Yuletide recs: Hunger Games edition
When I haven't been busy with Real Life Shenanigans (which I will talk about in a separate post, because there have been many of them), I've been digging through the Yuletide archive in search of fic. I feel like I've barely made a dent in it, but I've already uncovered some real gems.
Not everything I've read has been Hunger Games fanfic (...so sue me, I'm predictable), but I loved enough of the stories in that section that I might as well make a separate rec post for them, particularly since I'm still not finished hunting through the rest of the fandoms -- even the rest of the fandoms that I enjoy.
Achilles Heel [SPOILERS for backstory revealed in Mockingjay]
Finnick’s Games. The ones he plays in, the ones he wins, and the ones he’s still a pawn in ever after.
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Which is to say HOLY FUCK I LOVE THIS FIC. I am, admittedly, a sucker for most anything involving Finnick Odair, but this fic is why I love him. Finnick's journey over the course of this story, his initial inability to see himself for what he is and his growing awareness of what it means to be loved by the Capitol, is beautiful and heartbreaking. The imagery in this is just gorgeous, too, and I love how so much of it ties back to water and the ocean. This story is my Finnick headcanon now, until Suzanne Collins explicitly tells me otherwise.
Here's the Smell of Blood Still [SPOILERS for the end of Mockingjay]
Thirteen things that Haymitch remembers, and twelve things he'd rather forget.
This one immediately wins points with me for the Macbeth reference, but I'd love it even with a different title. Thirteen gorgeously sharp vignettes about Haymitch's life, the memories he'll never leave behind and the wounds he wears inside, and they both evoke and expand on what we know about Haymitch from the books, and it's kind of perfect.
Out of the Night: An Interview with the Mockingjay [SPOILERS for the end of Mockingjay]
"I didn't love Peeta. That was all for the cameras."
It's hard to provide a detailed rec for this story because it's packed to the brim with spoilers, but this is the kind of story I so desperately wanted to read after the end of Mockingjay, a story of struggle and hardship but with hope for recovery, and the way the author incorporates the media into this -- especially given the role it plays in the trilogy -- is perfect.
you let your grace enrapture [SPOILERS for backstory revealed in Mockingjay -- vague, but there]
Before he was a stylist, Cinna met a victor at a party. The rest isn't quite history.
Assuming I need a more detailed rec than "Cinna and Finnick get it on," I'll say this: I love the sensuousness of the prose, how perfectly in-character Cinna's observations are on what he hears and sees and feels, and Finnick's youth comes through painfully clearly and it's gorgeous.
Those Who Favor Fire [SPOILERS for Catching Fire]
This is what he remembers most, what he tries his hardest to forget: streaks of indigo dye threading their way up his wrists and down his fingers, and the whites of his knuckles as he fisted the sheets.
Fascinating Cinna backstory -- I don't think it's an angle on him I've seen before, but the author makes me believe it, and it gives a whole new charge to Cinna's actions during the series. Haymitch and Finnick are great in this, too.
Backscatter [SPOILERS for the end of Mockingjay]
By the fourth day, I've decided me and Haymitch are building a bomb.
Another postcanon fic, and another one I can't provide too many details on for fear of spoilers, but it's a great look at the aftermath of the books, the delicate and uncertain balance a lot of the characters try so desperately to maintain and can't always manage to do. Also some of the best fic from a kid's perspective I've read in a while.
Closer to the Sun
Snapshots of Rue's life before and during the Games.
Oh, Rue. These vignettes are lovely and wistful, and even the most painful moments have a kind of grace to them. And I love how heat and light are woven throughout this story, how Rue is so much a creature of the sun and keeps striving for it even in the harshest of circumstances. Gorgeous.
Someday I will stop talking about The Hunger Games. Today is not that day.
.
Not everything I've read has been Hunger Games fanfic (...so sue me, I'm predictable), but I loved enough of the stories in that section that I might as well make a separate rec post for them, particularly since I'm still not finished hunting through the rest of the fandoms -- even the rest of the fandoms that I enjoy.
Achilles Heel [SPOILERS for backstory revealed in Mockingjay]
Finnick’s Games. The ones he plays in, the ones he wins, and the ones he’s still a pawn in ever after.
asldjfalkjdfa;
alsjdhfalsdfasdfasdf
asdljfa;djfalksfdasdf
Which is to say HOLY FUCK I LOVE THIS FIC. I am, admittedly, a sucker for most anything involving Finnick Odair, but this fic is why I love him. Finnick's journey over the course of this story, his initial inability to see himself for what he is and his growing awareness of what it means to be loved by the Capitol, is beautiful and heartbreaking. The imagery in this is just gorgeous, too, and I love how so much of it ties back to water and the ocean. This story is my Finnick headcanon now, until Suzanne Collins explicitly tells me otherwise.
Here's the Smell of Blood Still [SPOILERS for the end of Mockingjay]
Thirteen things that Haymitch remembers, and twelve things he'd rather forget.
This one immediately wins points with me for the Macbeth reference, but I'd love it even with a different title. Thirteen gorgeously sharp vignettes about Haymitch's life, the memories he'll never leave behind and the wounds he wears inside, and they both evoke and expand on what we know about Haymitch from the books, and it's kind of perfect.
Out of the Night: An Interview with the Mockingjay [SPOILERS for the end of Mockingjay]
"I didn't love Peeta. That was all for the cameras."
It's hard to provide a detailed rec for this story because it's packed to the brim with spoilers, but this is the kind of story I so desperately wanted to read after the end of Mockingjay, a story of struggle and hardship but with hope for recovery, and the way the author incorporates the media into this -- especially given the role it plays in the trilogy -- is perfect.
you let your grace enrapture [SPOILERS for backstory revealed in Mockingjay -- vague, but there]
Before he was a stylist, Cinna met a victor at a party. The rest isn't quite history.
Assuming I need a more detailed rec than "Cinna and Finnick get it on," I'll say this: I love the sensuousness of the prose, how perfectly in-character Cinna's observations are on what he hears and sees and feels, and Finnick's youth comes through painfully clearly and it's gorgeous.
Those Who Favor Fire [SPOILERS for Catching Fire]
This is what he remembers most, what he tries his hardest to forget: streaks of indigo dye threading their way up his wrists and down his fingers, and the whites of his knuckles as he fisted the sheets.
Fascinating Cinna backstory -- I don't think it's an angle on him I've seen before, but the author makes me believe it, and it gives a whole new charge to Cinna's actions during the series. Haymitch and Finnick are great in this, too.
Backscatter [SPOILERS for the end of Mockingjay]
By the fourth day, I've decided me and Haymitch are building a bomb.
Another postcanon fic, and another one I can't provide too many details on for fear of spoilers, but it's a great look at the aftermath of the books, the delicate and uncertain balance a lot of the characters try so desperately to maintain and can't always manage to do. Also some of the best fic from a kid's perspective I've read in a while.
Closer to the Sun
Snapshots of Rue's life before and during the Games.
Oh, Rue. These vignettes are lovely and wistful, and even the most painful moments have a kind of grace to them. And I love how heat and light are woven throughout this story, how Rue is so much a creature of the sun and keeps striving for it even in the harshest of circumstances. Gorgeous.
Someday I will stop talking about The Hunger Games. Today is not that day.
.