The Girl Who Was on Fire: The Reaping

[mary]

April 5 is the official release of The Girl Who Was on Fire, and the excellent folk at Smart Pop books are holding their own version of the Hunger Games’ reaping -- one that has, in their words, "much less threat of death and way less perilous prizes."

And this journal is one of the Districts. District 9 to be exact, which I think means possibly it's the supplier of Panem's stock of films about extended metaphors with aliens and racism.

The prizes are copies of The Girl Who Was on Fire, which is a fabulous book full of delicious chewy thoughts about what I continue to consider the best series of YA-protagonist novels I've read in years, The Hunger Games.

To be in the running to be one of the two winners of the reaping, you can:

• Leave a comment on this post with your email or twitter username, and the answer to this question: What horrified or frightened you the most in the series, and why? (obviously, the comments will contain SPOILERS, so if you haven't yet read the books you should go do that first and then come back.)



• OR answer the question in your own dreamwidth / livejournal / tumblr / facebook / twitter / etc and then leave the link in the comments here, along with your email or twitter username (so that you can be contacted if you win).

This contest is open to EVERYONE IN THE WORLD, but only for ONE DAY so enter fast!





My essay in The Girl Who Was On Fire is entitled Your Heart Is a Weapon the Size of Your Fist: Love as a Political Act in the Hunger Games, and I'm really rather proud of it. It's largely about how the novels interact with and reflect texts such as Nineteen Eighty-Four and V for Vendetta, and about how in the end, being able to love is far more important than being able to fight.

The effect of this tiny, humanizing act—singing to a dying child—has immediate and far reaching consequences. Rue’s district sends Katniss bread. Rue’s fellow tribute spares her life when they face off later in the Games. In Catching Fire, it’s Rue’s song that the district whistles to Katniss to show their support for her, and in Mockingjay Boggs offers Katniss’ singing as a moment when he was touched by her.

Do you begin to see what President Snow couldn't?

Love, like fire, is catching.

CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED! THANKS SO MUCH TO THOSE WHO ENTERED, AND GOOD LUCK!

Comments

[aka]

Strangely enough, the most horrifying moment for me was when Katniss described the schedules that get printed on everyone's arms, and did not think it was anything but an annoyance. To find the best hope for salvation is a society so controlling as to forcibly ink the citizens just really hit me hard. But at the same time, it was a good kind of horrifying, when I realized that the "good" guys weren't going to be the traditional perfect saviors.

I know it's a bit weird, just a tiny detail when compared to everything else, but I was prepared for the horrifying deaths and fighting. I wasn't prepared for the white knights to be "kind of muddy grey" knights.

(reticentsurprise at gmail)