Is The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes a Villain Sympathizer Novel? (Spoiler Filled Review)

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I'm going to be another book review. Since I haven't read Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, this review won't be Twilight related (that's a first). 

For today's book review, I'm going to be reviewing The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which was a novel released by Suzanne Collins in May 2020 as a prequel to The Hunger Games. This novel takes place 64 years before The Hunger Games. 

It follows Coriolanus Snow as he's a teenager, which may seem like any other villain sympathizer novel, but to me, it didn't read that way. 

Let's get into the review!

As I mentioned in the introduction, this story follows Coriolanus Snow, whom (if you've read The Hunger Games) you know is President Snow in the original novels. When this book came out, the protagonist (Snow) is why people elected to shy away from it. 

A popular trope recently in both books and movies is the villain story, which tends to be a prequel to the original work that usually results in the "villain sympathizer" plot, where the villain is in a lot of cases redeemed or rooted for.

While I understand why people would dislike this concept, it actually didn't turn out that way. I don't recall ever reading a villain sympathizer novel, but I did watch the first Maleficent movie that Disney released and I didn't much care for it. I liked the original Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, which followed more faithfully to the original work written by the Grimm Brothers. 

While I do understand that by now many liberties are taken on fairytale adaptations because of how short the majority of them are, I just wasn't a fan of that movie. I have read and watched fairytale adaptations that I enjoy, so obviously it isn't that. 

But I digress. This review is about The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

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I don't want to go in-depth plot wise, because that's not the main thing I want to discuss. 

As far as plot goes, the main thing is that Coriolanus Snow is chosen to be a mentor for the 12th district female tribute in the 10th annual Hunger Games. That tribute's name is Lucy Gray Baird, a girl who lives with the Covey, a singing troupe that travels throughout Panem to perform. She isn't from District 12, but she and the Covey became trapped there after the rebellion.

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To begin, this book isn't in Snow's head. While The Hunger Games was first-person from Katniss' point-of-view, this is told in third-person.

There are many things that make this not a villain sympathizer novel. One is that Coriolanus (for the most part), is a jerk to begin with. At this point, President Snow is a eighteen year old boy living in the Capitol. He isn't a 100% villain yet, but he isn't a hero, or even someone you root for. 

In this novel, he's an antihero, but not the kind you root for like Sherlock Holmes, Han Solo, Jack Sparrow, the Crows from Six of Crows, or even to some degree Severus Snape.

Coriolanus is a teenager who makes a lot of bad decisions, which lead him down his path of tyranny. All the signs are there at age eighteen. He may sympathize with the tributes, but at heart, his loyalties still lie with the Capitol, and that never changes. From the first few chapters, you can tell that he's selfish. 

When he meets Lucy Gray, he states that he loves her. However, while it may seem as if he loves her romantically at first sight, he doesn't. He never loves Lucy Gray because of her personality. He only ever loved her because of personal gain and what fame and money she would get him during and after the Games, especially if she won. He realizes after that he has 'feelings' for her, but by the end of the novel, his loyalties lie with the Capitol. 

His loyalties never fully change at any point in the novel. He sways the tiniest bit, but the Capitol is his one true home. He betrays the only person who called him his only friend (Sejanus) because of his loyalties with the Capitol, which leads to Sejanus being hanged. 

I fail to see how we're supposed to be sympathetic. Besides that he's also incredibly jealous, to the point of being abusive and possessive. 

Regardless of third-person writing, he essentially calls Mrs. Plinth (Sejanus' mother) pathetic for her collection of things from District Two. While he did sympathize with the tributes and their situation, he always thought of Sejanus as being pathetic for still siding with the districts (despite knowing Sejanus grew up there). 

These points are proof that Coriolanus is not a hero, nor a really good person. After Sejanus' death, Snow lets his parents still believe that the two of them were close friends, which leads them to accept him as the heir of their fortune, which he later uses to finance his life. They also paid for his enrollment at the University.

Do I understand why Snow hates the rebels? Yes. Do I see why he became who he is? Yes. However, I don't think this book is supposed to make us like him more. This book, to me, seems more like it's meant for us to understand President Snow and seeing how messed up Panem is prior to him leading. I didn't sympathize with him. I empathized. 

Sympathy and empathy are not the same thing, let me make that clear. Sympathy is feeling sorry for someone's misfortune and sharing the feelings of another, while empathy is understanding another's actions and feelings, but not necessarily sharing them (in the case of highly empathetic people, they can feel another's emotions as if they are their own, even if those feelings are never brought up). 

Unlike sympathy, empathy cannot be faked. Empathy is life-long (regardless of how empathetic you are), while in a lot of cases, sympathy is temporary, because it tends to be situational.

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While many people also say that this novel adds nothing to the original trilogy, I disagree. Whether or not this book was written after is irrelevant. I enjoyed the references to the "Hanging Tree" and "Down in the Meadow," even though was written after. It doesn't matter to me when this book came out.

To me, this book makes me dislike Coriolanus even more. He had a choice to side with the districts and turn his back on the Capitol, but he didn't. This book shows that he, like all of us, is human. He is capable of having feelings. For me, that makes him even scarier. I'm not scared of a person who is incapable of emotions and feelings. I'm scared of a person who can feel, but chooses not to. That's why President Snow is a scary villain to me, even more now. He can feel emotions like all of us, but he opts not to, while we do the opposite.

While he did decide to keep doing the Hunger Games, it can't be denied that he made the living conditions more humane. Even though he makes the transport and housing for the tributes more humane, you can tell he also romanticizes the Games as a way to downplay the danger. Kind of like, "You're seeing children fight to the death on television, but it's all fun and games. It's a grand spectacle." It reminds me of gladiator fights in Rome (which was an inspiration for Suzanne Collins), but while many of those were voluntary, the Games are not.

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The problem with Coriolanus is he trusts the Capitol too much. He is swayed very easily in some regard (I understand teenagers are impressionable, but Snow takes it too far). I still believe he would've become a tyrant, but Dr. Gaul probably influenced him as well. After all, he wouldn't have been in the arena without her telling him to be there.

To make matters worse, he's quick to play the blame game and holds grudges. He says it was Sejanus' fault that he was there, not Dr. Gaul, even though she's the one who called him (honestly, how stupid and inconsiderate can you be). 

When he was doubting the Games' efficiency, Dr. Gaul quickly made him question the morality and nature of humans. She clearly had a hand in his tyranny, even if he was a pretty twisted character to begin with.

Also, I don't understand why he's surprised Bobbin attacked him. Who wouldn't dislike the Capitol? They're corrupt, unfair, and cruel. They have the Hunger Games after all, a fight to the death for kids who weren't even involved in the rebellion. I'd say Bobbin was angry for a reason. I'm not a fan of using death as an automatic first option, but I understand why Bobbin was upset.

I didn't see any point in this novel where Coriolanus was a good person. He's a liar, cheater, and a hypocrite. I don't care if he sympathized with the tributes. They don't want his sympathy. They want the Games to come to an end, and he continued them. They want to stop being unfairly murdered, while the only thing Snow wants is power and fame.

Coriolanus only ever wanted the "free ride" to the University. He didn't care about Lucy. He didn't care about Sejanus. He wasn't even very close with his own father (regardless of it he died when he was little or not). He only ever wanted power. He wanted things as long as it benefited him. He only wanted the personal gain. If he had truly loved Lucy as he claimed, then he would've turned his back on the Capitol instead of his back on her. He can't get behind the fact that the Capitol is cruel and controlling.

Just the fact that the 10th Hunger Games is pretty much erased from history shows how corrupt and controlling the Capitol is. The 10th Hunger Games is so memorable, so important, and yet, it's destroyed. This is the first Hunger Games in which District 12 has a victor. This is the first (potentially only) time that a tribute murders a mentor. This is the first time mentors are used, and Coriolanus is one of them.

Even the media's slogan is a giveaway that Panem is controlling. "If you didn't see it here, it didn't happen." Therefore, if they deny the 10th Hunger Games happened, then it didn't happen. There's no questioning the media (Capitol News). What they say is fact and their word is supposed to be trusted. 

The 23 tributes involved who died before and during the 10th Hunger Games were essentially erased from history, which is cruel and unfair to their families. 

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The day of the reaping shocked me as well. Personally, I think what makes a dystopian novel really good is when you can imagine the events actually happening, whether it's your own country, or someone else's. I could see a group of people revolting on July 4th. After all, it's only Independence Day. 

I could see a group revolting against the government (whatever government there is, along with whatever leader), and the highest powers taking revenge on them by making these games on the same day to remind them that they are lesser. 

I can see that happening, which is why I think that this book does add something to the original trilogy, regardless if people like it or not (not everyone is going to like a book). It makes Panem more terrifying. It makes Panem more unfair. It makes Panem a really messed up society, and it makes Panem more real, even though it felt real from the beginning.

Besides, it isn't like this Hunger Games came out of nowhere. If I remember correctly (I reread The Hunger Games [first book] in preparation for this prequel, though I haven't read the other two in about 2 years), Katniss watches the previous Hunger Games and there's an empty space where the tenth might be (it's never said that it's the tenth, but it could be implied now that this book is out). I could be wrong, but I'm fairly certain this happens.

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To conclude, I don't believe The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a villain sympathizer novel, even if dozens of people disagree. 

I liked the references to future books and it also kind of explains why President Snow hates Katniss so much, seeing how much she parallels Lucy Gray. It was also interesting to find out why Snow likes roses so much. We also got to read about the connection Tigris has to President Snow, being his older cousin, so I found that intriguing.

All in all, I really enjoyed this prequel and arguably liked it more than I liked Mockingjay, though I'll have to reread Mockingjay to be sure. It was very thought provoking and I would definitely reread it. Even though it was over 500 pages, I read it in roughly 10 hours. On Goodreads, I rated it a 4 out of 5 stars.

That's it for this review! I hope you enjoyed it!

Until next time,

Lexi K🖌

2016: A Year in Photos

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! 

Today is going to be a post about photography. December 2020 was my five year anniversary of doing photography, so I thought I'd showcase the best photos I took in 2016. I don't really have enough photos from 2015 to show them here, since I began just before New Year's Day. 

I began photography when I was twelve years old. I had started by using an iPhone. I had photos that I would upload to MyShot, which was a National Geographic Kids photography social media platform. If I remember correctly, the platform closed in 2018. 

MyShot was my favorite site for the longest time, and my family knew it. It kickstarted my interest in photography and helped me grow my skills within the two and a half years I was on there (I took a lot of photos; in July 2016, I had already uploaded about 160 photos onto my account; I don't think I have all those photos, because there were quite a few that I deleted). One of the best parts about it was that if your photo was good enough, you would have it published in a National Geographic Kids issue. I was never published, though when I was younger it was a mini goal of mine. 

I was always interested in seeing the photos that were published in the issues, so when my family and I would go to the grocery store, I would look at the photos while we were standing in line.

Since I was 13 by the time MyShot closed, I started uploading photos onto Your Shot, which was the "adult" version of MyShot for ages 13 and up. I haven't had much luck in regards to sharing my photography within the past couple years because Your Shot closed in October 2019. They moved their photography community platforming to Instagram, which I don't have, so I'm very limited on my photo sharing at the moment. 

Therefore, I have decided to share some of my best photos on my blog. A few of these were edited, and I will specify which ones. I will include the edited and [mostly] unedited versions; I don't delete my photos unless they're accidental or blurry beyond redemption. Also, in case you are wondering, I don't use Photoshop to edit--I either use the built-in photo editor on my HP desktop or the editor of whatever I use to take the photo. Each photo has a caption, which includes the title, date taken, and model of camera. These photos were taken when I was 12-13 years old (before and after my birthday).

You may notice that these photos have names on them. I would've left the text out, but I don't trust the internet enough to leave them as is. This post has more photos than I initially intended so the post is a bit longer than I expected but I'm satisfied with the photos I chose to showcase. 

If you wish to see the photos a bit bigger, you can click on them. You can also click the first photo and scroll and see the photos in an online gallery format.

Let's look through my photo gallery!

Perception of Life. December 18, 2016. FujiFilm Finepix XP80.

I took this photo at Six Flags Fiesta Texas during a family vacation. This is an edited version. I edited it because at the time I was very interested in black & white photography (I still am). I had seen this sculpture (I don't remember who it was or if it was supposed to be a real person; I didn't pay attention to a potential plaque) and decided to make the photo look as if the sculpture/man was looking at the Superman Krypton Coaster.


I titled this photo Perception of Life. I'm honestly surprised this photo was so easy for me to name, because the most tedious part of this post was titling the photos I wanted to compile. I have always struggled with naming things, whether it be drawings, paintings, novels, short stories, poems, or, in this case, photographs.


The reason why I named this photo Perception of Life was because the more I looked at it, the more I saw it as an allegory for life. I envisioned this man (sculpture) seeing life as a roller coaster that has a lot of twists and turns.

Perception of Life. December 18, 2016. FujiFilm Finepix XP80.

This is the unedited version of Perception of Life. As you can tell, the main differences are that the photo above is black-and-white, while this one isn't and I added a vignette. Other than that, it's the same exact photo.

Window Gazer. October 8, 2016. iPhone 6.

This is a photo I took of my sister as we were driving past a local park. This photo isn't edited; I had a black and white filter applied. At the time I took this photo, I was pleasantly surprised. My sister had already been looking out the window and this tree came into the frame at the perfect time.


I had a difficult time naming this one. I had at least three other titles, none of which I liked. Thankfully, my sister is good at naming things, so I consulted her for names for about half the photos in this post.

Potterheart. November 19, 2016. Samsung WB1100F.

This was an experimental photo. I had been on Pinterest one day and had seen these DIY (do-it-yourself) lens filters. Some were of trees, hearts, and stars. I had attempted a tree, though I had failed epically. I think I tried to make a heart a few times, but it was either asymmetrical or too large. After a lot of trial and error, I was able to get it right, and decided to try it out by taking a photo of my sister's Harry Potter books, which I had been reading at the time.


I named this Potterheart because of the moniker for Harry Potter fans (Potterheads). I thought this name fit the mood I wanted to convey at the time.

Dining with Shamu. May 30, 2016. Samsung WB1100F.

I took this at SeaWorld San Antonio. My sister's boyfriend had bought us tickets to Dine With Shamu, which I thought was really cool. This was taken at around noon I believe. I think it was a lunch experience. It was really enjoyable and I got to take this nice photo.

Orca Breach. June 16, 2016. iPhone 5s.

I took this photo at SeaWorld San Antonio. This photo was edited. The original photo was a bit darker. I lightened it. I don't remember exactly what I did, but I know I cropped it (there were people in the frame) and brightened it. This was an educational orca show that was at around 10 in the morning.

Orca Breach. June 16, 2016. iPhone 5s.

I'm cheating a bit. Technically this photo isn't the "original" because this is a cropped image. But I didn't like having the back of a stranger's head in the photo. I've excused it for another photo in this post, but this one was just too noticeable and distracting. Personally, I love both versions. I think the original has a softer edge and looks more natural, but I like the vividness of the edited one as well.

Royal King Penguin. December 31, 2016. Samsung WB1100F.

I took this at the penguin exhibit at SeaWorld San Antonio. The Penguin Encounter exhibit there has a slow moving conveyor belt that visitors can stand in and it will take them directly in front of the exhibit. This is how I took this. 

I'm honestly surprised it came out so well considering the exhibit glass is/was stained with water drops and stuff. I took dozens of other photos that day and all of them showed the glass.

You may partially recognize this photo. This is the one I use for all of my social media stuff (Google, Pinterest, and Goodreads) because I love it. Penguins are my favorite animals, and this is one of my favorite photos that I've ever taken. I was especially impressed because of how old I was. I took this photo when I was thirteen and this was around my one year photography anniversary.

Alley Strike. July 2, 2016. iPhone 6.

Around this time, I was really interested in taking toy photos (there are a couple more further down). This is a Lego figure that I believe is my sister's. I don't fully remember. It was almost 5 years ago. The bowling alley she is standing on was a wooden project that I made (I was doing kid's workshops at Home Depot and Lowe's; I think this was Home Depot, though I could be mistaken). The ball and bowling pins had come with the kit.

For this photo I believe I used a flashlight instead of flash (which I did many times in 2016; to this day, it's still an automatic technique of mine). I feel like if I used flash, the background would be a bit brighter, maybe to the point of being blinding.

Call of the Sea Lion. December 30, 2016. FujiFilm Finepix XP80.

Another photo from SeaWorld San Antonio. I took this one at the Sea Lion area. If you can't tell, I enjoy taking photos of animals. They're difficult to photograph because they constantly move, but that's also what makes them enjoyable to photograph. 

It's a bit of challenge, but if you take enough, chances are you'll end up with a gem. I enjoy photographing animals because very seldom are the photos ever the exact same. You tend to get some nice action shots.

Scaly Tint. December 30, 2016. FujiFilm Finepix XP80.

This was another one from SeaWorld San Antonio. I took this at the Animal Connections Conservation Center that was by the Penguin Encounter exhibit. I don't remember what kind of snake this was. I liked how the snake was coiled up in the frame, so I took a photo of it.

Sky Burst. December 31, 2016. Samsung WB1100F.

This is a photo of New Year's Eve fireworks I took at either Six Flags Fiesta Texas or SeaWorld San Antonio (I don't remember; we went to both parks for New Year's). This was the first time I was taking firework photos with this camera, so it was a process. 

Thankfully, it was a short process. The first 6-12 photos I took came out blurry and bad, but before the show was even close to being over I found a way to take the photos without them coming out blurry. 

It was difficult, to say the least. My family was just watching the show, while I was half watching and half fiddling with the camera. Somehow, I didn't miss any of the fireworks. 

Red-Tipped Fire Wheel. December 31, 2016. Samsung WB1100F.

This was taken around the same time as the previous one. I like the previous one more (personally, I think the firework smoke detracts from this photo), but I liked this one enough to include it here.

Chill-ion. December 30, 2016. FujiFilm Finepix XP80.

Another photo taken at Pacific Point Preserve (the Sea Lion area). I thought this one came out really well. I like how it almost looks as if the Sea Lion is posing for the camera. 

Sunny Dew. July 14, 2016. iPhone 6.

This photo was the subject of an experiment. My family and I had grown some sunflowers in the backyard of our old house and my mother had just watered them. I liked the way the water drops looked, plus I wanted to take some photos. I didn't want to use the flash; it was around 8 or 10 at night and the flash would be bright and potentially reflect off the windows (and the white balance tends to make the subject really bright and obscured), so this photo didn't utilize flash at all. Instead, I grabbed a flashlight and aimed it just right so I could take this photo. 

This was definitely one of the many photos on here that I uploaded to MyShot. I remember because I had gotten a comment on it from one of the Nat Geo Kids photography moderators about how smart this was because the flashlight creates a softer light than flash, which tends to be harsher.

Kaleidoscope. December 25, 2016. FujiFilm Finepix XP80.

I took this one inside the hotel we were staying in. This was a little tree that we had bought to put in our room for the holidays. If I remember correctly, we had just come back from buying ice cream at Target. Either that, or we had just returned from SeaWorld. One of the two. I like how this one turned out. It looks very festive and bright, which is exactly the mood I wanted to convey.

Sonata de Beethoven. November 19, 2016. Samsung WB1100F.

This is an edited photo. I edited it because the moon photos I tend to take have to be edited to get a nice image. The camera I use (the one I prefer is the Samsung WB1100F; the aperture [how much light enters the camera] can't be adjusted; it isn't quite a DSLR [digital single-lens reflex; in layman's terms, digital camera], but it isn't quite a point-and-shoot; it's a hybrid of the two) isn't suited for moon or star photos (I could probably find a more natural way to make it work, but I just haven't been able to as of yet), nor is it really great for nighttime (though it's fantastic for fireworks).

Sonata de Beethoven. November 19, 2016. Samsung WB1100F.

This is the unedited photo. It still looks like the moon, but I still preferred the look of the one above. I just wish the sky on the edited photo didn't have to become so Aegean Teal (shade of blue produced by the Benjamin Moore paint company).

Shell of Life. May 26, 2016. iPhone 6.

I took this photo on my backyard porch. This is technically edited but not edited. This was a black-and-white filter that I applied. I took many photos across different dates of this nest, which was resting on a planter where my mother had been trying to grow grapes (they didn't grow). A baby bird had hatched out of this egg at some point, and I thought it would look cool in black-and-white, so I took a photo of it.

Gated Gator. December 31, 2016. Samsung WB1100F.

This was taken at Alligator Alley at SeaWorld San Antonio, which is right by Rosita's Cafe Pizza and Pasta Buffet. For this photo, I got down at the gator's eye level and took a photo through the fence. I positioned it so the alligator's eye was framed inside of the grids. Lucky for me, the fence ended up being blurred instead of the gator. 

Serpentine. December 29, 2016. FujiFilm Finepix XP80.

I also took this at the Animal Connections Conservation Center at SeaWorld San Antonio. I took this the day before the other one, hence why the snake is in a different position. I liked how it looked as if it was staring at something in its exhibit (it probably was). One of my favorite things about this photo is just how much definition the camera picked up regarding the snake's scales.

Holly Jolly Holiday. November 25, 2016. Samsung WB1100F.

I took this photo at Target. My family and I had gone there for some reason. Chances are it was related to the holidays. This photo was edited. If I remember correctly, I only did two things. I added a vignette (the black shadowing around the edges) and darkened it. 

This was taken in the section of the store where they keep the Christmas tree displays in November and December. I had stopped while my family kept walking, took this photo, and quickly ran back to the cart. I used to take quite a few photos in stores, until I realized that some stores don't allow this and discourage it (that's a photography story for another time).

Holly Jolly Holiday. November 25, 2016. Samsung WB1100F.

This is the unedited version of Holly Jolly Holiday. As you can see, there's a lot of white due to the fake snow on the trees and ground, which was the main thing I wasn't a big fan of, hence why I edited it. I still like this version, but I prefer the edited to this one.

The First Task. November 18, 2016. iPhone 6.

This was a photo I took through a toy magnifying glass (I don't remember if it was mine or my sister's). I took a lot of Harry Potter photos this day. I had a mini HP photoshoot. If you've read the books, then you know that I was reading Goblet of Fire. 

I like how this one came out. For some reason, I enjoy taking photos while experimenting with magnifying glasses (I've done something similar to this at least four more times; it seems to be a recurring theme).

Black Beauty. November 19, 2016. Samsung WB1100F.

I took this photo at one of my local stores (I think it was Sam's Club). This is an edited version. I added a black and white filter and darkened it.

Black Beauty. November 19, 2016. Samsung WB1100F.

This is the unedited version of Black Beauty. Ignore the fact that once this photo is shown SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera), the name doesn't really apply anymore. This was a bouquet of roses. 

Around this time, I was really interested in photos of flowers (the photos I'm interested in taking at a certain time changes pretty frequently, but I'm sure you noticed). I liked the composition of this photo, particularly the break in color with the white. 

Steel Eel. December 25, 2016. FujiFilm Finepix XP80.

Another one taken at SeaWorld San Antonio. We had either been walking to the Penguin Encounter exhibit, or walking from it. I don't remember, but either way, I looked up and saw how high the Steel Eel was and how the posts looked, so I took a quick photo.

Twist and Turns. December 28, 2016. FujiFilm Finepix XP80.

I took this one at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. I believe I had taken this one while inside a restaurant, though I could be mistaken. This is the Superman Krypton Coaster (which I didn't ride; my family and I don't do roller coasters much). There isn't much to say about this one. I just zoomed in and took the shot and this was the result.

Clarice and Rudolph. December 29, 2016. FujiFilm Finepix XP80.

This was another photo taken at SeaWorld San Antonio. Since we had gone during the holidays, we did a couple dinners. One of them was a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer dinner where you could (obviously) take pictures with Rudolph and Clarice. It was very enjoyable. 

I took other photos with flash that didn't have a blue tint (my mother had asked me because she wanted Rudolph and Clarice to not be tinted blue), but I personally like this one more. It's unique and different.

The Quibbler. November 18, 2016. iPhone 6.

In 2016, I had my big Harry Potter craze. I had started reading the books for the first time. At this time I was reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but I had been watching the movies (for the millionth time). When I got sorted on Pottermore, I got sorted into Ravenclaw. 

I really liked Luna Lovegood and the Spectrespecs, so I drew my own Quibbler magazine and made my own Spectrespecs, though you can't see them in this photo.

This is technically edited, but the only edit was cropping it. I cropped it just before I included it in this post because I didn't like the background, so I'm not going to show the original.

Remember the Alamo. June 18, 2016. Probably iPhone 5s.

My family and I had gone down to San Antonio after one of my appointments (my appointments were in Dallas), and we had gone to see the Alamo. I took this photo while we were there. There's nothing particularly special about it, but I wanted to include it because I like the framing. It reminds me of a postcard.

Platform 9 and 3/4. November 21, 2016. iPhone 6.

I took this one at my local theater. My family and I had gone to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and my theater had a little Harry Potter display. They had this, along with paper banners of each house and letters from Hogwarts hanging from the ceiling. I told my sister that I wanted to get some photos, so she posed for me. I angled it to give it more depth.

Bobble Rocket. July 15, 2016. iPhone 6.

I took this photo outside (obviously) in my backyard. This was a bobblehead Funko Pop of Rocket Raccoon that I had gotten the year before for my 12th birthday. I positioned him on top of a little bird decoration we used to have. 

This was my first attempt at bokeh (an aesthetic blur behind the subject; the background usually appears as little bubbles). It was a failed attempt, but an attempt nonetheless.

Captain Hook. July 2, 2016. iPhone 6.

This is another toy photo. I had been taking a lot of photos of Legos at this time, so I took this photo of a Captain Hook Lego figure that I got from a blind pack (Peter Pan has been my favorite Disney movie since I was pretty much born). In the background is a Lego set for The Little Mermaid.

Greenlight. June 4, 2016. iPhone 5s.

This was another photo that I took at SeaWorld San Antonio. This was Light Up the Night, which was the last show before closing. This is unedited. I was proud of how this photo came out. Most of the other photos I took at shows would come out blurry, so this one was a pleasant surprise.

Aqua-Reef. May 31, 2016. iPhone 5s.

I took this photo at Explorer's Reef, SeaWorld San Antonio's little aquarium where they keep sharks, other fish, and poison dart frogs. I don't remember what kind of fish this is. This one wasn't edited; the water color just didn't come out right on the camera.

I hope you enjoyed my 2016 photo gallery! 

I intend to do more posts similar to this one in the future. Hopefully, the future installments are more organized (I want to showcase the photos in order from oldest to newest). This was more chaotic than I intended, but I didn't think about ordering them until I had already inserted the photos and I didn't feel like deleting them just to put them back.

See you Thursday,

Lexi K🖌

Is Midnight Sun the Best Twilight Novel?

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I'm going to be reviewing Midnight Sun, the fifth Twilight that was released last year. 

Due to the fact that this book has been out for 8 months, this review will be filled with spoilers (though since this is Twilight from Edward's perspective, there isn't much to spoil). So, if you haven't read Midnight Sun and you wish to, I'd recommend leaving this post, reading it, and then coming back. 

There are also a couple of spoilers for New Moon and Breaking Dawn, so if you haven't read those, I'd also recommend leaving this post if you're interested.

Around the time of this book's release, I did a spoiler-free review of Midnight Sun on my sister's blog, which I will link here if you wish to check that review out instead: The Real World According to Sam (opens in new window) 

With that being said, let's get into the review!

Let's begin with the background for Midnight Sun. In 2008 (after the release of Breaking Dawn), Stephenie Meyer announced that she was writing Midnight Sun, which is Twilight from Edward's perspective. 

However, not long after this, twelve chapters of her manuscript were leaked on the internet, so she said that due to this, the project had been put on hold indefinitely. Fans of the Twilight Saga were excited about Midnight Sun, and had been waiting for the book since it was announced. Well, it was finally released in August 2020.

It was ironic, because during the beginning of quarantine last year (March), I decided to read Twilight. I started reading it because I was a teenager and it was a popular YA book when my sister was in high school. I wanted to see what all the hype was all about. While I was reading New Moon, it was announced that a fifth Twilight novel, titled Midnight Sun, was going to be released in August. 

My library got an e-book copy that was preordered and showed up on the site a few days before. I immediately put it on hold, and my sister and I read it a couple weeks after its release.

The writing:

The writing was definitely a pleasant surprise. I had been hoping that since Twilight came out 15 years ago, the writing would be better, and Stephenie Meyer didn't disappoint. It still isn't the best writing I've ever read, but it's far better than the other books in this series. The grandiloquent words make more sense in Edward's perspective than Bella's, seeing as he is from an older time. It probably also helps that I enjoyed being in Edward's head more than Bella's.

Overall, I don't have much to say about the writing. It wasn't phenomenal, though I did enjoy Edward's comparisons to Greek mythology, along with the interactions between his family members. These Greek mythological references didn't feel as if they belonged in Bella's perspective, and therefore, made much more sense in Edward's.

I have to say that of the three perspectives we have read throughout the Twilight Saga (Bella, Jacob [Breaking Dawn], and Edward [Midnight Sun]), my favorite by far is Edward's. He is much more personable. His logic makes more sense (save for his stalker-ish tendencies). 

The story:

The plot was pretty much the exact same as Twilight, except instead of seeing Bella's family life, you see Edward's. It was very interesting to read about what Edward was doing while Bella was doing something else. For instance, the hunt and the final battle scenes are told from Edward's perspective.

We get to see how the Cullen family finds Bella, which was really fascinating. We get to see what happens between James being defeated and Bella waking up in the hospital, since in Twilight, Bella was conveniently unconscious for all the events between. 

The plot of Twilight was very basic, sometimes bordering on annoyingly simplistic. Midnight Sun is just as simple, but it didn't feel as basic to me, and was much less annoying. I was only annoyed once, though I can't fully remember why, so it mustn't have been that annoying after all. 

I think it's because Edward's daily life is ten times more interesting than Bella's. His life is less mundane and ordinary, as you would hope since he is supernatural. I found Midnight Sun significantly less boring than Twilight.

It was enjoyable to see more of the Cullen family, which is one of the main reasons why I believe this is by far the best book in the Twilight Saga. I'm going to talk about each of the main characters in the upcoming sub-sections.

The key differences between Midnight Sun and Twilight are that the Cullens actually vaguely know Bella's future just after she meets Edward, due to Alice's visions. A lot of things that happened in Twilight are really explained here, though not to the point of feeling spoon-fed. As an example, Alice foresees Tyler's van skidding and almost striking Bella. Edward sees this vision while reading Alice's mind, and immediately leaps into action to save Bella. 

After the van incident, Jasper is pretty set on killing Bella himself, which I found interesting. He wants to kill Bella because it may put Alice at risk. This is quickly resolved by Alice, who foresees the future and tells Jasper to not kill Bella because she will be Alice's friend. 

Shortly after this, it is revealed that Alice sees Edward falling in love with Bella. Edward refuses to believe it. After Jasper asks Alice what she sees, it is revealed that she only sees two outcomes. One is that Edward kills her, which Alice states would make her very unhappy and two, that Bella becomes one of them, meaning she sees Bella becoming a vampire.

After this revelation, Jasper is fully decided on not killing Bella, knowing how it would affect Alice. Instead, he decides to trust Alice and her visions completely. Edward leaves, unable to handle the thoughts of his family. He decides that he's not going to follow the path Alice's visions have laid before him. He would make his own path. Obviously, if you've read the Twilight Saga, you know this doesn't happen. Bella becomes a vampire, and there's nothing Edward is able to do about it.

Toward the end comes my favorite part of Midnight Sun. After Bella escapes Jasper and Alice, Edward and the rest of the Cullens (Alice, Jasper, Emmett, and Carlisle; Esme and Rosalie are back in Forks keeping an eye on Charlie) race to the dance studio where Bella and James are. Edward keeps seeing Alice's visions of Bella in his mind, which causes his focus to waver (he's driving). 

Jasper, sensing Edward's panic and uneasiness, begins projecting his battle focus (which he used to focus newborns when he was in war) on the rest of them. This focus keeps Edward from steering off the road and ultimately is the one thing that keeps Edward focused enough to save Bella. 

It's also made clear that Edward's decision to leave Bella in New Moon wasn't spur of the moment, like it initially seemed. He intended to leave her when she was in the hospital (the second time; after her run-in with James). 

It's also revealed that he was generically suicidal prior to Rosalie telling him that Bella jumped off a cliff in New Moon. He talks about traveling to Italy (which is where the Volturi are located).

They are able to save Bella. They take her to a hospital and the events when she's in the hospital unfold the same as they do in Twilight. 

On a small side note, I vaguely wondered how the doctors were able to believe that Bella fell from some flights of stairs in a hotel in Arizona. The reason they believe the story is that Alice flings herself down a flight of stairs at a hotel, breaking the glass, which shatters onto the pavement below. After this, Alice spills O-positive (Bella's blood type) blood onto the edges of the window and the sidewalk below. 

She calls the hotel front desk, explaining that a visiting friend fell down the stairs. She says that her friend (Bella) was already taken to the hospital, and she tells the woman that the mess should be cleaned up before someone else gets hurt. 

I read this and immediately thought, "Oh, that's how the story was believed so quickly." The plan itself is brilliant. While at the hospital, Alice hands Edward James' camera, which he used to record Bella when they were in the dance studio. Edward watches the footage. The novel ends with Edward and Bella going to prom. 

The characters:

Emmett Cullen
Emmett is a more fleshed out character here than in Twilight. I liked him more. In Twilight, he was just "the tough vampire" with that being his only trait. When I was reading the books from Bella's perspective, Emmett is always hanging out with Jasper, which made it seem as if they were the closest of the three brothers. It kind of paints a picture that Edward is the "odd one out." 

Here in Midnight Sun, you get to see all three of them are really close, and Edward is only the odd one out when it comes to being the only Cullen who's single. This is something Leo Valdez in The Heroes of Olympus would call a "seventh wheel." He's very close to Emmett, Jasper, Alice, and even Rosalie.

It was interesting to read just how much Emmett cared about Bella. I feel like more of his true personality showed more here than in the books from Bella's perspective, just because it's more distant. We got more of each of the Cullens' personalities, mostly due to Edward's ability to hear their thoughts. 

Rosalie Cullen
I was kind of surprised at how close Edward was to Rosalie and Emmett. I already knew he was close to Jasper, Alice, Esme, and Carlisle, but in the Twilight Saga, Rosalie always seems distant when it comes to Edward. It was really interesting to read about the interactions between him and Rosalie. Rosalie was still annoying, however, I understood her perspective much sooner than from Bella's point-of-view. 

I liked the development of familial relationships in this book. It was much more enjoyable to read about the Cullen family unit than how Bella talks about her parents in her mind.

Esme and Carlisle Cullen
We get to see more of Esme and Carlisle in this book. I love how caring Esme and Carlisle are toward their adoptive children. I really like the relationship between Esme and Edward. I love how motherly Esme is.

As far as Carlisle goes, I really like him as a father figure. Carlisle and Esme are actually some of the few parents I've read in YA that either don't annoy me, aren't dead (literally dead; undead doesn't count) or that actually attempt to be a part of their children's lives. I enjoy the two of them as a pair, and I enjoy them as parents.

Jasper Cullen
Where do I begin with Jasper? He was amazing as always. He's still my favorite of all the characters in the Twilight Saga. I especially enjoyed the scenes with him toward the end of the book. 

All in all, Jasper is the best, and as much as I dislike the Twilight Saga, (especially New Moon) my opinion of Jasper will never change. 

I loved that he was one of the key reasons they were able to reach Bella in time. It was also enjoyable to read more about Alice and Jasper's relationship, even if it was from Edward's point-of-view.

Alice Cullen
As much as we see regarding Alice and Edward's relationship in the Twilight Saga, I still enjoy how much more we got to see in this installment. I find it interesting how much they can communicate between each other with such small movements and words. I was really intrigued with just how much her visions told about Bella's future. 

 
Bella Swan
I also liked Bella from Edward's perspective more than from her own. It was much easier to tolerate her from his POV because she actually had a personality. It was also refreshing to read about Edward's flaws and concerns, because in Twilight, Edward is this perfect vampire who can do no wrong, which I found incredibly dull. 

The way Edward views Bella is also more romantic, as he likes everything about her--unlike Bella, who constantly comments on Edward's eyes, voice, and overall attractiveness way too many times in Twilight. Bella's thoughts of Edward are more superficial, whereas Edward's have more substance, and are based more on Bella's character than her looks.

In my opinion, it is much easier to root for Bella and Edward from his perspective than hers, because she actually seems like a decent human being who cares about others, whereas in Twilight, she came across as being relatively selfish. I almost feel as if Bella's good deeds and personality traits were downplayed in Twilight. 

Either that or I didn't care enough about her to notice when she was helping others, which is entirely possible. I don't want a character who constantly mentions how much they help people, but I also don't want a character who tells or shows us nothing about their charity or selflessness if it's supposed to be one of that character's traits. 

Edward Cullen
When I read Twilight, I was really annoyed with Edward eavesdropping on Bella's conversations. I have to admit that in this book it didn't bother me as much. Especially once you read the thoughts of Mike and Jessica. Of the students at Forks that Bella knows (Cullens' excepted), my favorite is Angela.

 
As far as the Twilight Saga goes, I like Edward better than Bella, but there are times where he still annoyed me. Surprisingly, I didn't have as many of these moments in Midnight Sun, and I'm really glad. I don't like being annoyed, especially when I'm reading. I read to get away from annoyances, not to get more. I don't feel as if there's much to say about Edward. He didn't annoy me in this book, but then again, nobody really did, not even Bella, surprisingly.

Overall Thoughts
If I could choose to re-read any Twilight book again, I would most definitely pick Midnight Sun. The writing is much better, the characters have more depth, and it was a more enjoyable read than the other four books in this series.  

Even if I were to never re-read this book, I would still re-read some of the passages, because I did truly enjoy many of them (the majority of the ones with Jasper, especially the scenes toward the end). 

Honestly, Midnight Sun was so much more interesting plot-wise than Twilight. When I initially started it I was wondering, "How different could this book possibly be? It's just Twilight from Edward's POV." It was more interesting than I thought. I wasn't able to predict everything, like I assumed I was going to be able to. It was different enough to feel like a different story.

I think fans of the Twilight Saga will highly enjoy this book, especially if they are on Team Edward. As for Team Jacob, he doesn't really appear much in this book, since it's from Edward's perspective. 

I would really like to see another Twilight book, this time from either Jasper or Alice's point-of-view, because we don't really know anything about Alice's human life. We found out a little about her life in Twilight, but her human life is still a huge question mark. 

Riddle me this, Stephenie Meyer:  Who turned Alice into a vampire? How did she have visions as a child, before she turned into a vampire? Why was James hunting her as a human? What were hers and Jasper's lives like before the Cullens?

These are the questions I want answered, not how russet-colored Jacob's skin is, or how velvety Edward's voice sounds. Tell us more about Alice. I want this puzzle solved. Alice's life is such a large puzzle, even the Riddler can't solve it. 

Overall, I rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars. It isn't on my list of favorites, but I did really enjoy it.

That's it for this review! I hope you enjoyed it! 

Until next time, 

Lexi K🖌