Dystopia

Tender Is the Flesh / Agustina Bazterrica, Sarah Moses (Translator)

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Tender Is the Flesh
By: Agustina Bazterrica, Sarah Moses (Translator)
Genre: Horror, Dystopia
Number of Pages: 209
Published: August 4, 2024 (1st Published November 29, 2017)
Publisher: Scribner
Dates Read: October 23, 2025 - November 30, 2025
Format: Paperback

Marcos’s wife left him, his father has dementia, and his job isn’t exactly the best thing on the planet – but he tries not to think about it. After the infectious virus made all animal meat poisonous to humans, the government initiated the “Transition”, making human meat “special meat”, and Marcos is now high up at the plant that distributes the meat.

Then one day, he’s personally given a female head of the finest quality. Even though he’s fully aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden by death, Marcos slowly starts to treat her as a human being.

Right, okay, so I didn’t really have any problem with this book until they talked about the teens and the puppies – that’s what made me put the book down for a minute. Nothing about the care and managing of the head, not how they were slaughtered, not even how they were talked about! But I had an issue with the puppies!

Like, I feel for Marcos and what he was going through – and the final straw was pretty warranted when it finally came, but I was still shocked at the ending and how it was rounded up. If one thing didn’t happen, would it have changed the outcome??

But like – how does one describe this book anyway without going into a whole thing about it?? I wouldn’t call this scary… disturbing sure, but not scary. Unless you’re looking at it by the way of “this is what humans could do”. 
Overall, it’s a different read – and definitely not for everyone, especially for anyone with a weak stomach I would say, but if you’d like something totally out there this will be it.

Mockingjay (The Hunger Games #3) / Suzanne Collins

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Mockingjay
By: Suzanne Collins
Genre: YA, Dystopia
Number of Pages: 390
Published: August 24, 2010
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Dates Read: June 24, 2025 - July 8, 2025
Format: Hardcover

Katniss has been rescued after electrifying the arena during the Quarter Quell, but Peeta was captured by the Capitol. District 12 no longer exists, but District 13 does, and has always existed. Now, District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol, but they need Katniss to be their rebels’ Mockingjay. To do this, she must put aside her feelings, no matter the personal cost.

And I have finished the reading of the original Hunger Game trilogy (don’t ask me why it took me over two weeks to read this, I had weird personal stuff!)

I forgot how much softer Katniss is in this final installment of her story; she’s gone through not one, but two Hunger Games back to back, her home has been wiped off the map, and people keep using her as a pawn in their war games. The girl is seventeen-years-old and hasn’t been able to stop and breathe in two years. Unlike many characters in dystopian books I’ve read, Katniss actually is severely affected by the events she either has been a part of or has witnessed. She’s traumatized! 

I did love the fact she talks about Haymitch taking care of geese, but failed to mention she was the one who gave them to him to take care of. Oh – and at the end, she talks about her children playing on the graveyard of her district in the meadow – I know a lot of people have been connecting that to just the Covey but it’s actually her whole district that is buried there!

Overall, a bitter sweet ending to the original trilogy for sure. Still glad I reread the series.

Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2) / Suzanne Collins

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2)
By: Suzanne Collins
Genre: YA, Dystopia
Number of Pages: 391
Published: September 1, 2009
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Dates Read: May 26, 2025 - June 5, 2025
Format: Hardcover

Katniss, against all odds, won the 74th Hunger Games, alongside fellow District 12 tribute, Peeta Mellark. Being alive should bring her relief, but it’s done pretty much the opposite. Her close friend, Gale, keeps her at a distance, Peeta doesn’t interact with her outside of the press, and there are whispers of a rebellion – a rebellion the Capital says Katniss and Peeta helped start.

With the victory tour, Katniss sees the small spark of revolution throughout the districts, and she doesn’t know if it’s something she wants to stop… When the 75th Hunger Games grows closer, the Quarter Quell, the Capital, is allowed different terms for the special occasion. Can Katniss defeat the odds again?

And continuing my reread of the original Hunger Game trilogy with one of my bestie coworkers and we have now finished the second book.

Boy, did I make a lot of comments on this book during our buddy read – the connections that Suzanne Collins has sprinkled in this that she masterfully reconnects YEARS later is phenomenal! I would absolutely love to see her technique to keep all of this straight… is it a wall of color coded post-its? A binder filled with character background and lore?! Even the smallest detail is not forgotten under her pen.

This book surprisingly doesn’t have as much about the games as the previous one, but to be fair, the game I think, only ends up lasting less than a week? I feel like the movies definitely focused more on the games.

As with the first book’s reread, I came at this sixteen-years-later and not only read it as an adult, but also as someone who has read everything else in the series, and I still feel shook after reading it.

The Hunger Games / Suzanne Collins

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
The Hunger Games
By: Suzanne Collins
Genre: YA, Dystopia
Number of Pages: 374
Published: September 14, 2008
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Dates Read: April 18, 2025 - April 28, 2025
Format: Hardcover

In the ruins of North America, lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capital in the mountains surrounded by twelve districts. After a failed rebellion, to keep the districts in line, the Capital forces them all to send one boy and one girl, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death that’s broadcasted on live TV.

After her twelve-year-old sister, Prim, gets her name called at her first reaping, sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen volunteers as tribute and “signs her death sentence”. But Katniss has been surviving since her dad died when she was twelve and she’s been close to death before. If she’s going to win this, she must make choices that weigh against humanity, life, and love.

First off, listen – I don’t reread things. I have only ever reread The Book Thief and that was one reread, years after reading it the first time because I’ve always said that was my favorite book and I needed to make sure it still was…

Anyway, did I reread this because Sunrise on the Reaping destroyed me and I needed to go back to the “beginning”.

Yes.

Did I get more emotional about everything that happened because I know what would and has happened?

Yes.

Did I appreciate it even more than I did when I first read it?

I believe so – but then again, that was SIXTEEN YEARS AGO. I was sixteen-years-old myself when this book came out and was obsessed with being the same age as Katniss. Now, as a 33-year-old, I’ve seen this through a new lens and Suzanne Collins can emotionally wreck me at any age.

Snow Globe / Soyoung Park, Joungmin Lee Comfort (Translator)

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Snow Globe
By: Soyoung Park, Joungmin Lee Comfort (Translator)
Genre: YA, Dystopia
Number of Pages: 384
Published: February 27, 2024 (1st Published October 23, 2020)
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Dates Read: April 17, 2025 - April 18, 2025
Format: Library Book / Audiobook

In a world of constant winter, only the citizens of the climate-controlled city of Snowglobe can escape the breath snatching cold. Outside Snowglobe, citizens must face the icy wasteland to get to their jobs at the power plant to produce the energy Snowglobe needs – in return, they have twenty-four hour reality television programming streamed directly from the domed city.

Chobahm lives for the time she gets to watch her favorite shows – especially Goh Around, starring Goh Haeri, Snowglobe’s star and future weather girl. It turns out, her favorite star is the key to getting Chobahm out of her frozen life and into the warmth of Snowglobe. Because Haeri is dead, and Chobahm looks exactly like her.

But life inside Snowglobe is nothing like Chobahm has thought it was – reality is a lie, and it seems like it take forever to reach any truth.

There were some crazy plot twists in this novel that kept me interested. I’m pretty sure it would be a spectacular K-Drama, because it totally reads like one, but some of the plot twists were way out there.

I’m not sure where I saw the comparison, but I originally picked this up because it said The Hunger Games meets The Squid Games. I do not agree with that comparison after reading this though. If the argument of the televised portion would be the connection to The Hunger Games – it’s just reality TV? And as for Squid Games it’s not a game of  life, death, or money.

Overall, this is a fast pace, twist and turn filled young adult read. There’s a second book coming out soon that I’m sure I will also read.

*Thank you Delacorte Press and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games #0.5) / Suzanne Collins

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games #0.5)
By: Suzanne Collins
Genre: YA, Dystopia
Number of Pages: 400
Published: March 18, 2025
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Dates Read: March 18, 2025 - March 23, 2025
Format: Hardcover

Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think about his chances at the fiftieth Hunger Games. This year, it’s the Quarter Quell and twice as many tributes will be taken to the arena to fight to the death. All Haymitch wants to do is get through the day, celebrate his birthday with cake and spending time with the girl that he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, his life is shattered and he’s pulled away from his family and his love, shuttled off to the Capital with three other District 12 tributes: a young girl who’s nearly a sister to him, an oddsmakers, and the most stuck-up girl in town. Haymitch quickly discovers he’s being set up to fail, but there’s something in him that wants to fight… not only for his life in the arena, but far beyond its walls.

It’s been three days since I finished this novel and I’m still not over it. This book is everything I wanted for Haymitch’s Hunger Games and so much more. It’s gut wrenching. It’s thrilling. It’s heart shattering – which, yes, is so much more than breaking, let me tell you!

The connections that Suzanne Collins makes in this that then interweaves into the original trilogy is phenomenal – there were pieces I didn’t even know were missing from the puzzle that she reveals. I don’t think I’ve ever had the strong desire that I’ve had after reading a book to reread an entire trilogy as I’ve had with this. Again, if that doesn’t showcase the talent of Collins’ writing, I don’t know what else you need. (Though the urge is still there to just sit and read the original trilogy, I did purchase the four movie set on DVD and have binging those).

Even though we all know what the outcome of Haymitch’s story is, it still didn’t stop this from being agonizing. You meet both new and old characters and no matter how much you try to shield your heart, that wall gets detonated.

Overall, Haymitch’s journey shows that not everybody gets to be the hero, especially at the start, and that change doesn’t happen overnight – it sometimes can be twenty-five plus years in the making.