“but the certainty that everything has been already written nullifies or makes phantoms of us all / no one can articulate a syllable which is not full“but the certainty that everything has been already written nullifies or makes phantoms of us all / no one can articulate a syllable which is not full of tenderness and fear, and which is not, in one of those languages, the powerful name of some god. to speak is to fall into tautologies.�
i read this because i wanted to read a mathematical analysis behind an “unending library� but i’m a little stunned with how much this work managed to convey in such short pagespan. obsessed with the text (it’s haunting me a little), and i think i’ll ponder over this short story for ages to come. 5/5 stars....more
what is above all needed is to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way about / in prose, the worst thing one can do with words is to suwhat is above all needed is to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way about / in prose, the worst thing one can do with words is to surrender to them....more
well this was actually kind of disappointing. very nothing burger of a book but not bad? i don’t know how to judge it really, it could be 2 stars and well this was actually kind of disappointing. very nothing burger of a book but not bad? i don’t know how to judge it really, it could be 2 stars and it could veer into 3.5 stars but ultimately this book feels…misplaced. maybe even pointless? the start is incredibly weak, with some of the worst writing i’ve come across in ages. we get past this after the first few chapters, and the narration finds its place: it’s not very good, but it *is* settled. the plot is as you’d imagine: the reaping, your name gets picked, capitol parade, the games, the mc wins, goes home traumatized. we didn’t need a new book just to tick off all these plot points. what’s left? the build up. the characters. the backstory to one of the biggest, most affecting trilogies in modern dystopia. i am not someone who liked tbosas (i gave it one star) but i do understand the purpose for the book, a character study into the villain who haunted so many of our beloved characters for so long. can sunrise on the reaping claim the same? so. who is haymitch? we have an idea already, of course, from the original books. he’s a loved character, fans have been begging for his book for over a decade. it’s nothing new. we know haymitch as he is, once-lost and cognizant, but who was he at the start? i’ve finished this book, and i still don’t really know. he’s not particularly inspiring or moving, his ambitions and motivations seemed covered in haze, nothing about his thought process (and actions) makes sense, and every “rebellious� choice he makes is usually spur of the moment and/or entirely borrowed. it’s hard to believe most (if not all) of his relationships, be it to lenore dove or the multitude of people he comes across. we’re told to blindly accept his romance subplot more than shown, so i never quite get a grasp on any of the details: why they loved each other or how their relationship blossomed. anything worthwhile, anything convincingly meaningful. lenore does not even feel like a character in her own right, save for a cushion for him to pin all his fear and aspirations on. she’s a blurred copy of lucy gray, greatly distilled, and snow/haymitch having a gf-off was maybe not on my list of things this book would conceivably bring up. but let’s ignore that! let’s focus on the plot! the storyline is sadly kind of boringNNDKS i mean. like i said. we already know what’s going to happen. what elevates that? the fine print. but there really isn’t much go on with, because the characters are badly realized and one-step-away from being archetypal. i don’t understand how we’re supposed to buy these “lifelong� bonds that begin out of nowhere, from a sentence or two, which aren’t very moving in the first place. a lot of the development feels artificial, the interview was borderline embarrassing (sorry) and i feel like there’s a lot leftover to be developed. the games start, and even though the players are double the normal amount, we never actually feel double the stakes (or any stakes at all) because haymitch is, all along, on a side quest. and i get it, but on god, it was so underwhelming and haymitch proves to be an incredibly weak main character. around 75% things pick up. we find a little momentum within the story and the games, emotions rise and go haywire, and definitive choices made in a way they weren’t before. i was interested because finally i understood where haymitch stood, divided between the threat of the aftermath and the much more immediate, and urgent, macabre at his neck. the narrative feels more conclusive and defining as the story tires on, as we find ourselves (mostly) back into the hunger games world. is that a positive, or is it just the author finding relief in previously defined resolutions? hard to tell. the final act, with lenore dove dying and the fallout is maybe the best writing in this entire book. it’s sharp and quick, astute and jagged, and it brings to home the unapologetic point of this entire universe: ”don’t you.. let [the sun].. rise…� she gets out. tears choke me. her head jerks a bit to the side. “…on the reaping.� intermission. the book pauses. the message settles in. this is lenore dove’s sign. her message to me now. her reminder that i must prevent another sunrise on the reaping. and it says, �you promised me.� with that, she condemns me to life. fast forward. epilogue. when lenore dove comes to me now, she’s not angry or dying, so i think she’s forgiven me. it’s poignant and it’s heartbreaking, and if the whole book worked with this perception and insight, with a spurring reason, a sort of wise-look-back, i feel like i would’ve loved it a lot more than i do now. because it’s important and so relevant, the message this series has been trying to bring home for the past 17 years. i feel like we should let suzanne collins know it came to fruition with mockingjay.
sunrise on the reaping doesn’t add much to the story. we’re still where we ever were, which was a good place i might add, but it gives you a slight more context and perspective to the history of panem, to the embers of rebellion and the work that went into it, years before katniss ever came into play. living proof, even if it was erased out of memory. which isn’t much i guess? but it’s something. and the epilogue, with katniss and the corollary, was so, so important to me. all in all, i think this book is largely a retcon-ey nostalgia bait and i’m happy if it works for some but it felt so tiresome, since most of the political and otherwise themes have already been long developed and this story cannot, ultimately, rationalize its existence. 3/5 stars....more
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