Another Isabel Cañas masterpiece. This going down in the good-for-her category because wow oh wow is that ending so deliciously perfect.

The historic details she includes creates such a vivid setting. I'm in awe of how she adds so much and it never overwhelms but completely absorbs me in the narrative. The characters like Alba, Victoriana, Elias, and the Priest Bartolome to name a few, are all so grey for lack of a better term. They are completely human and have flaws and moments when feel for most of them and moments when you absolutely want to wring their neck (looking at the Priest... bastard).

The horror in this book creeps on you slowly until all of sudden I'm sleeping with the lights turned on and hearing noises where there are none. As much as I enjoy reading horror/soft horror, I usually stay clear from books about possession (blame religious trauma), but I knew I would be in good hands with Isabel's story.

Alba is the heroine of my heart. She gives gothic damsel and strong female lead at the same time. Hard to do in most cases but it absolutely works here. I think I can go on and on about this book. It's almost like I'm... possesed...

Well, now I know why I put this off for so long. The Hungers Games books along with Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes are all brutal. But this book was DEVASTATING. When I thought it couldn't get worse (naive of me) it did.

Even though I know how the story ends, I couldn't help but hope with ever fiber of my being that it somehow ended differently. What makes it even more heartbreaking is that it won't be for another 24-25 years until everything gets "better." Because as Haymitch put it... there are no winners, only survivors.

I appreciated how this book ties a lot of storylines together and we learn more about the motivations of characters that appear in the Hunger Games books, like Mags, Beetee, and Wiress. It just makes so much sense now. And again, makes it more heartbreaking. I also always understood why Haymitch kept himself plastered, but now I emotionally understand because it just kept going and these are some of the most horrific deaths she's written. If anyone forgot how evil The Capitol is when reading the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (looking at those people that kept swooning at young Snow), Sunrise on the Reaping should remind you "who the real enemy is."

As a personal side note - shame on anyone who reads these books and says they aren't political or have nothing to do with right now. Your cognitive dissonance is staggering.

Notable Quotes: "The Law Demands that we atone, When we take things we do not own, But leaves the lords and ladis fine Whot take things that are yours and mine."

"And that's part of our trouble. Things are inevitable. Not believing change is possible."

"I think I can't believe people with somuch monehy have such bad taste. Here you are with mountains of cash, and this is where you wound up?"

"Their lack of discenrnment transforms the recap, validating it as truth. I hope those in the districts can still see it as the piece of propoganda it is, but no telling what they've been fed."