#not comparing gale to lenore dove more comparing katniss to haymitch | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

retrowitchy · 3 months ago

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haymitch takes everlark & co. (meaning the geese) to visit lenore dove's grave

ever wondered what it might look like if the mockingjay epilogue was extended just a little bit to include a whole random bit where haymitch takes two kids and nine geese into the woods by the lake to show them a bunch of dead people's graves? well wonder no more!!!

*✴︎+ take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die on ao3

It’s been about a year since we all came back to 12. In that year, I feel like I have grown old so much faster than I ever have before. It’s easy to remember some parts of it all, and hard to recall others. Peeta’s doctor says that’s how trauma works. Sometimes you forget, because remembering is just too hard. And sometimes, I don’t want to remember any of it.

Time has passed, but the three of us, Haymitch, Peeta and I, have settled into a routine with each other unlike anything we ever had before the second Quarter Quell. Honestly, it’s more out of necessity than anything- the nightmares are too hard for any of us to bear in an empty house. We tried living separately for a while, but it felt stupid, each of us alone while we all lived next door to each other. I insisted on staying with Haymitch almost immediately after they came back. I might have been too stubborn to admit the comfort I found in his company before, but it would be ridiculous to deny that now. He and I mean a lot to other. I guess we always have, or we have since this all started.

It took a little while, and a lot of convincing, but after he felt like the risk of hurting me was gone, Peeta moved in too. He was terrified that he’d relapse, have some shutdown that resulted in him strangling me again, but I didn’t care. I missed him more than almost anything. All the time I had spent, hiding in vents and crying to Haymitch and Gale and my mother and Prim when he was being held hostage in the Capitol, it shouldn’t be for nothing, I had said. I needed him to come home. And he did, eventually.

It’s good for us all. Peeta and I stay upstairs, and Haymitch is down the hall. Most mornings we eat together, something Peeta made and I hunted, and then we spend our days doing whatever we feel like. A couple months ago, we got Haymitch some goose eggs, so now he has something to do with his time instead of sitting around in the house all day. They’re rebuilding the Hob, too. And the Meadow is starting to grow back.

One day, when spring has started to seep into the ground, and gets to the point where you can smell it in the breeze, Peeta comes into the fireside room, where Haymitch is asleep clutching a bottle of his white liquor and I am busy working on a letter to Annie.

I don’t look up from my writing. “What, Peeta?”

He chuckles, and then comes to sit down, on the couch next to me.

“What are you working on?”

I don’t like my scratchy penmanship, especially compared to Peeta’s neat cursive, but I hand over the letter.

“I’m trying to be better about writing people. Annie asked us to send more, and you’re always the one who does them, so…” I trail off, getting mumbly and feeling kind of dumb. He’s looking it over.

“This is sweet, Katniss,” he says, scanning it with a little smile at the corner of his mouth. I snatch it back.

“Okay, time’s up. I don’t want you to read the whole thing,” I say, feeling my cheeks going pink. He laughs.

“Okay, okay. I won’t if you don’t want me to.”

I fold the paper in half and tuck it aside. I’ll finish it later.

“What did you come in here to say?” I ask, as I put away my pens.

“Does there really have to be a reason?” he asks.

“Yes. You never stand in the doorway like that unless you have something you’re trying to pitch to us,” I say, glancing at Haymitch, who is snoring slightly across the room.

“Not a pitch,” he says, smiling. “Just wanted to see if you guys were up for a picnic.”

Haymitch opens one eye lazily. Guess he wasn’t as dead to the world as I thought.

“And why would we do that when we’re having a perfectly enjoyable time right now?” he asks, not moving from his armchair. I look to Peeta.

“Because it’s nice out,” Peeta says calmly.

“Nice inside too,” counters Haymitch.

“The geese could get some exercise?” Peeta offers. Haymitch closes his eyes and lets out a ridiculous long grumble.

“Fine,” he says. “But I’m not contributing a damn thing. I’ll bring the kids and that’s it.”

“Katniss?” Peeta looks to me for confirmation I will go along with this plan.

“Sure,” I say. “Anything to get Haymitch out of that armchair.”

“You’re on thin ice, girl, you’d better watch out,” he says threateningly, as he stands up with a grunt and heads toward the kitchen with his bottle.

“Or what?” I call after him, getting no response, and rolling my eyes with a half smile. I kiss Peeta’s forehead quickly and stand up, clutching my letter. “I’ll get a basket.”

“Sounds good,” he says with a smile.

The basket is not for picnic food, which we both know. Whenever we take trips out to the Meadow, Peeta likes to collect some of the flowers and bring them back for the house. I like it too, because it means I can hunt for plant life that we might have missed for the nature book. It’s a rarer occurrence these days, since we’ve almost filled up the entire thing, but you never know.

I grab an empty basket from the top of the pantry, stopping only to pop a few tomatoes into my mouth, and then start digging around in the cabinets for the nature book. Usually, it stays upstairs with me and Peeta, because I like to look at it before going to sleep sometimes, but we were working on it in the kitchen yesterday and I am pretty sure it’s here.

“Hey, bring the memory book while you’re at it,” Haymitch says, making me jump. I turn around, getting hair stuck in my mouth, and spit it out.

“Why?” I ask.

“Because. Never know when you’ll come across a good piece of information for that thing,” he says, vaguely. He’s acting kind of weird and I’m trying to place why, but I’m coming up short. I don’t think I said anything to really set him off this morning. Whatever, I think.

“Okay.” I grab the journal from its place on the kitchen bookshelf, and the nature book is right next to it, so I grab that too, and stick them both in my basket.

After helping Peeta pack some food, we head out.

There’s a few spots we gravitate to in the Meadow, but Haymitch has the geese, so we let him take the lead. It’s amazing how attached he’s gotten to them in the last couple of months- and even more amazing how attached they’ve gotten to him. Once, when it was snowing, I caught him nursing one of them in his arms by the fire inside. He got pretty angry with me, growling curses and insults, but I could tell he was trying not to disturb the gosling because he kept his volume low. I know the geese are important to him not just because he secretly has a heart, but also because of his old girlfriend, somebody Snow killed after his Games.

When he told me and Peeta about Lenore Dove, it was a surprise. We hadn’t been working on the book at all. It was a late night in November, and we were all trying to figure out the central heating system in the house- something I maintain is a ridiculous luxury, although nice- and then when we had all found the switch that controls it, he said, “I never actually told you about her, did I?”.

“Who, Haymitch?” Peeta had asked, while fiddling with the switch.

“My girl.”

Haymitch had mentioned her to me once before, in 13, but Peeta had never even heard of her until then. He told us about her, how she belonged to a people called the Covey, who didn’t even exist in 12 by the time Peeta and I were kids. After he won his Games, defying the Capitol in every possible way he could while doing so, Snow had her and his family murdered. Apparently, she used to herd geese. That’s why we got him the eggs.

The goslings huddle and quack around Haymitch like he’s their mother or something. It always makes Peeta laugh, and he points at one of them that keeps falling behind and trying to catch up, and then hitting Haymitch’s boot when it does.

“Poor guy,” Peeta says, as the baby hits his foot again, and Haymitch shakes his leg slightly to ward him off.

“They need to learn to make friends with each other, not with him,” I say. The geese are desperate for Haymitch’s attention.

“Or we could set them up with Buttercup,” Peeta suggests jokingly.

“Yeah. And he’d eat them all,” I respond. I am not kidding. More than once, I have caught him trying to sneak inside their pen.

“He’s gotten more friendly with them, though, right?” Peeta protests, grinning at my stubborn refusal to say anything nice about that cat.

“Maybe. So he can trick them into trusting him,” I say. He laughs at me, and despite myself, I crack a smile, swinging the basket as we walk.

We reach the edge of our usual tree, but Haymitch isn’t stopping.

“Are we going to the lake?” I call to him.

“Something like that,” he replies, not bothering to turn around. I didn’t know he knew about the lake, but there’s a lot I’m finding out about Haymitch that I didn’t know.

But we don’t stop at the lake- we follow him around it, to the bank across the way. I can tell Peeta needs a breather- his prosthetic leg doesn’t do great with long distances.

“Haymitch, we have to stop a minute,” I tell him, signaling to Peeta to stop.

“Almost there,” is all he says in response, and that gets an eye roll from me.

“I’m fine, Katniss, it’s okay,” says Peeta.

“No, you’re not, you have to rest,” I say, and it comes out slightly more forcefully than I meant it. I clear my throat. “Sorry. I just mean I don’t want your leg acting up. Haymitch, seriously-”

But Haymitch is already leading his gaggle of geese into the humid patch of mossy wood next to the bank.

“Fine,” I yell to him, since he’s a pretty good distance away already. “We’re staying here!”

“Fine!” he yells back, and disappears into the woods. Good riddance.

“Sit, Peeta,” I say, and crouch down along the muddy bank next to him. We rest, letting our boots squelch in the sticky mud around our feet and trailing our fingers through it absentmindedly. Peeta is proud when he finds some katniss root, and I rinse it off and put it in our collecting basket.

When I stand, there something white and flowering at the edge of the trees that catches my eye.

“Stay here a minute,” I tell Peeta. “I’m just collecting something for the book.”

“Okay,” he agrees, because he’s happy digging for katniss, and even though Peeta alone in the woods makes me anxious, I don’t feel too bad leaving him for a second here.

I stomp through the muddy grass to where the tree line starts and am disappointed to find that the white flower is just a clematis vine- something we definitely already have in the nature book. I squat down next to it to pick off some of the blossoms for Peeta, when I hear the honking of the geese not too far away.

“Haymitch?” I call, but there’s no response except the continued honking. I glance back at Peeta on the bank, but he’s okay, so I decide to find Haymitch.

Curious, I wander through the forest, following a trail that is marked out only by the muddy boot indents in the grass he made minutes ago, and otherwise untouched. It doesn’t take me very far to reach a clearing, surrounded by tall water birch trees and shaded so well I know they must have grown here hundreds of years ago. In the center of the clearing, there is a small graveyard.

Haymitch sits on a boulder a respectful distance away from the graves, surrounded by his geese, and just looks up mildly.

“Followed my footprints, did you?” he asks, but there’s not as much snark dripping from that sentence as there normally might be.

“What is this place?” I ask, trying to process how serene he looks with nine white birds nested and clucking around him peacefully.

“Covey graveyard,” is all he says.

Covey graveyard. This is something I did not expect. I look closer at the headstones and see that they are all engraved.

“Go ahead,” he says, gesturing, inviting me to investigate. Obediently, I go over to the different stones and start to read. As I take in each one, I am quickly picking up that they all reference a different song, and the rock is as close a color match as possible to the name of the Covey member buried there. Some seem like they were erected in the last 50 years, and others feel like they might have been here for centuries, so grown over with moss you can barely read them.

“You’re related to them, you know,” Haymitch comments from his boulder. I quickly turn to him.

“What?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he chuckles. “Your dad. He was a distant relative, so you got Covey in your blood. Figures how you got those pipes.”

This is something I have never considered before in my life. My father, related to the Covey? Meaning that I too, am connected to this legacy. I stare at him, gaping.

“I always wondered how she could sing like that.”

Haymitch and I both start, and Peeta is standing at the opening of the clearing, looking a little apologetic.

“Sorry,” he says, both in reference to startling us and the fact that I told him to stay. “Haymitch, is Lenore Dove buried here?”

Why didn’t I think of this? I am an idiot. Of course this is why we are here. Haymitch just nods his head to a stone by my foot.

“Read that one,” he says. Peeta comes over to me and crouches down in front of the stone, examining it.

“’But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, and the only word there spoken was the whispered word, ‘Lenore?’ This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!” Merely this and nothing more’,” he reads, solemnly and slowly and much better than I could have.

There’s a silence in the breeze, and for a moment, it feels like the forest has stopped moving, the world has stopped working, in respect for Lenore Dove and her lyrical epitaph. I look over and I see Haymitch, absentmindedly stroking the head of one of the geese with a faint smile on his face and watching Peeta with a vaguely misty expression.

“Is this why you wanted us to come here?” I ask. “To visit her grave?”

“I just thought you…might like to meet her. Or…see this place, I guess,” he says, his voice gruff. “It’s sorta your birthright, in a way.”

“Katniss.” Peeta’s voice is soft and quiet at my feet. “The book.”

Realizing quickly what he’s saying, I push the basket towards him with my foot, and he pulls out our memory book, flipping to a blank page.

“Do you know anyone else buried here?” I ask Haymitch, wondering just how many of the Covey he could have hung around.

“Nah,” he says. “Well, technically, yes. Tam Amber, that yellowish stone in the back corner there, he was one of Lenore Dove’s uncles. Not by blood, but he raised her. Along with Clerk Carmine, who you saw playing at Finnick and Annie’s wedding.”

“Wait, there are Covey still alive?” This is shocking to me. And I know that fiddle player, even from before 13. I used to see him inside the Hob, playing while I traded my hunting loot on the weekends.

“Just him. He’s the last one,” Haymitch amends. I can hear the scratching of charcoal that I know to mean Peeta is marking out a sketch. I understand now why Haymitch asked me to bring the book. “He lives in the rebuilt part of town, now, actually. Him and I don’t exactly get along on the best of terms, but he is here.”

I do not know what to do with any of this information but let it settle in my brain and watch Peeta’s pencil move across the page. Suddenly, I have an idea.

I kneel down next to Peeta and the basket, and I pull out the clematis I picked earlier. Glancing at Haymitch to make sure I’m not crossing some kind of invisible boundary, I slowly set down the blossoms in front of Lenore Dove’s grave. Peeta, head down and focused on his sketch, nods his approval.

I look up to Haymitch, and he nods too, and I think there might be tears in his eyes, but I can’t completely tell.

“Is that okay?” I ask, worried for a split second.

“Yeah,” he says hoarsely. “She would have liked that. She used to grow those flowers up the side of her window.”

I swallow.

“Good.”

“Thanks, sweetheart,” he says.

#hey i want to die!!!!#but hey i love this family to pieces!!!!#sunrise on the reaping #mockingjay #the hunger games #thg #sotr #tbosas #katniss everdeen #haymitch abernathy #lenore dove #peeta mellark #haydove #everlark #birdy writes little things

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heavensbeehall · 27 days ago

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Haymitch is kind of down on himself, particularly in regards to his ability to compare to Lenore Dove, from the jump. Obviously, CC’s mistrust is part of it. But I wonder where he learned this negative attitude. I don’t think it’s his mother. I think it might be the Capitol itself, and just how it tells the districts they are nothing? Or maybe the death of his sisters and his father has given him a pessimistic outlook?

I can’t help but compare to Coriolanus. He never doubts he deserves Lucy Gray. He’s more worried about her “loyalty” than his own fitness. And he should be more worried because he sucks. I’d love to swap their confidence levels.

I want to shake Haymitch in a very different way than I want to shake Coriolanus (less violent). I want to tell him he is Haymitch fucking Abernathy. He’s the only mentor in the history of the Hunger Games to get BOTH his tributes out of the arena. And he did it TWICE. Lenore Dove is lucky to have him.

Katniss is down on herself, particularly in Mockingjay, at times. But even in CF when she is deciding between Gale and Peeta, I don’t think she doubts she deserved love at all? (She’ll think she shouldn’t love her because she doesn’t want kids and they will hate her later or that Peeta is better than her, but not that she doesn’t know what they see in her at all? Haymitch is actually the one who introduces the idea that she doesn’t deserve Peeta to her and, again, I think that says more about him.)

Where did you learn to hate yourself, Haymitch? I would like to fix it, because things are only going to get more pronounced once he has actual things to feel guilty about…

#haymitch abernathy #coriolanus snow #katniss everdeen #narrators

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7drinklimit · 2 months ago

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My thoughts about SOTR (spoilers)

I just finished SOTR (finally) and I need to rant about things. This will be disjointed because I have A Lot of Thoughts.

First of all: Mags and Wiress. I always thought after Mockingjay that Mags' inability to speak was unlikely to actually be the result of a stroke. Katniss mentions that she thinks it's the case, but Katniss has no idea who Mags is, and no idea what the Capitol does to Victors after they "win". I thought that Mags' speech difficulties might be the result of Capitol torture AND I WAS CORRECT. Wiress was someone I didn't consider originally, but I love the way Suzanne Collins wove her in. As soon as I realised she and Wiress were Haymitch's mentors, I noticed that Wiress was speaking normally, and seemed at least mostly sane. This contrasted starkly to her portrayal in the 3rd Quarter Quell where Katniss mentioned she would trail off her sentences and forget what she was saying. Then we found out about the conspiracy to blow up the arena, and I thought "oh." Snow leaves no-one unpunished if he thinks they are a threat. Now I'm wondering - we see Mags in a wheelchair at the end of Haymitch's Games. She is held back by the Peacekeepers, so we never get to see the full extent of what they did to her. We don't hear her speak, so we don't know how badly she was tortured at that stage. We do know that she had to go on and mentor Finnick Odair, 15 years later. I wonder if she faced worse torture for trying to shield him after his Games the same way Haymitch mentions her shielding the boy from an earlier Games. It's also making me believe in the theories I've seen going around about Annie Cresta. Did she really go mad after her district partner was beheaded? Or did the Capitol get her too?

Next: Haymitch's family. We knew that they were going to die. It was heart-breaking, knowing that their end was coming, but not knowing exactly how or when. The one point when I really knew, though was when Haymitch was watching back the (heavily edited) footage of the Games, and he noticed that his family was not featured in the Reaping footage. That's when as readers we knew that they were doomed - even though we already knew objectively, that moment was incontrovertible proof that they were gone, and it was going to happen soon. What I also noticed was the parallels between Haymitch's family and Katniss' family 25 years later. In the 75th Games, Katniss is panicking that Prim and Gale and her mother are being tortured because of the Jabberjays mimicking their screams. Peeta reassures her and says that they can't possibly torture or kill Prim because they need to do the Tribute family interviews at this stage in the Games. Johanna then points out that all of Panem loves Prim, so even the Capitol citizens would riot if she were killed off by the government. Prim is well-known and well-loved by the entire Capitol at this point - she has been featured on many broadcasts about Katniss, including the wedding dress shoot, so the Capitol can't touch her without risking retaliation from even its own citizens. Haymitch's family do not have that protection. By erasing them from the Games footage, Snow is ensuring that nobody in the Capitol knows about them. If nobody knows about them, they can be killed off a lot more easily than if people did. Ma and Sid are both literally and figuratively erased from the narrative. It's also worth noting that the firebombing of D12 likely wasn't just a message to Katniss. It was a message to Haymitch too. A reminder. Look what we can do to you and the people you love. Remember what we did before.

Next up: Lenore Dove's death. We knew it was coming, of course. Like poor Ma and Sid, the end of Lenore Dove's story was written before we even knew her name. However I was kind of thrown by it at first- it seemed so random compared to all the other deaths in the story. Poisoned gumdrops? That she just randomly finds in the Meadow? Ma and Sid's deaths were meant to be dramatic and gut-wrenching. A spectacle for Haymitch's homecoming. Lenore Dove's seemed almost anticlimactic for something Snow orchestrated. Then I realised: of course. Poison. Snow's modus operandi. He wanted to make a spectacle of Haymitch's family, so he did. He didn't really care about them, only so much as he could use them to hurt Haymitch. Fire was dramatic and painful and visible enough to do the trick. With Lenore Dove, he wanted it to be personal. He always used poison to kill off his enemies and people he saw as threats. Lenore Dove was not only Haymitch's love, she was someone related to Snow's former love. He hated her for that alone, even if she hadn't been connected with Haymitch, the failed rebel. I'm sure that Snow hadn't meant for Haymitch to feed Lenore the gumdrop himself. He had no way of knowing if or when Haymitch would go to the Meadow to meet her. He [Snow] knew that she would find the gumdrops in the Meadow, and he knew that she would eat them because she loved them. He would have seen the footage of Haymitch telling Sid to give the gumdrops to Lenore Dove after the Reaping. Would have thought that perhaps Haymitch would find Lenore Dove when it was too late, and figure out what had happened, and be heartbroken anyway. How much crueller it was that Haymitch himself gave her the poison from his own hands. Imagine Snow's sadistic delight when he discovered that (because I'm sure there were cameras somewhere. They were always watching, after all). And I've seen many people mention the purposeful cruelty of Snow feeding Haymitch milk and bread for the whole 10 days of partying - he knew that that would soak up any poison that Haymitch might ingest if he tried to follow Lenore Dove by eating the gumdrops. Lenore Dove, however, had been starved in D12's prison, so there was no hope of her throwing the poison back up.

Also: art and fashion as a metaphor and a vessel for rebellion. Maysilee and Haymitch talk about "painting posters" as code for defying the Capitol. At the Second Quarter Quell tribute parade, Haymitch Abernathy places Louella McCoy's body at President Snow's feet and sarcastically applauds, holding the president responsible for what he has done to a little girl (technically not art, but metaphorically a "poster"). 25 years later, Peeta Mellark paints a portrait of Rue, dead and covered in flowers, to force the Capitol Gamemakers to own up to what they did to her. To "hold them responsible for killing that little girl". Lenore Dove sings forbidden songs in protest for Haymitch's illegal reaping. 25 years in the future, Katniss Everdeen sings The Hanging Tree - a forbidden song - which in the movies at least becomes the backing song for the revolution. In the books it is used to try and un-hijack Peeta, in itself an act of rebellion, undoing the damage that Snow did to him to try to bring him back to Katniss. Maysilee critiques people's fashion (also an art form) as her own subtle way of rebelling. Criticising the Capitol audience to their faces for their clothing, helping Effie to change Lou Lou's makeup to make her more presentable for her interview, and brutally taking down Drusilla's fashion choices when the older woman attempts to demean the D12 tributes. She wears jewellery to define herself as an individual, and unites the Newcomers alliance by helping to make their tokens wearable via her necklace weaving skills. During the 74th and 75th Games, Cinna uses fashion as his own form of rebellion. From making the D12 tributes unforgettable in the parade and their interviews, to helping Katniss "design" her own fashion line (in opposition to the Capitol's insistence that the tributes themselves develop a respectable talent), to turning Katniss' wedding dress - meant to be a humiliating spectacle orchestrated by Snow - into a literal rebel symbol, to designing Katniss' actual rebel costume.

Just - the parallels and the metaphors and the symbolism and the references... I was starting to get super annoyed with how often Nevermore was popping up between paragraphs towards the end, until I realised I was supposed to feel that way. I was being driven to distraction by the song, the same way Haymitch was. And for him it was so much worse. The ending was so bittersweet - Haymitch mentioning that he drank more out of habit than anything now, acknowledging that his liver was failing, and knowing he wouldn't be around a lot longer, but at least he would be with Lenore Dove soon. Finding out that he drove everyone away on purpose to save them from Snow, even though it nearly killed him to do it. The fact that he has had nightmares every night without fail for 25 years, about killing his girlfriend, and being hunted in the arena, and unlike Katniss and Peeta, he doesn't have anyone to comfort him when he wakes up, but saying that Lenore Dove has forgiven him now when she visits in his dreams, because he's learned to love again, and he kept his promise to her - he finally saw a day where the sun rose on his birthday and it was not the Reaping.

#the hunger games #sunrise on the reaping #sunrise on the reaping spoilers #thg sotr #sotr spoiler #haymitch abernathy #maysilee donner #lenore dove #peeta mellark #louella mccoy #wyatt callow #cinna thg #lucy gray baird #primrose everdeen #the rebellion started so many years before anyone even knew #the sun finally rose on Haymitch's birthday AND IT WASN'T THE REAPING ANY MORE

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maritteknewtheenemy · 2 months ago

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Agree with all your criticisms about sotr!

I personally really dislike Lenore dove. She’s too Mary sue manic pixie dream girl, as people point out the way Lucy gray was written can be defended as were reading about her through snows perspective, but the. What’s the defense for Lenore dove.

I personally think her character could’ve been very compelling if SC had just leaned into her flaws and the fact that Haymitch putting her on a pedestal is unhealthy rather than just shoving in our faces how virtuous and perfect Haymitch perceived her to be without any further depth beyond that. Snow’s conversation with Haymitch about covey girls is ironic to me because he’s actually right Lenore dove does keep secrets from Haymitch and Haymitch should have concerns about that.

I actually think it would’ve been really cool to see Lenore dove written in way that parallels her to Gale and his flawed view of rebellion and fighting against the capitol rather than as Lucy Gray 2.0. While the movies have flaws, Lenore Doves rant to Haymitch in the meadow at the beginning about the hunger games kind of perfectly parallels Gale’s rant to Katniss at the beginning of the first movie in the woods. Gale’s treatment of Madge in the books, the way he’s cold to her, compares that she must not have that many entries in etc. is an interesting parallel to Lenore Dove’s hatred for Maysilee. They both talk so much about rebellion but refuse to see that even the most privileged people in the districts are still victims of the capitol. They say us vs them but only the us that they deem worthy. I think that would’ve been a much more interesting way to go about Lenore doves character.

Just because Lenore Dove is covey doesn’t mean she can’t have depth and flaws and complexity. Ive seen people be very resistant to the idea of that because the covey are Romani and indigenous coded but like that doesn’t mean they all have to be the same flat “perfect” characters. The fandom jokes about fake but he’s really very complex and a great character and Lenore dove paralleling him rather than being a cheap imitation to Lucy gray just would’ve been so much better imo. I’ve never really shipped Haymitch with anyone, but people’s insistence that Lenore dove is his true love and his image of her is correct are just so frustrating . I think acknowledging the fact that their relationship had some unhealthy tendencies would’ve been so much better and made more sense than what we got.

Lenore Dove my beloathed. So glad at least some people can see what I see.

You're 100% right that she could have been cool if readers were allowed to read her as flawed instead of being spoonfed the idea that she's a special fairy princess above all criticism. If she'd expanded on Haymitch's unhealthy obsession with her and her manipulative, judgmental tendencies she could have been a really interesting character, and it's so unfortunate she fell so flat. Snow in SOTR was an epic failure in all proportions, so its unfortunate that his reading of Lenore Dove was actually so much closer to her as she was written that Haymitch's idealized version of her. It sure as hell wasn't much of a relationship.

Her paralleling Gale would have been a really cool angle to explore actually, and it's one I've never thought of before. She definitely tries and spectacularly fails to parallel Lucy Grey. However, I think anon, that you still tend to see her more favourably than I do. Personally, I think Lenore Dove is a lot dumber than people want to believe, and certainly a lot dumber than Gale ever was. (Even at his most hotheaded Gale was a very intelligent character). To me, Lenore Dove- entirely unintentionally- shares a lot more similarities with a different character, who is neither righteous like Gale, nor compassionate like Lucy Grey. To me, Lenore Dove as written shares a lot more similarities with a young Coriolanus Snow than any other character in the series.

She's obsessed with her image to an unhealthy degree, and she's cultivated a very specific sort of single minded devotion in Haymitch that seems similar to how Lucy Grey seemed to view Coriolanus before he indisputably revealed his true colours, despite there having been several red flags she ignored or failed to pick up on before hand. He was just so charming and he knew it. Well, Lenore Dove is charming too- at least to Haymitch- and he's willing to ignore so many red flags just to exist in the periphery of her world. And I do think he exists largely in her periphery. Lenore Dove is also manipulative, she hides things from Haymitch, keeps secrets, and deliberately misleads him, convinced she's always the smartest person in the room and he's far too stupid to understand the true complexities of her superior intellect. Sound familiar? I seem to remember Coriolanus infantilising Lucy Grey in his head and routinely hiding or changing things he says to keep her, or Tigris, or Sejanus out of the loop or deliberately misled. Lenore Dove is self aggrandising and it irks her when others fail to see how important she and her ideals are, even more when they call her on it (think of the feud between her and Maysilee). It goes without saying this feels like a mirror to a character from a formerly rich family operating from the framework of 'Snow Lands on Top'. Lenore Dove shows a callous disregard for everyone around her, and is willing to sacrifice countless innocents just to make a point or get ahead (what she views as getting ahead is just different than what Snow does.) Burning the flag could have gotten any number of innocent bystanders hurt, arrested, beaten, or killed. Fighting the peacekeepers is what got Haymitch illegally reaped, and what could have got others shot. She immediately breaks house arrest putting her uncles at risk- uncles who already face a lot of heat on her behalf- just because she wants to play outside. None of this seems that different from behaviour we see from Coriolanus, who is happy to sacrifice Clemensia, Sejanus, all the tributes, Highbottom, Mayfair, Billy Taupe, Ampert, and countless others to get what he wants or prove a point. Furthermore, from what we see and hear of Lenore Dove she's incredibly judgmental about everyone from Haymitch (the supposed love of her life) to Maysilee, to the district citizens and peacekeepers. Y'know who else views everyone around him- supposed loved ones and enemies alike- with unadulterated derision? I do. Lenore Dove is a rebel because that's what being raised covey told her she should be, just like Coriolanus is loyal to the capitol because that's what the Capitol told him to be. But put Lenore Dove in Coriolanus' circumstances and she very easily becomes him: a power hungry dictator obsessed with her image, and put Coriolanus in her life, and he easily becomes her: a wannabe rebel with a saviour complex.

One final note: in terms of the Covey being Romani coded, I think there was an argument to be made that that was the case in TBOSBAS, however Suzanne Collins was so careful to avoid anything but the vaguest, most ambiguous character descriptions in SOTR so that the movie can cast all white characters without facing backlash from the fandom, that she erased any effort to make the Covey Romani in her earlier work. I'm waiting for the casting annoucement for Sadie Sink as Lenore Dove any day now.

But yeah, all in all Lenore Dove is such a missed opportunity of a character and I will never not hate her.

#anti sotr #anti sunrise on the reaping #lenore dove #coriolanus snow

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sounds-of-some-day · 3 months ago

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Sunrise On the Reaping Chapter One Thoughts

I've always wanted to do this for a book, chapter by chapter. But I struggle with having the patience to do something like this, because I can't put a book down once I start getting into it. But I am once again going to make an attempt. I'm on break this week, so I have time.

Let's see how this journey goes.

Caveat: I haven't read Catching Fire since before the movies came out actually, so I don't remember too much about what all is said about Haymitch's game, and I'm not fully up on all the lore. And I'm okay with that. I kinda like the idea of going into this mostly blind. This means that I may theorize about things that everyone else already knows/knows is wrong. That's okay. My predictions rarely turn out anyway, lol.

Obviously, spoilers through the listed chapter, as well as potentially some spoilers about the original trilogy and Ballad.

I'm very intrigued by Haymitch's voice in the narration. I don't think this is what I would have quite pegged for him, but in reflection, it's quite well done. He sounds so young. Not naive, but definitely young. Already jaded to a certain extent in the way that Gale was (and Katniss to a lesser extent), but also hopeful in the way that Peeta was, if that makes sense. Like there's a realism there, but there's still that underlying shimmer of hope. Contrast this with what he's like in the og trilogy and it's quite the stark difference.

It's impossible to not compare and contrast Haymitch to Katniss. They have a lot on common, obviously, which 1) they would have to, given that they both come from the Seam in District 12 and also 2) those commonalities are important, because we know that Haymitch sees at least a little of himself in Katniss (and I would think Peeta, to an extent as well).

So, Haymitch's father died in a fire in the mines, and he and his younger brother were raised by a single mother. Unlike Katniss, Haymitch's mother doesn't fall apart when she loses her husband, and so Haymitch has a little less responsibility resting on his shoulders as he grows up than Katniss does, though he does still work (doing something illegal, like Katniss) to help provide for his family.

Haymitch is slightly older than Katniss (was Katniss 15?) at 16 years old, in some ways feeling older but also younger than Katniss. Younger because he hasn't had the same level of responsibility yet, but older, or, I'm not really sure how to put this, older in the sense that his life seems more on track. Whereas Katniss seems to be in pure survival mode from the beginning, it's that underlying hope that sets Haymitch apart. He's got a girl that he's in love with, and you can almost feel the way he's shifting towards adulthood in a way that Katniss wasn't. Again, I'm rambling, probably not making much sense, but Haymitch is in the process of settling into a life for himself, with a job (with a potential future) and a girlfriend.

Lenore Dove. I love her. Won me over pretty much immediately. I really hope we get to see more of her. A member of the Covey, she of the Baird family. I won't lie, what with her mother being dead and the vagueness about her father, I had a thought for half a second that she was actually Lucy Grey's daughter, which, there would be a certain sense of dramatic irony if she was Snow's daughter, given what we know is going to happen to Haymitch after the games, but then I did the rather obvious math (lol) and clearly this is not the case, which is good. Dramatic irony aside, that level of plot twist is, I think, beneath a series such as this. But she is related in some way to Lucy Grey, which is purposefully done for some reason or another.

Speaking of Lucy Grey! At the reaping, there is no mention of listing out previous winners? Well, winner. It's possible this is just an oversight, but I'm hesitant to think that given that there's been a lot of discussion in the fandom about exactly how much is known about Lucy Grey and her victory in the tenth games. We know that the records of that game were scrubbed (? I think we know this? If I'm wrong, holler at me) but Katniss references there being two winners (only one -- Haymitch -- currently alive) in her year, so the fact that there was a winner from twelve before Haymitch is known.

Katniss' parents! Gah, I really like her dad. I actually really like the sort of easy camaraderie between Haymitch, Burdock. and Blair. Did we know that Haymitch was friends with Katniss' dad before? I didn't anyway, and it heaps another bit of tragedy onto Haymitch's story, having to mentor his best friend's daughter in the games.

There's clearly a lot of commentary in this first chapter about current events (and like, I'm not even trying to make this US-centric. What's happening in the US right now is not unique.) But the messaging is pretty clear, and what I find the most interesting (so far...) is the way the Capital touting it's strength is shown. Like, this was in Katniss' book too, so maybe I am just looking at this with the eyes of someone today instead of the eyes of someone whatever many years ago when I was reading the original trilogy, but it just hits different. Like there's something quite hollow about the way this messaging comes across.

Haymitch notices a capital friendly sticker in the apothecary window and gets a little judgmental, but then Katniss' mom (Asterid) explains that the peacekeepers made them put it there. That actually disappointed me slightly. I think it would have been maybe a little more interesting to see *some* pro-capital sentiment, or at least, Capital friendly sentiment -- even if it was only self-serving -- in the District, if only because every authoritarian government ever has always had it's supporters. And I think it would have given an extra layer of complexity to Asterid if that was her family background. I know we get some of that (a little) with the career districts to an extent, but keeping it as such starts to stray a little too close to Harry Potter good groups and bad groups, when it's often more complex than that, and this franchise has already shown that it's willing to paint in grey instead of just black and white, so I was just a little taken back by the near immediate retraction of Haymitch's perception.

The reaping!! Suzanne said "Oh, you thought! You thought you knew." Again, another way of twisting the knife in Haymitch's story. The overwhelming (even if guilt-ridden) relief followed by what hasn't happened yet, but is sure to come. A beautiful subversion of expectations -- I did not see this coming. I hope whoever directs the movie directs this with as much drama and drawn out anticipation as possible, just for those viewers who haven't already read the book.

Okay, there's my thoughts on chapter one. If anyone joins me in this journey, welcome. If not, I'll just shout my thoughts into the void. I just always thought bookclubs would be more interesting if people met and talked about it while they were reading it instead of after. Or maybe I just miss the days of weekly episodic tv.....

#book: sunrise on the reaping #hunger games #suzanne collins #stevie reads a book #hg: sotr #sotr spoilers

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kaceysreadingdiary · 3 months ago

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Title: Sunrise on the Reaping Author: Suzanne Collins Finished on: 22 March 2025 Rating: 3/5

*Spoiler Alert*

I had been anxiously awaiting the release of Sunrise on the Reaping with excitement and anticipation since it was first announced. I even pre-ordered it to ensure I could read it as soon as possible and cleared my schedule so I could binge the entire book upon release. While I found it easy to read and enjoyable enough, I have to admit I was ultimately disappointed. Compared to the original trilogy, which I love, and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which I liked, this novel is, unfortunately, just "okay." Seeing the overwhelmingly positive reviews made me question my own reaction, so I gave it a second chance by listening to the audiobook almost immediately after reading the physical copy. While I enjoyed the experience more in audio format, my overall feelings about the book remained unchanged.

Haymitch as a protagonist was one of my biggest draws to this book. I’ve always loved his character in the original trilogy, and Woody Harrelson’s portrayal in the films only deepened that appreciation. I was eager to learn more about his backstory, and while I enjoyed aspects of his character in this novel, he wasn’t as engaging as I had hoped. His cynicism and sarcasm—defining traits in the original books—are slightly present here, but he is, understandably, a different person as a young man. This makes sense given the immense trauma he has yet to experience, but his character still could have had more to it. He often felt too simple for someone who would later become such a layered and complex figure.

Perhaps the issue is that Haymitch is actually very similar to Katniss—they are both from the Seam, both have an innocent younger sibling they feel responsible for, both lost their fathers to the mining industry, both operate outside the rules to survive, both spend time in the woods, both have a practical, resourceful and independent nature, both are close to a peer (Gale and Lenore) with a more explicit rebellious streak, and both demonstrate a tendency toward justice, protecting others and purposeful defiance. The biggest difference is that young Haymitch is generally more pro-social, whereas Katniss is more standoffish and reclusive, and that Katniss is especially talented with a lethal weapon. While I always appreciate that these similarities are intentional and act as a foundation to their unique bond in the trilogy which I enjoy immensely, in this context, perhaps this protagonist archetype and arc just feel too familiar, like it’s already been done, like Haymitch’s ‘essence’ is not developed or distinct enough. Additionally, I could have done with fewer reminiscences about Lenore Dove (despite liking her character generally).

Several new characters, particularly Ampert, LouLou, Wyatt, and Maysilee, stood out. I only wish we had spent more time with the first three. The introduction of the Newcomers alliance was an interesting and fresh addition to the story, but I found it odd that Collins chose to separate Haymitch from them so early. While Catching Fire also features an alliance, Katniss is mainly unaware of its intricacies, meaning we never get a deep dive into the mechanics of strategy and trust-building. If Haymitch had remained part of the Newcomers, even for a portion of the Games, we could have explored their strategies, conflicts, and teamwork more meaningfully. This would have allowed us to develop stronger emotional connections to key characters, making their eventual downfall more impactful. Alternatively, if the plan was always for the alliance to fail in the initial bloodbath, having Haymitch involved from the start would have heightened the stakes and made their loss feel more significant.

I didn’t mind the reintroduction of familiar characters like Beetee, Wiress, Mags, and Plutarch. I enjoyed spending more time getting to know them. I especially enjoyed getting to know Wiress a little better. While some might view their presence as mere fan service, I thought their inclusion felt organic. Given that the novel delves into the early rumblings of a future rebellion where Haymitch, Plutarch and the other victors have orchestrated the beginning of a full-scale revolution in escaping the arena in Catching Fire, it makes complete sense that these people will have worked together and had time to get to know one another and solidify trust in the past. However, I was slightly disappointed with how Plutarch’s arc was handled. He is already a rebel collaborator in this book, but I would have found it more compelling to see how he became radicalised. As someone born into privilege and wealth, his journey to rebellion could have been fascinating.

One revelation I did enjoy was the confirmation that Katniss is descended from the Covey on her father’s side—something many fans had already speculated. While some may view the connection between Haymitch and Katniss’s father as contrived, I found it believable. In a small district like 12, particularly within the Seam, it makes sense that two rebellious young men of the same age would know each other. That said, Effie’s inclusion felt unnecessary and purely like fan service.

One of the book’s biggest flaws is its overly familiar structure without a particularly fresh take. This is the fourth novel in the series to feature a Hunger Games, following the same format of reaping, preparation, arena, and aftermath. The original introduced us to the concept, Catching Fire raised the stakes by pitting Katniss against experienced victors and delivering a major revolutionary twist, and A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes offered a fresh perspective by showing the Games through the eyes of a Capitol mentor. But Sunrise on the Reaping simply presents another tribute’s point of view. While the story itself isn’t uninteresting, the reader’s prior knowledge makes it feel predictable and lacking in meaningful tension. Haymitch’s desire to "break the Games" could have been a compelling source of suspense, but since we already know he ultimately fails, much of the impact is lost. In fact, every major plot beat is already laid out in the original trilogy: Haymitch wins, the Games continue, the Capitol retaliates against his loved ones, and he is left broken. Other key moments—the axe rebounding to take out Silka, Maysilee’s death, the volcanic eruption, the idyllic setting, the poison, and even some of the mutts—are all events we already know. While the finer details and unexpected twists in this retelling may add some intrigue, they aren’t enough to make the story truly gripping or surprising. Spending more time with Haymitch in the aftermath of the Games, delving deeper into his experience as a mentor, might have provided a fresher perspective and a more nuanced exploration of his transformation, but the aftermath feels quickly glossed over.

Similarly, the book’s themes—political power and corruption, tyranny and fascism, oppression, inequality, media manipulation and propaganda, consumerism, privilege, resistance, as well as survival, resilience, resourcefulness, community, friendship, family, altruism, and sacrifice—are not new to the series. While still important, I do feel they were explored more effectively in previous books. Additionally, the writing often felt more overt, more ‘on the nose’, relying on telling rather than showing. A subtler approach would have been appreciated.

In terms of world-building, the novel doesn’t add much. The Capitol and districts feel nearly identical to their depictions in the original trilogy, albeit slightly less refined. The fast pacing also worked against the book. Given that the plot doesn’t introduce much new material, a deeper exploration of characters, relationships, and the emotional weight of events could have made it more engaging. Instead of rushing from one moment to the next, lingering on key developments would have allowed for greater emotional resonance. I would have happily read a version of this book that was 50% longer if it had meant more nuance and depth.

I will say that there are some truly shocking moments of horror that drive home the sadistic nature of the Capitol regime. Firstly, the Capitol’s orchestration of Ampert’s brutal death—who, I will remind you, is a 12-year-old child—being eaten alive down to the skeleton by a pack of carnivorous squirrels. And secondly, the introduction of LouLou—a young girl who has been surgically modified to look like Louella, is being drugged and controlled with an implant, has likely experienced other horrors in Capitol custody, and who is allowed to die painfully by poisoning when the Capitol could easily release a sedative to ease her suffering. The Capitol’s disregard for human life, including that of children, is already well established—they send children to fight to the death yearly, bomb hospitals and towns filled with innocents, and auction young tributes to the highest bidder. But Ampert’s and LouLou’s stories hammer in the Capitol’s intentionally orchestrated brutality against its most innocent, demonstrating cruelty that is deliberately designed for them rather than incidental.

Another impactful moment for me, albeit brief, is when both Maysilee and Maritte target the Gamemakers. This felt powerful—a moment of unification between the career districts and the newcomer districts against the ‘real enemy’—a moment that ultimately cost both Maysilee and Maritte their lives. This reinforces that despite the Capitol’s efforts to divide the districts, the real gap is between the Capitol and the districts, and no amount of privilege will truly protect those in the career districts from the Capitol’s cruelty.

As a final thought, I would have loved to see a novel from Plutarch’s perspective. His story would offer a fresh lens—neither tribute nor mentor, but a Gamemaker—exploring how someone embedded in the Capitol’s elite becomes disillusioned and ultimately turns against the system. While A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes showed us a Capitol citizen who embraced the Games, Plutarch’s journey could reveal the opposite. Such a perspective would also provide meaningful commentary on contemporary society, as most Hunger Games readers are far closer to Capitol citizens than to the oppressed districts. Exploring how someone in a position of privilege unlearns their conditioning and chooses resistance against the very system that affords them their privilege would be a powerful and unique addition to the series—one with a compelling real-world message.

Ultimately, Sunrise on the Reaping is an okay book. It’s engaging enough, the characters are likable enough, it’s action-packed, and it offers some interesting new details about Panem and the lives of those we met in the original trilogy. Perhaps I set myself up with my own high expectations, but as my ramblings suggest, I was mostly let down by how much potential this book had but failed to fully realise. This leaves me concerned about the future of the series. If there are more additions to come, I believe Collins needs to step up her game to preserve the integrity of a series that has always had powerful political, social, and cultural commentary. While I’m not opposed to its commercialisation, it must retain its political heart and be written with deep care if it is to avoid becoming a hollow cash grab.

#book review #book journal #reading journal #reading diary #the hunger games #sunrise on the reaping

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