Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

It is the fiftieth annual Hunger Games but it is also the Second Quarter Quell, meaning twice as many tributes will be reaped: two boys and two girls from each district. Taken "off to the Capitol for slaughter." It is also Haymitch Abernathy's sixteenth birthday. His plans, besides the reaping, are to spend time with his girlfriend, Lenore Dove.

Haymitch lives with his Ma and his ten-year-old brother Sid. His Ma takes in laundry to make ends meet. His pa is buried in the Abernathy family plot in the miner's graveyard. He died in a fire in the mines that some say was an act of resistance.

Haymitch visits Hattie Meeney whom he helps with her illegal distillery business. She gives him a bottle of white liquor as a birthday gift. He doesn't drink, but Haymitch knows he can trade this off for something else. He then meets up with his girlfriend, Lenore Dove who is one of the Covey, in the meadow. Lenore has been raised by her uncles, Clerk Carmine and Tam Amber, after her mother died during childbirth. Lenore gives Haymitch a flint striker shaped like a "C" with two animals, a snake and a long-necked bird facing one another.

Just prior to the reaping ceremony, Haymitch's mother gives him a year's supply of flour sack underwear and a new pocketknife while Sid gives him a piece of flint rock. 

The reaping ceremony takes place at the square in front of the Justice Building. There are posters as well as many Peacekeepers who are checking in the young reaping candidates - those children aged twelve to eighteen. Attendance is mandatory for everyone. Haymitch has twenty slips of paper in the reaping. The additional slips are due to his getting extra food for his family, so the odds are not in his favour. After the Panem anthem, Mayor Allister readers the Treaty of Treason. Then Drusilla Sickle, the escort for the  District 12 tribunes each year, does the draw. Thirteen-year-old Louella McCoy and Maysilee Donner are chosen for the girls, while Woodbine Chance and eighteen-year-old Wyatt Callow are chosen for the boys. Each makes their way up to the dias, when suddenly Woodbine, known for his ability to run fast, sprints down an alley, only to be shot in the head by a sniper. 

This causes chaos and the feed on the TV screens goes dark as there is a five minute broadcast delay so that the rest of the country isn't able to witness what's happening. Everyone is ordered on the ground while the Peacekeepers remove anyone with gore on them from the square. When Haymitch gets up to protect Lenore as she's trying to help Woodbine's distraught mother, he gets hit with the butt of a rifle. Furious, Drusilla orders him as the replacement for Woodbine and attempts to have Lenore shot. However, Plutarch Heavensbee, responsible for doing promo for the Games, intervenes, telling Drusilla he wants to keep Lenore to publicize the tearful goodbyes.  

The broadcast resumes with the naming of Wyatt and Haymitch. He is relieved to see Lenore spared due to bribes from Clerk Carmine and Tam Amber. Maysilee's father unsuccessfully attempts to bribe anyone to save his daughter. Haymitch's ma is distraught as is his little brother Sid.  Drusilla refuses to allow the families to say goodbye to their reaped children as is usually done. Again Plutarch intevenes, telling her he needs more shots for his recap.This gives Haymitch the chance to hug his Ma and Sid and say goodbye. As the train pulls out of the District 12 station, he sees Lenore Dove, screaming in rage into the wind.

On the train Haymitch, Louella, Wyatt and Maysilee watch a recap of the reaping from all the districts. There is no evidence of what really transpired in District 12. Plutarch tells them that he's attempting to help them out,  by selling them to potential sponsors. When they see the well fed, well trained, "Careers", children from Districts 1 to 4 who have been trained to win the Hunger Games, Haymitch feels intimidated. However, Plutarch tells him that brains, skills, strategy and luck all factor in to who wins. Haymitch believes Plutarch is simply manipulating them for the Capitol's gain.

At the Tribute center, each tribute is "prepped". Haymitch's team is comprised of Proserpina and Vitus who are university students. District 12's stylist is Magno Stift who has a terrible reputation for doing nothing and provides them with smelly black miner overalls and plastic miner hats. They are taken to the stables where each district's tributes are loaded into twelve chariots. Haymitch and his fellow District 12 tributes are placed into "a rickety chariot drawn by a quarter of skittish gray nags." With Maysilee and Louella at the front and Haymitch and Wyatt at the back their chariot enters the arena last. A firework explodes in front of their chariot, causing the horses to break into a run, colliding with the spiked wheels of District 6. Hamitch and Louella are thrown out, killing Louella instantly. Wyatt and Maysilee are also thrown out but uninjured. 

Furious at Louella's death, Haymitch takes her body dodging Peacekeepers and tributes, runs towards the president's mansion at the end of the arena. He hijacks District 1's golden chariot and races it to just underneath the mansion's balcony where he lays Louella's body. In an act of defiance, Haymitch claps, demonstrating to President Snow that her death is on him. This challenge to President Snow will not go unpunished, as Haymitch is soon to learn and will have devastating consequences for everyone he loves.

Discussion

Sunrise on the Reaping is the second prequel to Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. It tells the story of Haymitch Abernathy during the fiftieth Hunger Games and the Second Quarter Quell. Haymitch seeks to resist the ongoing yearly murder of young people from the districts but in doing so, he sets himself up as the target of President Snow's revenge with devastating consequences. 

This novel explores the role of propaganda and lies, and the use of terror to control and subjugate a population to prevent it from rebelling against oppression and tyranny. It also asks readers to consider what motivates a population to finally decide to rebel under such total control?

One method of propaganda is the use of posters, a theme that carries throughout the novel by Haymitch Abernathy. The first description of propaganda are the posters that Haymitch describes in the square where the reaping ceremony is held. The Capitol has plastered the square in District 12 and likely in the other districts, with posters with the theme of "No Peace". They read, "NO PEACE, NO BREAD!" or "NO PEACE, NO SECURITY!", "NO CAPITOL, NO PEACE!" A huge banner with the face of President Snow promotes him as "PANEM'S #1 PEACEKEEPER."  Haymitch sees similar posters at the train station in the Capitol but this time geared to the residents there. as though the Capitol has to convince it's own citizens that this how things must be. The message is that without the Capitol there will be no peace, no security and no bread. Even more important, "NO HUNGER GAMES, NO PEACE!"  It is an ongoing attempt to maintain the status quo - that is - the annual reaping of young boys and girls from the districts as reparation for the rebellion against the Capitol years ago. But Haymitch is determined to paint his own poster and not allow the Capitol to use him as a "poster boy".

In an attempt to make it seem that the Capitol has total control over the districts and that they willingly comply, broadcasts of the reaping and the Hunger Games are manipulated and sanitized. When Woodbine Chance is murdered at the reaping, Haymitch realizes for the first time that the broadcast is not live, but that there is a five minute delay so they can whitewash any dissent or rebellion. Instead of showing the murder of Woodbine, the unrest in the square, the intervention of Haymitch to protect Lenore, and Drusilla's order to shoot Lenore, the broadcast is halted and evidence quickly removed. Haymitch is ordered to be the replacement for Woodbine and once the gore is cleaned up, the broadcast resumes, complete with canned applause. Later on the train Haymitch admits to being sickened by the false narrative that Plutarch has created. "I watch, both fascinated and sickened by the flawless transition from Maysilee's drawing to Wyatt's and mine. Not even a hint of Woodbine's shooting or the turmoil that followed. And there's my name, and there's me, and there's Ma gasping, Sid crying. Lenore Dove with her hand clasped over her mouth." He tells Plutarch, "That's not what happened." but Plutarch merely states that he changed things around to help them get sponsors. However, the reality is that people in the Capitol and the other districts do not know that a young boy was murdered trying to flee the reaping. Likewise Haymitch and everyone else in Panem do not know if there have been other similar situations in other districts. This serves President Snow's desire for power and control. If others witness acts of rebellion, they might be encouraged to resist too.

The tributes themselves are also used as propaganda. Plutarch arranges for a beautiful birthday cake to be presented to Haymitch, but Haymitch knows what Plutarch is doing. "Clearly, Plutarch wants to capture my delight so he can broadcast it all over Panem. Look how well the Capitol treats the tributes. How forgiving they are to their enemies. How superior they are to those district piglets in their stinkholes." Haymitch refuses to cooperate and be a part of that propaganda and turns his back. He won't be a poster boy for how thoughtful the Capitol is towards the tributes whom they are sending to their death.

Haymitch has no doubt about his part in the Hunger Games. "I'm entirely the Capitol's plaything. They will use me for their entertainment and then kill me, and the truth will have no say in it. Plutarch acts friendly, but his indulgences -- my family's goodbyes, his fancy sandwiches -- are just a method to manage me..."  He remembers what his Ma reminded him about his Pa's message to a girl reaped, "Don't let them use you, Sarshee. Don't let them paint their posters with your blood..."

When chaos occurs during the chariot parade resulting in the death of Louella, Haymitch decides he wants to show the Capitol citizens what really is happening and who is to blame. He sees the Peacekeepers rushing to take away Louella's body and decides to act. " They want to take Louella away, to hide her tidily in a wooden box along with their crimes, and ship her home to District 12. They don't want to feature this death on the Capitol's watch, unplanned and highlighting their incompetence. This is not the blood they want to paint their posters with."

And so Haymitch takes Louella's body and lays it below the balcony where President Snow can see her, in front of all at the parade. He then applauds, placing the blame for Louella's death on Snwo.  While the people in the area see what's happened, Haymitch has no idea if what's happened is actually being broadcast because on one screen all he can see is himself from the waist up clapping. Later, in an attempt to thwart Haymitch's actions, President Snow has a replacement, a body double of "Louella McCoy" brought in so that people will believe Louella survived. However, this young girl is likely the child of traitors. She's been physically altered, drugged and programmed but who seems to still know that the Capitol is murdering children.

The recap broadcast during Haymitch's Victor Ceremony is also grossly distorted and leaves Haymitch stunned and disillusioned. The recap deviates from Day 2. "Timelines are twisted. Connections misleading. It's less flat-out lying than lying by omission." This manipulation of what actually happened distorts Haymitch's actions. "What they showed during the Games, I don't know, but in the recap, I'm not even attempting to protect any of my allies." Haymitch along with Ampert is involved in a plot to break the arena, however the damage they inflict is not shown. The distortion around Maysilee and Maritte's deaths make Haymitch wonder, "Does no one remember? Do they just not care? Or during the Games, did they show the audience a different sky? Or none at all?...The Gamemakers must have been scrambling like crazy to control the narratives by this point. Whatever the case, the audience here in the auditorium has embraced this version, cheering and jeering on cue. Their lack of discernment transforms the recap, validating it as truth. I hope those in the districts can still see it as the piece of propaganda it is, but no telling what they've been fed."  The recap doesn't paint Haymitch as a rebel, but possibly as a cheater or a rascal. 

The novel's title Sunrise on the Reaping is a reference to Lenore Dove's question to Haymitch as to why they should accept the current situation; that every year the sun will rise on yet another reaping. She asks why is this acceptable?  Like most people in the districts, Haymitch is resigned to the fact that every year there is a reaping and this year there is the second Quarter Quell which means twice as many kids. "No point in worrying, I tell myself, there's nothing you can do about it...No way to control the outcome of the reaping or what follows it...They've taken enough already."  Lenore Dove challenges Haymitch when he says everything is going to be fine. "...Because the reaping's going to happen no matter what I believe. Sure as the sun will rise tomorrow."  However, Lenore tells Haymitch, "Thinking things are inevitable. Not believing change is possible." is part of their trouble. She asks him, "Can you imagine it rising on a world without a reaping?"  It is a request she will reiterate later in the novel.

Collins uses the character of Plutarch to question why people accept tyranny and what pushes them to rebel. During the training session, Haymitch realizes that the tributes outnumber the Peacekeepers and could easily attack them. He is dismayed when he thinks about how " Every year we let them herd us into their killing machine. Every year they pay no price for the slaughter." Plutarch, overhearing Haymitch and Ringina asks them why they didn't act. Haymitch realizes he's not just questioning them not acting in the training gym but also why they don't resist in the districts. It is a challenge similar to that posed by Lenore Dove. Ringina states that it's because of the guns, but Plutarch presses further since the districts outnumber the Capitol. When Haymitch and Ringina state that it is the Capitol's firepower that forces them to submit, Plutarch counters, "I see the hangings and the shootings and the starvation and the Hunger Games...And yet, I still don't think the fear they inspire justifies the arrangement we've all entered into. Do you?...Why do you agree to it? Why do I? For that matter, why have people always agreed to it?"  Haymitch and Ringina have no answer.

However, as the events in the novel demonstrate, the districts do not fight back because Snow and the Capitol have absolute control and create absolute terror. Any act of defiance or resistance is brutally punished as evidenced by what happens to Incitatus Loomy, Haymitch, Beetee and Ampert, as well as Mags and Wiress. At the presidential mansion, Snow reveals that he plans for Haymitch to die in the Hunger Games for what he did during the chariot parade, indicating that Haymitch's death will mean that "...Lenore Dove and your family should be free to enjoy long and happy lives."  When Haymitch survives to win the Fiftieth Hunger Games, he knows all who he loves will suffer and all who helped him will also be punished. "I don't dare think about my loved ones back home. Everything I did, every choice I made, was based on the knowledge that my death protected them from harm.,,,This I know: I have been publicly challenging Snow and his Quarter Quell since I landed in the Capitol."  If Snow poisoned his own parade master for botching the chariot parade, Haymitch wonders just "what feast must he have in store for me and mine?"

Prior to returning home, Haymitch sees that even those who helped him do not escape unscathed. At the Victor's Ceremony, Haymitch's sees that his mentors, Mags and Wiress have been tortured "...Finally, Mags arrives in a wheelchair while a still-mobile but distressed Wiress twitches her head about in a birdlike fashion, a steady stream of words spouting from her lips. Very bad things have been done to them."

He quickly experiences the violence of Snow's revenge upon his arrival in District 12:  his mother and brother Sid die in a fire. After the Hunger Games, Haymitch has been able to learn that, Snow, who seemed to know about the Covey, knew and loved the Covey girl from District 12 who won the Tenth Hunger Games. Her apparent betrayal makes Haymitch fear for Lenore. "Oh , Lenore Dove, what have I done to you? How will you pay for my surviving the Hunger Games?"  

Lenore Dove, as she is dying from poison, begs Haymitch to not let the sun rise on another reaping. But Haymitch is so devastated by her death that he begins drinking heavily. The depth of his loss is portrayed by his remembrance of a song ( Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven) he learned on her last birthday. No one can help or heal Haymitch, not even Plutarch who hopes to recruit him to help grow the rebellion.  Haymitch refuses Plutarch's request to help them change things, because he believes he is "...living proof that the Capitol always wins. I tried to keep that sun from rising on another reaping day, I tried to change things, and now everybody's dead."  Haymitch doesn't trust Plutarch because he creates the propaganda that sustains the Capitol. At this time, Snow's brutal suppression of any hint of rebellion is still working to maintain power and control.

This prequel is another well written novel in the Hunger Games series, with believable characters, many of them endearing, some of them very memorable:  sweet Ampert, bold Maysilee, kindly Mags, vicious Drusilla, intelligent Wiress and of course, the cruel Coriolanus Snow. There is a mention of a relationship between two men, kept hidden for fear of reprisals by the Capitol.  The wealth of characters in the series opens the possibility for many more novels detailing the world of Panem.

Sunrise on the Reaping is a tale of tragedy and loss, how challenging evil often exacts a heavy price. The novel ends on a somewhat hopeful note: eventually Haymitch was able to fulfill his promise to Lenore Dove, by lending a hand in the destruction of Snow, and the defeat of the Capitol. Unlike Coriolanus Snow, Haymitch was able to love again, his heart not poisoned by betrayal and wanton cruelty. Katniss and Peeta offer Haymitch a chance to mourn his losses, something he was reluctant to do. "I didn't want to let them in, her and Peeta, but the walls of a person's heart are not impregnable, not if they have ever known love."

Book Details:

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

New York: Scholastic Press       2025

382 pp.

A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur

Seventeen-year-old Hwang Boyeon (Iseul)is determined to find her older sister, Suyeon who was  kidnapped only three days earlier by the tyrant King Yeonsan who rules Korea. 

The two sisters had lost their parents when royal soldiers had killed their father, a magistrate and their mother. Iseul and Suyeon had fled to their grandmothers hut. Living with the grandmother had not been easy. Suyeon had taken work but Iseul wanted to preserve her hands and had only complained. The two sisters frequently quarrelled. Suyeon who was very beautiful, was taken when she followed Iseul out of their hut after an argument. King Yeonsan kidnapped married, betrothed women, taking even the noble daughters. So Iseul believes her sisters kidnapping is her fault.

Exhausted, Iseul travels through the part of Gyeonggi Province that is not the king's personal hunting grounds. The once flourishing territory is emptied of thousands of people. Arriving in a small hamlet, Iseul enters a thatched-roof inn, The Red Lantern, where she almost collapses. She is helped by a young woman who seems too kind and too sweet. 

The woman quickly surmises that Iseul is looking for someone and she tells her that the hamlet has a bell that rings to warn the young women that the king is about to pass through. This allows them to hide and avoid being kidnapped. She also reveals that the king travels with hundreds of his most favoured courtesans and that he is on his way to the village.

The rough-bearded man Iseul noticed eavesdropping on their conversation indicates that the king's finest swordsmen and archers guard them. He tells Iseul and her sister would both be killed. The innkeeper identifies the man as Wonsik ajusshi, guardian of the inn. Suddenly a young man, Yeongho, dressed in a red robe and golden sash, rushes into the inn, addressing the innkeeper as Madame Yul and tells her that a murder has just occurred outside the village. He states that the village elder believes the murder is the work of "Nameless Flower", an anonymous killer who has murdered twelve government officials. To prevent the visiting king from becoming enraged, the corpse has been moved to a reed field. Iseul believes if she can catch the killer she will be able to free her sister.

Inspecting the corpse Iseul determines that the man died from a blade to the throat. A red flower had placed on his chest and a bloody message scrawled on his robe. She also finds two wax beads, one yellow, one red, in the dead man's clenched hand. Iseul places the red bead inside her jolit mal (breastband). 

Wonsik and Madame Yul arrive to examine the body. Madame Yul reveals that Wonsik used to work for the Uigeumbu, as an Officer of the State Tribunal, investigating cases of treason. Iseul determines that Wonsik was not involved in her parents case. He tells Iseul that the victim is Young Master Baek, the eighteen-year-old son of the king's close aide, and was recently given a government position. Master Baek went missing three weeks earlier along with his two attendants both of whom died in the attack. 

Wonsik surmises that Iseul is determined to solve the crime to win the king's reward, that she is part of the yangban aristocracy, that her parents are deceased and that she is a fugitive. He tells her she will never succeed in bargaining with the king. However, he does explain that the king's courtesans live in Wongaksa Temple, near Gyeongbok Palace and is are heavily guarded. Every day the women are brought to the Sungyungwan Royal Academy to entertain the king. Iseul would be able to determine if her sister is there by looking over the wall. He knows this because his daughter was there. 

Iseul learns that Wonsik is investigating the murders, not for the reward, but for someone who believes the killings are causing more trouble in the city. With Wonsik helping, Iseul determines that the victim was injured when kidnapped, then starved for weeks. Their investigation is cut short with the arrival of the State Tribunal Officials, leading Iseul to flee into the woods. 

While hiding in the woods Iseul encounters Prince Daehyun, half brother to King Yeonsun. He had been part of the king's hunting party as they travelled through the hamlet. After killing a doe, the king declared that any of the princes who returned without a kill would be executed. So Daehyun is out hunting to prevent his own execution which had been foretold for this day by a shaman.  His arrow grazes Iseul's shoulder, pinning her to a tree by her jacket. However, Daehyun spares Iseul's life, ordering her to remain hidden when a guard approaches. The guard reveals that the king has murdered a dozen people while Daehyun was out hunting. 

Iseul returns to the Red Lantern Inn where Madame Yul treats her wound and tells her to consider the inn her home until she finds her sister but that she will have to help out at the inn. The next day Iseul sets out to find the Royal Academy in Hanyang, the capitol of Joseon, by travelling with a troupe of jesters. She travels with the help Yeongho.  In Hanyang, Iseul is shocked at the prevalence of death and destruction. With Yeongho's help, Iseul is able to enter the academy dressed as a servant and to locate Suyeon. She finds her sister cold and detached. Suyeon tells Iseul to return home and leave her, "There are over a thousand women here who wish to return home but cannot. This is the way of life for us. We are born to be devoured." She also tells her to find Uncle Choi Ikjan, to forget her, and to seek the life she has always wanted. 

As she is leaving the Royal Academy, Iseul impulsively attempts to rescue another girl being kidnapped by a chehongsa officer, stabbing him with a piece of wood and causing a riot. She is pulled to safety by Wonsik and taken to the inn to recover from her arrow wound. After five days of recuperation, Iseul begins helping Madame Yul by harvesting roots and bark in the woods. At the inn, Iseul learns that Wonsik plans to travel to Jamsil village to question the wife of one of Master Baek's attendants. Determined to find Nameless Flower, Iseul races to the village and learns from the widow that her husband described the attacker as "half man, half wolf". Wonsik shows up in Jamsil but admonishes Iseul, telling her she must notice the small things and to not take evidence from a crime scene.

Meanwhile Prince Daehyun learns from Hyukjin that he helped his sister, Sonhui procure kyungpo-buja for Lady Seungpyeong who has been found dead. Hyukjin reveals that Lady Seungpyeong was pregnant at age fifty with the king's child as a result of rape. Daehyun advises Hyukjin to remain silent and his sister not to flee. Prince Daehyun also learns that the girl he met in the forest has been found and he travels to the Red Lantern Inn where he finds Iseul. There he meets up with Wonsik who reveals that Min Hyukjin returned to his home but left immediately. Wonsik found a note in the handwriting of Nameless Flower telling Hyukjin that his sister was fleeing the palace. However, his sister was being interrogated at this time. Wonsik tells Daehyun that Hyukjin was last seen riding into Mount Acha. Wonsik and Daehyun believe that Hyukjin will be Nameless Flower's next victim as the king is due to pass through Mount Acha the next day.

Prince Daehyun and Wonsik leave immediately to try to locate Hyukjin, but are followed by Iseul. Her presence is explained to the prince but he is skeptical that she can succeed in her plan to bargain with King Yeonsan. Daehyun finds Hyukjin hanging from a tree but as he's cutting him down, he is attacked, and witnesses his friend being kicked over a cliff, before being knocked unconscious. Meanwhile, Wonsik and Iseul take shelter from the rain in a cave overnight. During this time, Wonsik suggests to Iseul that the stories she's heard about the prince are not true. 

At dawn, Wonsik is gone but hears the voices of the king's soldiers who have discovered Hyukjin's body, enraging the king. Investigator Gu explains that it was left where the king could see it and that the killer is someone within the palace who know of the king's change of plans to hunt earlier on Gwangneung Mountain. As the soldiers begin to search the area, Iseul stumbles upon a badly wounded Daehyun. Initially she refuses to help him  but he offers to help her free her sister. As the soldiers move up the hill searching, Daehyun and Iseul move quickly and hide. During the night Daehyun reveals to Iseul that he intends to stage a coup - a banjeong - a changing the heavens. 

The thought of bargaining with the tyrant King Yeonsan and trying to solve the mystery of Nameless Flower is daunting to Iseul and so she reluctantly agrees to become a part of the small group beginning to plot the coup with the promise that it will free her sister. For Iseul it will bring about revelations, loss and betrayal. But along the way she will discover the identity of Nameless Flower, save her sister, and find love and happiness with the person she least expects.

Discussion

A Crane Among Wolves is another well-written historical fiction novel that is set during the rule of the tyrant King Yeonsan in the early 1500s in Korea.

Prince Yeonsan was born November 23, 1476. When his father, King Seongjong's first wife, Queen Gongjye died, he took a concubine, Lady Yun, as his second wife and queen, in 1476. She gave birth to the king's heir, Yi Yung. However, Queen Yun was deposed and ordered into exile after striking the king and the incident discovered by the king's mother. Despite attempts to restore her as queen, she was exiled and eventually executed by poison.

Yi Yung grew up believing his mother was Queen Jeongyeon, his father's third wife. He became King Yeonsan, the tenth monarch of the Jeoson dynasty of Korea in 1495. Initially his reign was benevolent; he helped the poor and was a good administrator. However, in 1504 King Yeonsan learned the identity of his biological mother and her gruesome death from a scholar. He showed the king her bloodied robe that Lady Yun's mother had saved. Enraged, King Yeonsan began seeking vengeance, killing two concubines who were involved in his mother's murder, executing those government officials who supported his mother's exile and execution and even punishing those officials who were at the palace on the day of her execution. But his vengeance went much further than just executions.

He closed the royal university and converted it and an adjacent temple into a gisaeng, a place where thousands of kidnapped girls and women were taken to be used by the king. He also displaced tens of thousands of people in the capital, converting the area in to his personal hunting grounds. In 1506, the despotic king was overthrown by soldiers and officials in a coup that resulted in Yeonsan exiled to an island and his half brother Prince Jinseong made king.

This forms the background of the story crafted by June Hur in A Crane Among Wolves. Seventeen-year-old Iseul's parents were killed because her father was at the royal court when the queen was executed. Iseul learns that her Uncle Choi Ikjun of the Chungju Choe clan, gave their names so as to avoid being demoted in rank. With their parents now murdered, Iseul and her older sister Suyeon had to flee to their grandmother's home. It was at this time that Suyeon, who was very beautiful was kidnapped and taken to the king's palace where she was raped and forced into concubinage.

A Crane Among Wolves is historical fiction that combines both mystery and romance. Iseul believes if she can solve the mystery identity of the killer Nameless Flower she will be able to bargain with the king to free her sister. Nameless Flower is killing those near to the king. As she works with a former royal officer, Jang Wonsik, to solve the murders, Iseul also begins to fall in love with Prince Daehyun who is the half brother of the king and who decides to help her free her sister, while also planning a coup to depose King Yeonsan. Hur incorporates into her novel, many details of King Yeonsan's reign and life in Korea during this era.

The story in A Crane Among Wolves is told by two characters, Iseul and Prince Daehyun in alternating chapters. Iseul undertakes not only a physical journey to discover the whereabouts of her sister Suyeon and free her, but she also experiences an inner transformation that leads to growth and healing. She is initially motivated by guilt as she recalls how self-absorbed and uncaring she has been towards her older sister who always kind to her. Iseul recalls reading Suyeon's journal and being surprised how lonely her sister was, and that she struggled with always having to be the perfect daughter in order to be loved.  Iseul remembers how after the death of their parents, she refused to help Suyeon with chores, determined to preserve her hands and her pale skin, so she could make a good marriage. "My sister had labored for two years after our parents' passing, and I had let her, refusing to ruin my hands. This was not the life I was destined for, I had always said in protest."  Even Iseul's Uncle Choi remembers her as a girl who had little affection for her older sister and who would strike her for even a trifle. Although the two sisters had once been close, as they grew older they fought almost every day. It was during one of these arguments that Suyeon was seen and taken by the king, leading Iseul to blame herself.

Iseul is initially motivated by guilt but also love to find her sister. She discovers that her desire for a life of prosperity is replaced. Suyeon's absence "had stripped me bare, down to the very sinew of my being" and Iseul discovers she truly loves her sister, with a love that left her "...haunted and sleepless many nights..." When she is sees Suyeon in the Royal Academy, "her arms hanging limp by her side" with "the eyes of frightened yet weary girl" Iseul is feels Suyeon is "like a woman murdered". Haunted by her memories, Iseul remembers that Suyeon was a good daughter and kind sister and she becomes determined, despite the reluctance of Wonsik, Daehyun and even her uncle, to free her sister from the king. 

Iseul reveals herself to be a fearless, intelligent young woman, determined not to be confined by the limits Korean society has placed on her. Daehyun recognizes her rebellious spirit. She tells him "It is impossible not to be,...One is imprisoned by a thousand rules as a woman, and no one will explain why such rules exist."  She doesn't let her gender stop her from investigating the murders done by Nameless Flower, either following Wonsik as he travels or taking the initiative and investigating potential leads and new crime scenes. 

She exhibits courage in entering the Wongaksa Temple at great risk to herself to find her sister. She attacks a chehongsa officer, in an attempt to free a young girl being captured for the king. She bravely fights off the chehongsa officers when they try to kidnap her, and wants to stand and fight with Prince Daehyun and Wonsik when they are ambushed in the forest. She re-enters the Wongaksa Temple in a final attempt to help her sister flee during the coup and she bravely confronts Yeongbo in the forest.

Iseul and Prince Daehyun also experience  a transformation in their relationship. Their relationship starts out as one of mutual distrust but gradually evolves. Both carry the demons of regret and remorse over actions that caused harm to those they loved. Iseul believes she is solely responsible for the situation her sister Suyeon finds herself in but Prince Daehyun tells her that it is the responsibility of the king alone.  He reminds Iseul, "...sisters bicker and quarrel...yet when the other bleeds, you bleed too." He explains to Iseul, "That is family. So do not feel guilty for what occurred. None of it is your fault. Let the king, and the king alone carry the weight of all his crimes."

When they first meet in the forest, Iseul is disdainful towards Daehyun as he is part of the royal family that has ruined hers. Iseul doesn't trust him and believes he is cruel and despicable. She believes the stories about him having hunted down and murdered his foster brothers, Prince Anyang and Bongan. However, Daehyun explains to her that Lady Jeong and her sons were like family to him. The two brothers beat their own mother to death but did not know it was her. They were following the king's order. They fled but allowed Daehyun to capture them, requesting that he survive so as to seek revenge.  Iseul comforts Daehyun telling him that he was "simply honoring your brothers' wishes." 

Gradually Daehyun grows to love Iseul and proves this to her by not only saving her life several times, but also by attempting to intervene and prevent her sister from being given as a "gift" to Official Wu. His love for her is demonstrated by him taking the arrow that was meant for her when Yeongbo confronts them in the forest at Yongsan. Likewise Iseul grows to trust Prince Daehyun and love him. At great risk, she has Wonsik's son Gunwu take her to Yongsan District to warn Daehyun about Nameless Flower.

Hur realistically portrays the plight of the young girls and women who have been enslaved by King Yeonsan. Iseul's sister, Suyeon becomes physically and psychologically ill after sexual abuse by the king. When Iseul first finds her sister in the Royal Academy she notes "...there was a look in her eyes I had never seen before. They seemed the eyes of a frightened yet weary girl clinging to the edge of a cliff, her grip slipping, finger by finger." Iseul notes "A bruise the shape of a handprint wrapped around her throat." Suyeon tells Iseul that the girls including herself "...are born to be devoured...This is our fate."  However, Iseul refuses to accept this fate for Suyeon telling her she will free her.

Later when Iseul returns to the Royal Academy prior to the coup, she learns that Suyeon is ill. She is told "She hasn't been herself since she was last summoned by the king." She finds her sister listless, her eyes "empty, hollowed out". Suyeon, later, after having escaped the palace, reveals to Iseul that she helped one of the courtesans who was married and pregnant when she was kidnapped, give birth to her baby, only to learn the king had the woman and her newborn murdered. 

Hur also portrays the difficulties women who have been sexually abused have in re-integrating into society, a problem that still exists today in many societies. Iseul learns that her sister along with  all "...the king's women will be  distributed as gifts to all the government leaders who join us, and your sister will go to Official Wu." When confronted by Prince Daehyun, Choi tells him that "...the truth of the matter is, the girl - Iseul's sister - will no longer have a place in society. She is...the king's whore. She will be scorned for the rest of her life. But what an honor it is to become the respected concubine of a powerful man."  In 16th century Korea, women are mere objects to be possessed and distributed as prizes. 

Iseul refuses to accept this and prepares to enter the Wongaksa Temple disguised as a courtesan to rescue Suyeon, While waiting to enter, she witnesses the suffering of the parents of the stolen girls as they watch their beloved daughters: "...the mob huddling alongside the street...stared at the procession of beautiful women as though witnessing caskets of the murdered. A great weeping of sorrow and fury broke out. They reached past the crush of spears, reaching for their children. They were mothers and fathers who looked like my own, and there were sisters, too, bearing my own reflection."  Many of the courtesans are given to Commander Park after the coup, however, Iseul's sister and some of the women do escape and are helped to reclaim their lives at Madame Yul's Red Lantern Inn. They cannot return to their families or villages as they are considered "tarnished", a term Yul rejects.

The title, A Crane Among Wolves is a reference to two important cultural symbols in Korean society. The crane is a symbol of purity and strength, while the wolf represents power but is also a deadly predator, The crane represents Iseul, but especially her sister Suyeon and the women enslaved by King Yeonsan and his court, who are the wolves. Hur frequently describes these women as being "devoured" by the wolf, King Yeonsan as they are raped and abused, while politely being labelled courtesans. The crane also represents the truth, which Iseul is seeking, while to wolves are those who want to hide or devour the truth. 

A Crane Among Wolves is another excellent piece of historical fiction by June Hur. The characters are interesting and well developed. The character of Jang Wonsik is especially endearing as he helps Iseul channel her impetuous nature into a kind of measured maturity, encouraging her to seek the truth. The romance between Hwang Iseul and Prince Daehyun, gradually blossoms without overwhelming the main story. Wonderfully, the novel ends on a happy and satisfying note for the main characters, despite all the suffering, abuse and murder.

As noted in the Historical Note at the back, the author endeavoured to stay faithful to historical facts, portraying the success of the coup as limited. While King Yeonsan was deposed, the coup failed to help the people overall. And many of the former king's women were enslaved to other men, notably Deputy Commander Park who had a house built to house them. The only complaint is the use of an "f-bomb" by Prince Daehyun, a word likely not in the Korea vocabulary five hundred years ago. Nevertheless A Crane Among Wolves is high recommended.

Book Details:

A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur

New York: Feiwel and Friends     2024

359 pp.