March was a great reading month for our editorial team. From Suzanne Collins’ brand new, highly anticipated novel Sunrise on the Reaping to Cervantes’ Don Quixote, one of the most famous and influential books of all time, we picked some very iconic reads – and judging from our ratings, they deserve their reputation! We hope we can give you some great recommendations for the coming months with these reviews.
Editor: Brigitta
Book: I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Page Count: 188
Favourite Quote: “There’s no continuity and the world I have come from is utterly foreign to me. I haven’t heard its music, I haven’t seen its painting, I haven’t read its books […] I am the sterile offspring of a race about which I know nothing, not even whether it has become extinct.”
Rating: 5/5
I Who Have Never Known Men follows thirty-nine women and one young girl imprisoned in a cage underground, under constant surveillance by male guards. The women cannot remember why or how they have been imprisoned, and have no idea what sort of world now lies above them. The novel is narrated by the young girl, who has grown up inside the cage and has no understanding of life outside of imprisonment.
While often categorised as a science-fiction novel for its implied post-apocalyptic setting, I Who Have Never Known Men is as philosophically significant as it is dystopian. Harpman expertly explores the meaninglessness of the world she constructs, and questions how such profound physical and emotional isolation impacts the humanity of the imprisoned women, and particularly of the girl who knows nothing else. The novel does not follow the typical progression of post-apocalyptic narratives, further setting it apart from other dystopian stories. Without giving away too much, all I can say is that the narrative did not once go where I thought it was going – it surprised me at every turn of its short, 188-page run.
This is an incredibly gripping novel despite its relatively slow pace, and it is to Harpman’s credit that she is able to create such a continual sense of dread and intrigue throughout. I Who Have Never Known Men is disturbing, terrifying, and utterly strange, but it is also incredibly compelling. Harpman’s command of character, her skilful unveiling of narrative, and her confidence to leave so many questions unanswered makes this a novel like no other. It is one of the best books I’ve read in a while, and certainly one of the most memorable – I would absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for a unique and thought-provoking read.
Editor: Becca
Book: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Genre: Dystopian action/adventure
Page Count: 517
Favourite Quote: “For a moment he laughed, forgetting where they were, how depressing the backdrop. For a moment there was just her smile, the musical cadence of her voice, and the hint of flirtation. Then the world exploded.” (pg.138)
Rating: 5/5
In the lead up to the release of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, it felt only right to go back and reread one of the other novels in the series. I chose to read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes to refamiliarize myself with the origins of the series itself. The original Hunger Games trilogy is a series that I have loved and read repeatedly countless times because of the addictive nature of the dystopian storyline and for some of the best written characters I believe have been created in literature. As the prequel came out only 5 years ago, I have not had as much chance to know the story off by heart and become obsessed in the way I have been with the original three novels. Therefore, picking it up again this month has been refreshing. I still got to read a Suzanne Collins novel and still feel connected to the originals whilst also getting to read over a fresh perspective on the story.
The first time I read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes I was instantly hooked and felt so much love for the newly introduced character of Lucy Gray. This time was no different. The way she is portrayed makes you sympathise so much with the meaning of the story and the more her character develops, the more you feel a sense of protectiveness, especially when knowing the real nature behind the façade of President Snow. This book is full of tension, fear, and competition, all hidden in plain sight due to the romance that is founded between mentor and mentee. The love between Coriolanus and Lucy is sweet and gentle and Suzanne Collins does an excellent job at masking the true evil that lies at the heart of Snow in favour of his connection with Lucy. After rooting for their relationship and being on the edge of your seat throughout the duration of the games, you feel so much dread and turmoil for what will happen at the end once Snow’s true colours start to be unravelled. Despite the action and the romantic ideals weaved into to the intensity of the games, the story leaves you with a deep and meaningful message about humanity and the nature of civility which overall makes you reflect on the society we live in. I really loved reading this book again. It got me so much more excited than I already was for the new book to be released, and I cannot wait to finally start reading it now it is out. If you loved the original trilogy, whether that is from the books or the films, then you will really love discovering where everything started and getting to understand the complex characters involved.
Editor: Luciana
Book: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Genre/category: Dystopian
Page count: 382
Favourite quote: “They will not use my tears for their entertainment.”
Rating: 5/5
Synopsis : When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.
Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.
When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena. (Goodreads)
Review: (Slight spoilers ahead) Suzanne Collins had some real beef with poor Haymitch Abernathy because she made him suffer endlessly throughout this book. Jokes aside, Sunrise on the Reaping is truly a masterpiece. Collins has said that “she only writes when she has something to say”, and she surely did now, for her political and social commentary is clearly stated throughout the novel. This prequel takes place 24 years before the events that take place on The Hunger Games’ first book, and we follow Haymitch’s perspective, the only other Hunger Games Victor from District 12, long before he was Katniss’ and Peeta’s drunken mentor. His games fall on a Quarter Quell, which are a “special edition of the games that fall every 25 years”. They all usually contain a deadlier twist, and in this case, instead of having two tributes go to the arena from each district, we get four. Which means 48 unlucky kids aged 12-18 are destined to fight to death for the entertainment of the Capitol rich.
We all know Haymitch in the original trilogy, the alcoholic, grumpy, negative victor who slowly warms up to Katniss and Peeta, but this book allows us to REALLY understand his motifs and why he is the way he is, looking at his gut-wrenching backstory and his games from his perspective. He literally watched everyone he loved or cared about die in front of him without him being able to do anything. That’s ought to give anyone some trauma. But Haymitch is not the only important character of this book. There are many cameos and easter eggs of characters we meet in The Hunger Games or Catching Fire, and it was so cool to see them appear as younger, more naive versions of themselves. And the new characters, such as Haymitch’s girlfriend, friends, and family, and the other tributes from 12, are also incredibly loveable and relatable in different ways. Collins really knows how to deliver a punch to the gut to all her readers.
The book really makes you feel immersed in the story, with Collins’ descriptions you can almost actually see all the details of the arena and you really get to love and mourn all the characters. As an OG Hunger Games fan, this book really transported me back to being 13 reading the trilogy for the first time, drawn to the characters and plot just as much as I did back then. I haven’t felt so strongly about a book in probably years, and I can’t wait to see it on the big screen, as the movie comes out in November of 2026.
Editor: Anna
Book: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Genre: Fiction
Page Count: 940
Favourite quote: “It is not where you were born, but who your friends are now that counts.”
Rating: 5/5
I had been meaning to read Don Quixote for some time, first brought to my attention by my dad singing to me the lyrics of The Stranglers’ 1977 single No More Heroes, in which Sancho Panza, Quixote’s trusty sidekick, gets an honourable mention. But the size of the book, and admittedly, its age, had me keeping it at arms length for some time. I was prejudiced in believing I would find it hard to follow, and I was intimidated by its acclaim. I decided to finally pick up the book and start reading it, a new years resolution of mine for 2025; and I’m so glad that I did. Cervantes now is the only author who has made me laugh so hard while reading that I had to put the book down for a couple of moments (the scene in which Don Quixote gets stuck standing on Rocinante while hanging from the window of the inn.) Don Quixote is a fantastic novel, filled with adventure, memorable characters, and nods towards the importance of being true to yourself, regardless of what others think. People mock Don Quixote for his lifestyle, but I believe throughout the novel many of them are, deep
down, jealous of his honest zest for life and capability to be whoever he wants to be. Don Quixote has read so many books about knighthood and chivalry he decides one day to claim such a lifestyle for himself. Thus, riding his trusted horse Rocinante, he embarks on a journey across Spain, meeting delinquents, shepherds, priests, dukes, and duchesses along the way, each having their own vibrant stories to tell. Alongside him, his appointed squire Sancho Panza, riding a donkey. Themes of friendship and loyalty are also explored, with
Monty Python-esq comedic scenes that will remain with me forever. I will attempt to not spoil the ending, but Cervantes also managed to make me cry; the final twenty or so pages I read through tears, but tears of happiness, of satisfaction from having Don Quixote’s adventures take place in my imagination throughout the weeks I read the novel. I would recommend this book to anyone, for it is the perfect (thick) slice of escapism,
enjoyment, and wonder. It is exactly everything that a story ought to be.
Editor: Rachel
Book: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Genre: Fantasy Setting
Page count: Listening time on audible was 36 hours and 35 minutes (somewhere around 800 – 1000 pages)
Favourite Quote:
“He understood for the first time that the world is not dumb at all, but merely waiting for someone to speak to it in a language it understands.”
“The argument he was conducting with his neighbour as to whether the English magician had gone mad because he was a magician, or because he was English.”
“No young lady ever had such advantages before: for she died upon the Tuesday, was raised to life in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and was married upon the Thursday; which some people thought too much excitement for one week.”
Rating: 5/5
I had recently enjoyed watching the TV series on Amazon and when I was scrolling through Audible, I found the audiobook. It’s a beautiful book, with wonderful descriptions of places you might find in a Hardy novel and descriptions of people in early 19th-century society that would be at home in a Jane Austen novel. The audiobook, along with other mediums, was rereleased for the 20th anniversary last year which meant that this audiobook is narrated by Richard Armitage (who seems to be Audible’s most used audiobook narrator – not that I’m complaining).
Unfortunately, Neil Gaiman is also narrating the footnotes (yes, footnotes- Clarke has created a whole alternative history with magic in England). While it is useful to have different voices to separate the main voice and footnotes so the flow makes more sense, it’s a shame this is now connected with Gaiman. This may be a suggestion to go and find the Simon Prebble audiobook from 2004. Audible seemed to only have this version. They did have the German or the Spanish audiobooks, but my understanding of either is not proficient enough for 36+ hours of storytelling.
The story itself is beautiful. The use of magic is enthralling, as well as an interesting analysis of what it means to be English is one of its recurring themes. It made me laugh and cry, the descriptions of the world are enchanting. Clarke’s descriptions like a box “the colour of heartbreak” are stunning. And her use of prophecy was interesting. I keep coming back to one of the lines in The Prophecy (absolutely capital ‘T’ in the story):
“The first shall bury his heart in a dark wood beneath the snow, yet still feel its ache;
The second shall see his dearest possession in his enemy’s hand…”
It seems that even after reading it again, I am still uncertain which one it refers to, but it’s curious to see how Clarke plays with expectations.
The ending, without giving too much away, is interesting as well. Though I love the main characters and their eccentricities, they are not the ones who are the heroes at the end of the story. It’s all the marginalised people, the servants, the ‘othered’, the women and the black man that are fixing the problems that have been started in the narrative.
Editor: Rosie
Book: Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
Genre: Literary Fiction
Page Count: 342 Pages
Favourite Quote: “The feeling that to be a girl with other girls was not some weakness, as they had been told, but a power, the best and luckiest power on earth.”
Rating: 4/5
A year after the sudden death of their beloved sister, Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky are still coming to terms with life without Nicky. Avery, the oldest, has always been the mother figure for her three sisters and now lives an affluent life in London with her wife Chiti. In the face of her grief, though, she returns to old, self-destructive habits. Bonnie, a former boxing champion, fled from her career and works as a security guard for a nightclub in LA, unable to face life in New York without her sister. The youngest, Lucky, leads a reckless life living in cities around the world and working as a model, but soon finds she is heading down a dark and destructive path. Dealing with their immense grief and individual issues, the three sisters must reconnect and together find their footing in life again, navigating this unfamiliar dynamic where four become three.
Blue Sisters explores the complexities of sisterhood that can only be unpicked by someone who has experienced the unique, messy, but beautiful dynamic. The novel explores the lives of three very different women unmistakably cut from the same cloth and tied to one another. The representation of different manifestations of grief is insightful; grieving looks very different for each of the sisters, but all experience the unfathomable sense of loss of their sister and a connection that can never be severed. Mellors creates dynamics that feel incredibly real, with frustrating and vivid dialogue and storytelling that paint the picture of the dysfunctional world of the Blue sisters. The novel is full of frustration, pain, and self-destruction, but it is also full of love and support and finding ‘home’ when it feels lost forever. The story was powerful and genuine and left me needing to call my sister. I can’t wait to read more from Coco Mellors!