K.J. Webster's Blog

 

MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATIONWritten by Ottessa MoshfeghFirst published in July of 2018Roughly 290 pagesRate 5/5(Read: 2/27/25-3/4/25)
When I first saw this book it was gaining traction on Booktok, I thought nothing of it, I didn't even know what it was about. A few months ago, the title of the book called to me. 
My friend and I were discussing the possibility of hibernation for humans. Is hibernation necessary and can it be done? How long should it last? What does it look like? In our discussions, we coined the term "Blue Butterfly Winter." A Blue Butterfly Winter looked as simple as this: At the start of December we would curate a nightly routine and then be in bed by 9 pm. In addition to that routine, we would plan one event per week to look forward to (including coffee meetups). This would go on until the end of February. Though the unnamed main character's hibernation was more extreme, we still wondered what the consequences of hibernating in general would be. This idea of hibernation was brought up because we had also been talking about the pressure to stay consistent and ignore seasonal depression. We suggested there has to be a better way without avoiding our feelings for several months. It was during this conversation about hibernation, both literal and metaphorical, that I realized My Year of Rest and Relaxation might hold the answers I was looking for. The main character’s retreat into herself, much like the "Blue Butterfly Winter" we had thought up, became a way to explore what it means to pause life, yet ultimately face the consequences of doing so. An unnamed young woman who feels a lack of connection with not only the outside world, but also her best friend, struggles to function outside of her apartment. "Things were happening in New York City—they always are—but none of it affected me. This was the beauty of sleep—reality detached itself and appeared in my mind as casually as a movie or a dream. It was easy to ignore things that didn’t concern me." The sinister undertones of the text suggest the main character is digging herself deeper into insanity as she pulls more away from society. With each passing day we start to wonder, how much of this is real? Is it all a dream?
The complexities of female friendships often drive the heart of many stories. The unnamed main character has a best friend, "I loved Reva, but I didn’t like her anymore. We’d been friends since college, long enough that all we had left in common was our history together, a complex circuit of resentment, memory, jealousy, denial." However, the unnamed main character is steadfast in her self-destruction as she begins to sleep for longer periods at a time, she begins to remember less. Her self-destructive behavior wasn’t limited to her inability to get out of bed. Alongside her complicated relationship with Reva, the main character also navigates a toxic relationship with Trevor. His presence seemed to exacerbate her internal struggles.. "I still couldn’t accept that Trevor was a loser and a moron. I didn’t want to believe that I could have degraded myself for someone who didn’t deserve it. I was still stuck on that bit of vanity." The way their conversations went was very peculiar to me, especially because of her dynamic with Reva who actually seemed to care for her. Their friendship reveals a more universal truth about relationships: they can be both sustaining and destructive. It makes me question how often we continue friendships out of obligation or history rather than genuine connection and also how much of our friendships and relationships are healthy versus habitual and at the end of the day, how much does it matter?

Ms. Moshfegh, thank you for writing such a brilliant story. In all my years of reading books, I have only come across a handful of books that do what this book did for me. What started out as a story of the mundane quickly turned into a cautionary tale. It wasn't until the last few lines of the book that I realized what a rude awakening this story told. Books of this nature are rare gems. I was struck by how the author manages to turn an ordinary setting, such as New York City in the early 2000s, into a hauntingly isolated world.

As with any story, liking it is a matter of personal preference. I know why I enjoyed the story, but for those same reasons someone else might not like the story. The story contains sexually explicit content which I feel added to the experience. This was the first time I had seen female sexuality displayed in that way and found it intriguing. I love complex characters such as this unnamed main character, at times she was unhinged which helped balance out the mundane. My Year of Rest and Relaxation isn’t just a book about a year of sleep, it’s about the dangers of disconnecting from the world, whether to escape pain, pressure, or simply because it feels easier. This is why, despite its dark humor and raw portrayal of self-destruction, the book is a reminder that retreating from life’s difficulties might not be the answer we are looking for.
Some quotes that stuck out to me:
"I was born into privilege, I am not going to squander that. I’m not a moron."
"The fear felt like desire: suddenly I wanted to go back and be in all the places I’d ever been, every street I’d walked down, every room I’d sat down in. I wanted to see it all again. I tried to remember my life, flipping through Polaroids in my mind. 'It was so pretty there. It was interesting!' But I knew that even if I could go back, if such a thing were possible with exactitude, in life or in dreams, there was really no point. And then I felt desperately lonely."
Here are some interesting Reddit threads about the book:
Reddit 1
Reddit 2Here's a link to the Goodreads: Goodreads: my year...
And if you would like a more in-depth review, I enjoyed Emma Angeline's YouTube review:

 

KJ's 2024 Reading Recap📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖This year I read 29 booksThis was the first year I really fell off the social media grind of it all. I decided to delete my "bookstagram" and in turn deactivate my personal Instagram. I also stopped keeping up with all the book reviews. (I am writing this on March 14, 2025, however, I have the ability to say I posted this January of 2025 so that's what I will be doing, as if anyone even reads these posts anymore, I am simply calling out into the void that is the internet.)This year I created a book clubWhat originally started out as me and two friends has slowly shifted into a group of five women. Only one person has left the club so far, I am so grateful I was able to start something like this with my friends. Here's the books we managed to read in 2024 in order. 
1. True Biz - Sara Novic (my pick)2. Yellowface - R.F. Kuang 3. Everything Sad is Untrue - Daniel Nayeri4. The Women - Kristin Hannah5. Under the Whispering Door - TJ Klune (my pick)6. 101 essays that will change the way you think - Brianna West7. The Liars' Club - Marry Karr8. The Great Alone - Kristin Hannah9. Coraline - Neil Gaiman (my pick)10. We Deserve Monuments - Jas Hammonds11. Six Scorched Roses - Carissa Broadbent12. The Rose Code - Kate Quinn My favorites from book club would be: The Women, Under the Whispering Door, The Liars' Club, and Yellowface.Missing postsThis year I didn't make a blog post about all the books I read, so on top of the 12 books I read for book club, I read 17 more books, in total 29, as I mentioned before. Because of that, I will make a list of all the books I read during 2024 and include a link to the blog post if I made one (not including the book club books). 
The first book I read was The Lighting Thief, I was anticipating reading the whole series in honor of the books being made into a tv series through Disney, however, I have yet to continue reading. Next, The Song of Achilles, which I read in lieu of the rest of the Percy Jackson series because it's a more  mature tale of the Greek myths. Things took a turn for the next book, I was feeling rather introspective while reading up on trauma in The Body Keeps the Score. But I came back to the Greek Myth retellings and read Circe. Then I found Sylvia Plath, or she found me while reading The Bell Jar. The Picture of Dorian Gray was a bit of an odd duck, I still think about it from time to time. Animal Farm was a classic I'd been needing to read at least once, now matter if I started reading it with that pig of a man. I turned to contemplation by reading Everything I Know About Love and found no amount of reassurance could make me feel better about my situation. Did he love me, or did he not? I became drawn to the idea of rereading something I was familiar with so I could dissect someone else's love life instead of my own and so I read Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes for the second time. Then I began to wonder how people get stuck in shitty situations when everyone around them things the destructiveness is so apparent, and so I read Cultish. Then I thought, maybe it's just my mindset, maybe I'll try reading a romance novel so I could grow to like love so I read the Unhoneymooners. Then my love for cats overpowered my thirst for rewiring my brain, so I read If Cats Disappeared from the World. And shortly after that, not because of me, my relationship failed. Ironically, I went to the movies to watch It Ends With Us with him and I read It Ends With Us before I stopped making blog posts. To make the last part of MY reading journey about him feels completely unfair, however, it's the truth, he consumed me. I ended up reading a couple more books before the end of the year, but I haven't made posts about them, and I'm not sure I will. Here's the rest of the "story." I decided to read the book my friend recommended I read, she said it reminded her of her childhood, and so I read Faithful; it wasn't a religious book, however, the next book I read was Lilith, which was. A feminist retelling of the bible, sign me the fuck up. I then attempted reading This Side of Paradise because I loved The Great Gatsby so much, I didn't finish it, but I read enough. Then I started reading a book series, a pattern I've noticed I start doing toward the end of the year.  I only got through the first two books in the series which was, A Court of Thorns and Rose and A Court of Mist and Fury. Toward the end of the year I wanted to think about someone else's past instead of mine and I wanted to escape. My best of 2024My favorite book this read was Lilith. My second favorite The Bell Jar. Third, The Women. Some honorable mentions were Circe and If Cats Disappeared from the World. Here's to 2025 (;

 

It Ends With UsWritten by Colleen HooverOriginally published in 2016~390 pagesRate 5/5
The controversy!! To label this book as a romance novel gets more people to read it, might not be the most ethical way to market the book, but romance sells! 
A few months ago the movie premiered and since then the story has reached an even larger audience. Since the book's original publication in 2016, it has won the Goodreads Choice Award for best romance. This book has been incredibility successful and there's a reason for it. 
Hoover does an excellent job at portraying the complexities of abusive relationships. Some might deem this story as a romanticized version of domestic violence, and to that I say, everyone's story looks different. The story illustrates just how easy something so good could turn so wrong in just a matter of seconds.
I watched the movie before I read the book and both mediums portrayed the situation as gruesome and disgusting. I felt awful and covered my ears and looked away during multiple parts of the movie and rushed through certain paragraphs in the book. As a society we have normalized graphic content in the name of being explicit so there's no misinterpretation and while I do understand the need for clearly stating things, I don't want to be exposed to graphic content all the time. BUT, I do think sharing stories like these lead to important conversations to come about. 
The book can be seen as a comminatory on how we view not only the victims of domestic violence, but the abusers. I have heard plenty of people blame the victim for staying after the first incident and excuse the abuser because of the context of the situation. When in relativity, it's much more complex than people outside of the relationship realize. 
To conclude, I'm aware there is another book that comes after this one, but I'm not sure how soon I will end up getting around to it. So in the meantime, here's some of my favorite quotes from the book: 
"Fifteen seconds. That’s all it takes to completely change everything about a person. Fifteen seconds that we’ll never get back."
"Just because someone hurts you doesn't mean you can simply stop loving them. It's not a person's actions that hurt the most. It's the love. If there was no love attached to the action, the pain would be a little easier to bear."
"In the future... if by some miracle you ever find yourself in the position to fall in love again... fall in love with me.”
"And as hard as this choice is, we break the pattern before the pattern breaks us."
Author website: Colleen Hoover

The Liars' ClubWritten by Mary KarrOriginally published in 1995~320 pagesRate 5/5
When it comes to writing reviews on memoirs, I feel like I should refrain from "judging" the book, after all this is someone's life story. So, I will start off my expressing my admiration for the author. I consider it brave that Mary Karr so willingly put herself into such a vulnerable situation by sharing her story.   
Karr shares her experience learning how to love despite growing up in a home where love wasn't explicitly shown very often. What do you do when your born into a family that doesn't know how to love? In Karr's case, you unknowingly teach them how to love.
I enjoyed Karr's commentary on the events happening around her when she was a child, she was incredibly witty. For a long time I didn't really like kids, they seemed gross, messy, and loud. However, I recently started working at an elementary school after living in college towns for the past three years. and while yes there are kids that perpetuate that stereotype, there are kids who are just as witty as Karr. I have since discovered that kids aren't so bad. The sad part is knowing that everyone's home life is different, no one knows what goes on behind closed doors, that's the thing that haunts me the most after reading this book.  
To conclude, here are some quotes from the book:
"Daddy said a Republican was somebody who couldn’t enjoy eating unless he knew somebody else was hungry"
"Sure the world breeds monsters, but kindness grows just as wild"
"I lock all my scaredness down in my stomach until the fear hardens into something I hardly notice. I myself harden into a person that I hardly notice."
"He took a washrag and a jug of wood alcohol to get rid of her makeup, saying he wanted to know what he was getting into."
Author Website: Mary Karr


Follow me on Goodreads: KJ Webster on GoodreadsFollow me on Instagram @_kjreads 

 

If Cats Disappeared from the WorldWritten by Genki KawamuraOriginally published in 2012~202 pagesRate 5/5
A short yet impactful story about a man's last days on earth as he experiences a prolonged game of "would you rather" with the devil..
The "would you rather" propositions the main character was faced with made me reflect and question my own reality and daily decisions. As the story progresses, the whole world is impacted unknowingly by the main character's decisions while the main character sees the short-term effects of his choices. He begins to gain a deeper understanding of the importance of even the smallest of objects/ideas.
Readers never get to find out the main character's name, he is merely defined by how he decides to spend his last days on earth. At times the verbiage felt too juvenile considering the narrator is in his 30s, but I'm not sure if that's because of the way it was translated. That's the only compliant I really had about the book.

There were many excellent quotes that stuck out to me while I read this book. Here are a handful of them:
"Perhaps that’s what drives all human progress: an insatiable desire for new things."
"It would have been nice to have taken the time to listen to what was going on in the other one’s head, to understand each other’s feelings."
"I must have a whole collection of small injuries, tucked away somewhere in the recesses of my memory. I suppose those are what some people call regrets."
"Sometimes, when you rewatch a film after not having seen it for a long time, it makes a totally different impression on you than it did the first time you saw it. Of course, the movie hasn’t changed; it’s you who has changed, and seeing the same film again makes that impossible to forget."
"My hope is that my life will go on to live in the memories of others who’ve witnessed my story."
"Human beings exchanged their freedom for the sense of security that comes from living by set rules and routines—despite knowing that they pay the cost of these rules and regulations with their freedom."
"You don’t have a family. You make a family."
"but when I think of all the things that I want to do before I die, they all involve you."
"I could never be happy in a world deprived of your existence."
"It is all those differences, however minuscule, that make up my existence."

 

The UnhoneymoonersWritten by Christina LaurenOriginally published in 2019~430 pagesRate: 3/5After years of reading, I am starting to wonder if I actually don't like reading romance or if all the romance books I pick just aren't my type of romance. The last book I read that I would categorize as romance was The Song of Achilles (read 12/20/23-01/18/24) and I did enjoy that.
There was a little bit of a marketing issue I noticed with this book. The book description claims the story as an enemies to lovers romance, but that was not at all what I read. There was only one seemingly rude circumstance that later got cleared up as a misunderstanding on Olives part. There was a little bit of bickering, but it felt incredibly tame and unproblematic. I would only consider this a fake dating trope.
Spoilers ahead 

The only enemy I saw in the story was Ethan's brother, but that was the plot twist. Dane being deceitful was the only element that saved the story for me. Dane and Olive made sense as enemies and since the marketing of the book said enemies to lovers for a second I thought, oh maybe this is about to get incredibly messy, but it didn't. (Thankfully, that would have ruined the story for me as well.) 
Anyways, the whole story can be chalked up to Ethan being a cute boyfriend and Olivia being a insecure girl. 

 

101 Essays That Will Change The Way You ThinkWritten by Brianna WiestOriginally published in 2016~450 pagesRate 2/5
I think this would be a very nice coffee table type of book, or a book where you would read one chapter every day. I just listened to this book. 
From my understanding, this is a compilation of essays written by different people and then edited by Brianna Wiest so the essays concepts/ideas are numbered. 
Of the 101 essays in the book, only a handful of them provided concepts and ideas that were new to me. The book doesn't go into too much depth with most of it's claims so if this is the first self-help book a person reads it would be magnificent. For those who have already dived into self-help/psychology related materials before, the book might be deemed as a waste of time.

 

Cultish
The language of FanaticismWritten by Amanda MontellOriginally published in 2021~300 pagesRate 3/5What are we willing to do in order to find a place in this world?
In Cultish, Amanda writes about her personal experiences with cults. From her run in with Scientology to her interviews with ex-cult members (from different cults), she covers an array of cult-related material. She claims that we, as a society, have normalized the word cult to the point where it doesn't have a distinct meaning anymore. Hence her new world cultish, when something has cult-like characteristics, but it might not be recognized as a cult. 
Towards the beginning of Cultish, Amanda explains how it's easier to label certain cultish behavior rather than what is a cult and what is not. Later she goes on to say that most people might be able to notice a religious cult when they see one, but there are other groups that display cultish characteristic that go unnoticed, the groups she mentions are MLMs and gym-goers. 
I enjoyed the introduction of Cultish and Amanda's insights on religious cults. However, I felt the sections about the MLMs and the gym-goers had a lot of fluff. More often than not, when people think about cults they usually picture a more religious looking group so discussing cult-like characteristics outside of that norm was insightful, but it wasn't delivered with the same flare and I just wasn't as enthralled by those sections of the book. 
Amanda did as she promised, she explained the linguistics of cultish language by exploring cult characteristics in various settings. I gave the book a three star because I felt some of the sections were filled with fluff and it would have been better to just shorten it. 
Interesting insightful quotes

"language doesn’t work to manipulate people into believing things they don’t want to believe; instead, it gives them license to believe ideas they’re already open to."

"In the end, some problematic leaders are really just followers of the larger system. But a truly, destructively cultish leader is one who wishes to overthrow the system and replace it with something that grants them ultimate power."

"The more outsiders invoke these labels, the more firmly insiders dig in their heels."

"levels of religiosity tend to be lowest in countries with the highest standards of living (strong education levels, long life expectancies), but the US is exceptional in that it’s both highly developed and full of believers—even with all our “Nones” and “Remixed.” This inconsistency can be explained in part because while citizens of other advanced nations, like Japan and Sweden, enjoy a bevy of top-down resources, including universal healthcare and all sorts of social safety nets, the US is more of a free-for-all." 

  

The Ballad of the Songbirds and SnakesWritten by Suzanne Collins~517 pagesOriginally published in 2020Rate: 5/5(Second reading)

It's not often that I read the same book twice, but when I do, it's because it was GOOD. 

In my previous blog post about The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes I essentially recapped the introduction of the story, mentioned my thoughts on Coriolanus as a main character, the hanging tree lore, who is Katniss' relative, and Taylor Swift. In this post I want to be more specific and instead focus on SPOILERS. 

There have only been a handful of books I enjoyed and a fraction of those books I would consider rereading. I enjoyed reading this book the first time around, but I might not have considered rereading it if it hadn’t been for the announcement of Sunrise on the Reaping, also known as the second prequel to The Hunger Games. During my last blog post the movie reveal was just announced for The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes. To everyone’s amazement a book and movie announcement for Sunrise on the Reaping was revealed at the same time just a little bit ago. The book is anticipated to come out March of 2025 and the movie November of 2026. 

Once the book is released I will, of course, have more to say about it. So before I can do that, there is so much information I would like to go over about The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes. I will preface by saying all of this is my opinion and despite taking a couple English classes, I am not the best at analyzing text. I am in no way an expert, I just find The Hunger Games world interesting and want to talk about what I noticed.

Coriolanus Snow

Since Coriolanus is the main character of the story it only seems fitting to talk about him first. The theory of nature versus nurture is the first idea that pops into my head when I hear his name. 

There were many instances where Coriolanus was compared to his parents despite being orphaned at the age of eight. (According to numerology the number eight represents victory, prosperity, and overcoming). Sejanus' father presumed Coriolanus was more like his mother, whereas Dean Highbottom suspected he was more like his father. Of course, Coriolanus wouldn't know much about what his parents were like. Through the opinions and memories of those who knew his parents, and by growing up in a similar environment as his father, he was able to create a makeshift version of what he thought his father would be proud of. 

All of his actions were made under the impression that he could die if he made the wrong choice. Growing up in that level of poverty at such a young age and then being a mentor in The Hunger Games made him unable to ever truly turn off his fight or flight responses. After the bombs from the rebels destroy the arena it looked almost identical to what life looked like to Coriolanus when he was growing up with his cousin, Tigris. He saw his classmates dying at nearly the same rate as the tributes and made the connection that his life was also at risk if he didn't play the game right. 

During his time as a peacekeeper there's a lot of birds being mentioned including Lucy Gray being compared to a songbird, that's when it clicked for me. Birds represent freedom and to him, freedom means chaos. Around this time in the story is when Coriolanus begins to mention how disgusted living in district 12 makes him feel and also how excited he feels when he shoots down the mockingjays. It is also mentioned how Coriolanus felt taunted by the birds during several instances. The way Coriolanus behaves around the birds is a metaphor for how he felt about freedom.

His whole origin story focuses on his cognitive biases and though no one loves what he becomes (at least no one should) his story now makes so much sense. If Dr. Gull laid off on Coriolanus and if the mentors weren't involved in The Hunger Games, deep down he was still just a scared little boy with an immense amount of will. He played his cards right and he became the victor, not by killing all of his fellow tributes, no that wasn't necessary for the people of the capitol, but by manipulating his way into the hearts of the innocents and gaining popularity amongst the people he knew could get him to the top. 

Coriolanus & Lucy Gray Baird

It would be unwise to assume that because Lucy Gray is a singer she must be the songbird and Coriolanus must be the snake in this story. She was as much of a victor as Coriolanus was, she is not “made out of sugar.” The first time we are introduced to Lucy Gray she appears to be vindictive. Putting a harmless snake down the dress of the girl who got her name read off on the day of the reaping. Lucy Gray might be the one of the most complex characters I have read about in The Hunger Games, however, that might be because the story was told from Coriolanus’ perspective. 

Outside of the arena she is a performer, all of district 12 appears to love her apart from a handful of people as mentioned before. As Coriolanus learns about her past, so do we. One of the aspects of her life that he seems to be so hung up on is, unsurprisingly, her love life. She mentions in one of her songs that she lived by her charms, up until that part of their relationship he felt intrigued by her despite the societal expectations for district and capitol to remain separate.The realization that he didn’t have control over her past felt incredibly daunting to him. From that point moving forward all of his opinions and actions surrounding their relationship and her were made out of jealousy and self preservation. 

Once Lucy Gray became a victor, the two of them agreed it would be more favorable to hide their relationship from the public. However, there were far more government eyes watching what he was up to compared to her. So with Coriolanus making the detectable decisions for the public eye to see, Lucy Gray made all the unnoticed decisions. So unnoticed, in fact, Coriolanus couldn’t even anticipate them. Lucy Gray had changed since she left the arena, all of her actions revolved around self-preservation even if that didn’t include Coriolanus in her future. 

When Billy Taupe, the mayor's daughter, and Spruce set out to leave district 12 with the help of Sejanus. Billy Taupe seemed to want Lucy Gray to join them despite seemingly not being on good terms. He tells Spruce “she’s my girl” (p. 458)  and Coriolanus wonders if she lied to diffuse the situation. Had Coriolanus not been there, maybe she would have left with them. When things get heated what appears to be a romantic gesture to some, only seems like an act of self preservation to me. I don’t think he was thinking about Lucy Gray’s safety, he was trying his best to get out of the situation so he could have a future. 

Katniss Everdeen & Peeta Mellark

The voices that would come back to haunt President Snow 60+ years later. 

I have seen quite a few people talking about the similarities between Katniss and Lucy Gray and though I do see some I also see Peeta being similar to Lucy Gray as well. Lucy Gray and Peeta Mellark were both seen as fragile beings and they both had to perform as such in order to stay alive. For the most part, neither one of them directly killed anyone even in the games. Katniss was a hunter, forced to perform. Sejanus and Katniss proclaim the same moral compass. Throughout the entire story we hear Sejanus Once Katniss learned about her influence as the mockingjay she begins to make the claims she’s always thought. Overall, Katniss and Peeta are a mix between Sejanus and Lucy Gray. 

The similarities between those four is what made me wonder about President Snow and Katniss’ relationship. Either President Snow thinks the same thing or he considers Katniss as similar to himself. She does appear to be good at self-preservation in the same way he was. The moment President Snow most likely began to wonder how similar he and Katniss were was when she and Peeta were about to eat the berries together. President Snow was the first person to introduce a performance into The Hunger Games, though his and Lucy Gray’s romance wasn’t well known by everyone, for the first time since there was a romance brewing. However, given Snow’s experience with Lucy Gray he is either hesitant on believing Katniss or worried about Peeta’s intentions or both.  

It is mentioned in The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes that roses remind Snow of his grandmother, who was his only guardian after the age of eight. Snow gifts Katniss roses throughout the rest of the series as a way to say, “I am watching you” as if he were her guardian… as if he were her father. It’s a twisted mind game considering Katniss’ father passed away during a mine incident. Likewise, it confirms my belief that Snow sees himself in Katniss and it’s a fun game to him since he has all this power. 

The Covey/ Family History

I would have to assume that Katniss is related to someone in the covey. Considering Katniss’ father had a great voice I would assume one of his parents were Barb Azure or Maude Ivory. 

The Hanging Tree

In my last post I mentioned my thoughts on the hanging tree song. Hopefully I can explain it a little better this time around. Lucy Gray and Billy Taupe wrote The Hanging Tree song together. Essentially the song is about asking the person you love to die with you so you both don’t have to suffer any longer. Later this song is used as a protest song for the rebels.

When Arlo gets hanged at the hanging tree he yells “run, run, Lil, ru-” which is four syllables and he’s telling his lover to flee. He supposedly killed three people. The mockingjays echo his last words and some only pick up the melody. 60+ years later not only is the song Lucy Gray and Billy Taupe intact, but so is that moment in history. The people of the district show their unity with each other through whistling four notes, kissing their three fingers, and holding their hand to the sky. This motion is said to be shown as admiration and a way of saying goodbye to someone you love.

Where did Lucy Gray Go?

The moment Lucy Gray and Coriolanus became trapped in their own little hunger game. I don’t think that Coriolanus would have let Lucy Gray get away. Lucy Gray knew that so she decided to run away. I don’t think that Lucy Gray lived for too long after. Nobody knows what happened in district 12 between then and when Katniss’ story started, however Sunrise on the Reaping might give us some clues. Maybe she came back and remained hidden in 12, maybe some of the Covey followed her. Maybe she made it to district 13 or another district nearby. 

There is so much to unpack within this story and unfortunately I don't have the words to express how I feel about all of it. I'm looking forward to hearing about Haymitch's story and I'm excited to share my thoughts on that story in the future. I might end up rereading the rest of the Hunger Games series after Sunrise on the Reaping comes out in March 2025, if I can get ahold of it. Anyways, I'm going to go watch The Hunger Games again.

As always, thanks for reading.

Links

Author Website

Hunger Games Wiki

Under The Whispering DoorWritten by TJ KluneOriginally published in 2021~370 pagesRate 4/5Even after death, there is still hope.
I heard many people recommend this book to fans of The Midnight Library so that's why I chose this book for the MK book club. Comparing the two books together somewhat makes sense, but there aren't many similarities. I would recommend The Midnight Library over Under The Whispering Door, however this post isn't about The Midnight Library so I digress. 
Wallace use to be a kind person until he got sucked into corporate America and then he became a super anxious businessman. Unfortunately he dies by the end of the first chapter so he doesn't have much time to redeem himself, or does he? He soon meets Mei, a reaper, who introduces him to Hugo, a gatekeeper of sorts, who explains what happens after you die, at least for the time being. 
The story unfolds is a comedic and light way, which I found necessary given the life after death theme of the story. The type of comedy in this story felt a little sarcastic and dry, but there were still parts that I nose exhaled at. The only complaint I had story wise was the fact that reapers weren't explained under the very end of the book.
Sadly I didn't really enjoy this book as much as I thought I would, but I did feel like it was a good, much needed way to escape reality. 
Here's some quotes:
"I see it now. It's not always about the things you've done, or the mistakes you've made. It's about the people and what we're willing to do for one another" (318). 
"She said that life was more than dirty socks" (201).
"I always blamed others and told myself to learn from their mistakes, and not necessarily my own" (177).