mae🐝

suzanne collins does it again, a true master <3

This book shook me to my core. It broke me down internally. It made me so miserable. I LOVED IT! The characters bled out of the pages through Collins' wit and prose. I was immersed in the creative world she's built, and truly entranced. I love the way she writes grit and grief and humor and love and sadness it was so palpable. I really loved how this book felt like a missing puzzle piece to the horror of Panem, and fit into what we already know so well. I could see someone making the argument it was too much and too many cameos, but I would disagree with that. 12 is a small district, what do you expect, lol. So glad I read it all in one day and avoided all spoilers. Here are a few things that stood out to me: Lou Lou/ Louella. Gumdrops!!!! Ampert <3 Snow and his milk and oysters. Lenore Dove. My dearest Lucy Grey Baird. my sweet sweet peeta baby. Katniss, who is just like Haymich.

"I don't drink"

book & cook club February Romance Books choice!

i am frankly frightened by the public opinions and ratings of this book. It sucks so bad, it made me wish I never learned to read.

This book sucked so badly, I'm not even sure what else to say. It wasn't even funny bad. I never want to think of it again. Not to mention the PORN!!! it was so dirty and just really described terribly. It was so strangely described and so often that I was just grossed out mostly. Here's some words for this book: predictable, cringeworthy, sickening, weird, overfull, unlikable, and poorly written. The characters were so unbelievable. Here's something postive..... hmmm.... I liked that mute Archer didn't "learn" to talk at the end. It did technically pass the Bechel test. I liked that Bree had a job? I liked that there wasn't a pregnancy trope when I thought Archer left her. I can't think of anything else worth noting.

It was a short and thought-provoking book! I can't say I got something incredibly powerful out of it, but perhaps I just didn't... get it?

justice for peggy <3

Now that I've read Sunrise on the Reaping, I felt the pull to go back and re-read Ballad, and I'm so glad that I did! Collins does such a mesmerizing job dissecting this series from perhaps the earliest perspective we will get- young Snow. The character lives and breathes right on the page, standing out so differently from the feelings, motivations, and actions of her previous (although future, in canon) narrator, Katniss. The story itself is a mastercraft in timing, payoff, and illustration. Throughout the story, we're treated even further to the strong characterization of not just Coryo, but nearly everyone around him. It's been a while since I read this book for the first time, and to be honest I forgot how little we really hear from Lucy Gray herself. Maybe if I could say one negative thing it would be that- although even that I can excuse by the fact that the book is not from her perspective! I wonder if we will ever know more about her in the canon, her past or her future.