maude Ivory, and my brain is melting over it?? It’s all very very convenient and prob narratively unnecessary to bring that out tbh, but on another level I do appreciate the mockingjay pin going from Lucy Gray to Maysilee to Katniss and then ruining Snow’s life.
� I’m so sorry, bear with me, this part is very nitpicky: I have some big characterisation issues with Snow’s meeting with Haymitch before the arena. I’m adamant that Snow would not have shown so much physical weakness in front of Plutarch & a tribute, let alone to the extent of vomiting in front of them and needing Plutarch’s help to stand. Him seeming so physically frail now, when he’s so much younger compared to the original trilogy and how terrifyingly indomitable he appeared then, doesn’t seem right. If he was still so weak after a poisoning, I think he would have postponed that conversation or done it remotely in order to not tip his hand this much and not look this vulnerable. He’s just too paranoid and careful for that.
And then structurally: it’s kind of become a meme that Snow is endlessly beefing with every D12 victor, but I do wish it weren’t quite so personal with Haymitch, because it winds up repetitive to Katniss� journey. Before this book, my impression was that Haymitch’s rebellious uncooperative streak happened post-Games, which is what then led to his family being murdered, and he didn’t see it coming because he didn’t realise yet how vindictive Snow was and what the rules of victor life would be. While him already knowing, then acting out anyway, then abruptly reversing to play along, then them being killed off anyway, feels like a muddier progression.
It also doesn’t make much sense because Haymitch and Maysilee’s vow was “One of us has to be the worst victor in history. Tear up their scripts, tear down their celebrations, set fire to the Victor’s Village. Refuse to play their game� � but then Haymitch instantly breaks that promise and doesn’t follow through, because he’s already been cowed, he already knows he has to step carefully and can’t do those things. So I think I still would’ve preferred if he’d tried to fulfil that promise and that’s what led to the punishment, rather than him seeing the punishment already coming the very moment he got out of the Games.
� I’m not sold on Haymitch figuring out the poisoning angle and the Lucy Gray of it all. Snow’s poisonings were supposed to be such a tightly-kept secret that Finnick blowing it open was a big deal; this undermines Finnick’s secret-gathering if it was so openly hinted at throughout. And Lucy Gray was so effectively scrubbed from history that I just don’t think it makes narrative sense for Haymitch to have figured that part out, especially since they don’t weaponise that knowledge against Snow later or anything.
� I’mmmm still a little stuck on why Lenore would get Tam Amber to make a Snowbaird bird-and-snake pin. Like if it’s meant for Haymitch as a gift, why is it so explicitly calling back to someone else’s story, besides the narrative convenience so Snow will notice it, lol. If anyone has any thoughts on that front, pls help!!
All of which sounds like A LOT but, again, this is mostly nitpicking from a super-fan and overall I still really liked this book. All it would’ve taken is some small reshuffling in chronology & trimming some of the TBOSAS callbacks to eliminate my gripes....more
“Still, I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We’re in one, of course; but I mean: put into words, you know, told by the fireside, or
“Still, I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We’re in one, of course; but I mean: put into words, you know, told by the fireside, or read out of a great big book with red and black letters, years and years afterwards. And people will say: “Let’s hear about Frodo and the Ring!�
And they’ll say: “Yes, that’s one of my favourite stories. Frodo was very brave, wasn’t he, dad?�
“Yes, my boy, the famousest of the hobbits, and that’s saying a lot.”�
My 2025 Middle-Earth Readalong continues, once again finishing TTT in the very nick of time for March. As with The Fellowship of the Ring, I’m fully incapable of measuring this book without comparing it against the movies which I adore.
And the fact remains that I just think the movies did a better job at tightening up and fixing the pacing of these books, so now that I’m coming to them for the first time, I find parts of it dragging even as other parts are really lovely writing-wise and hit on some really touching sweeping themes. So, 3.5 stars rounded down, largely due to the pacing issues which I think pretty much everyone has discussed by now. The fellowship is scattered, with the second half of this book covering Frodo & Sam’s journey toward Mordor, and the first half of this book covering� everyone else.
Which means it’s really unbalanced: at first you’ve got big melodramatic beats like Boromir’s death, the group trying to find their missing hobbits, the ride of the Rohirrim and the battle of Helm’s Deep, the Ents razing Isengard, and ensemble banter in general; before the second half where the book screeches to an utter halt.
And some of it really does work � it picks up again with Gollum and Faramir � but other times the narrative just feels like a very very long slow trudge which could have been edited down. And perhaps that’s the point, that you’re supposed to feel that dull grey tedium along with Frodo and Sam as they continue on a journey that they’re increasingly certain they won’t survive, but I still think it’s too long.
That notorious second half is probably what most LOTR fans warned me about, to the extent we almost considered having me try an ‘alternating chapters back and forth� reading order to make it more like the movie, but in the end I decided to read it as initially published and as intended.
It’s surprising, too, to realise that some big moments like Shelob were relegated to ROTK in the films, so I’m like� what is even left for Frodo and Sam to do in the next book?? Are they going to spend 220 pages just on the slope of Mount Doom?? Help.
However, things wot I loved: � The Ents singing as they march off to war. Big HELL YEAH moment which made me wanna jump up and pump my fist in the air.
� Faramir!!! Simply everything about Faramir. He might be my favourite character from these books, period?
War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Númenor; and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom. Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise.
� Sam. The relationship between Frodo and Sam. They’re simply the best, and have me deep in my feelings.
� The fraught dynamic between Frodo v Gollum/Smeagol v Sam, the importance of pity and compassion throughout, and the way Gollum is especially humanised in this text:
Gollum looked at them. A strange expression passed over his lean hungry face. The gleam faded from his eyes, and they went dim and grey, old and tired. A spasm of pain seemed to twist him, and he turned away, peering back up towards the pass, shaking his head, as if engaged in some interior debate. Then he came back, and slowly putting out a trembling hand, very cautiously he touched Frodo’s knee � but almost the touch was a caress. For a fleeting moment, could one of the sleepers have seen him, they would have thought that they beheld an old weary hobbit, shrunken by the years that had carried him far beyond his time, beyond friends and kin, and the fields and streams of youth, an old starved pitiable thing.
‘I am not made for perilous quests. I wish I had never seen the Ring! Why did it come to me? Why was I chosen?�
‘Such questions cannot be answered,� sa
‘I am not made for perilous quests. I wish I had never seen the Ring! Why did it come to me? Why was I chosen?�
‘Such questions cannot be answered,� said Gandalf. ‘You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess: not for power or wisdom, at any rate. But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.�
My 2025 Middle-Earth Readalong continues, finishing FOTR in the very nick of time for February!
It's hard for me to discuss these books without getting into the films, though, considering my inextricable attachment to them and how they're such faithful adaptations, and I can't stop seeing the places where they improved on the sometimes sluggish pacing of the source material.
The first 3/4 of the book is fantastic: the introduction to Hobbiton, Bilbo's birthday and all the charming details about this little community and his squabbling feuds with other families, then segueing into the slow creeping unease and dread with the Ring, the gang setting out and being chased by Nazgul, the tense interlude in Bree, the amazing trip through Moria. All of it is tense and exciting and funny by turns, and seeing the fellowship officially assemble in Rivendell is great.
Everything after Lothlorien, though, is a bit of a drag: it becomes an uneventful road narrative down a river where nothing much happens for ages, and I found myself really dragging my heels for maybe the last quarter of the book.
Everything else is so strong, though. Probably 4.5 stars, rounded down. I'm really enjoying this first journey into the source material and so excited to keep going through it these next couple months....more
A quick read and quick review, to slide into my yearly reading challenge just under the wire. These graphic novels remain fantastic adaptations: so muA quick read and quick review, to slide into my yearly reading challenge just under the wire. These graphic novels remain fantastic adaptations: so much of the hard-hitting writing & dialogue is verbatim from the original books, so they’re just as good as they ever were, while Chris Grine’s art remains a great representation of the story.
Highlights to call out this time: - The Encounter in particular is really devastating, for all of Tobias� identity issues and struggling to acclimate to his new life. I love how Grine depicted this, with Tobias� inverted self-loathing voice constantly berating himself, and the shattered glass effect showing his being caught between being a hawk and a human, his psyche falling to pieces.
- Marco’s self-preservation wanting to stay out of the war, saying “Look, these aren’t people we know. They aren’t my friends, or my family.� OH THE FORESHADOWING.
- The fact that the kids� mission goes so absolutely pear-shaped and they tell Tobias, “Listen, Tobias, we can’t be taken alive. Do you understand?�. The fact that they’re straight-up advocating for him to kill all of them to prevent enemy capture. My god. How was this a children’s series. I love it so much.
- “Rachel� I never told you…� “You didn’t have to, Tobias. I knew. Goodbye.� screams in Rachel/Tobias feelings
God, I love this series. Highly tempted to finally restart my reread which stalled in 2020....more
A quick read and quick review, to slide into my yearly reading challenge just under the wire. These graphic novels remain fantastic adaptations: so muA quick read and quick review, to slide into my yearly reading challenge just under the wire. These graphic novels remain fantastic adaptations: so much of the hard-hitting writing & dialogue is verbatim from the original books, so they’re just as good as they ever were, while Chris Grine’s art remains a great representation of the story.
Highlights to call out this time: - Marco talking about how he wishes he could use his morphing abilities to be in showbiz and have beautiful supermodels all over him (the FORESHADOWING) - “Applegrant Bookshop� easter egg! - The Chapman hosts rebelling for the sake of their daughter. Oof, my heart. - “There will be a next time, Marco. There will always be a next time� until the Andalites return.� My sad bleak laugh knowing what actually happens when the Andalites do actually get to Earth�
God, I love this series. Highly tempted to finally restart my reread which stalled in 2020....more
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