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adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
As someone who read and loved hunger games growing up, it was great (not emotionally but narratively) to finally learn haymitch’s origin story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence
Minor: Torture
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Blood, Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting
Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Vomit, Death of parent, Alcohol
Minor: Suicide
Oh my god. I’m left speechless. I was probably naive for having hope, for believing that Haymitch and Lenore would have some kind of happy end. Girl I was wrong in so many ways. My hate for Snow doubled. But definitely worth a read.
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Like in one of your songs, my ghost will hunt down your ghost and never give it a moment's rest.”
“Promise?” Ouch. Ouchie ouchie ouch.
Yeah, this was great and I have many thoughts. I really enjoyed this torture and pain gauntlet that Suzanne Collins wrote. Haymitch made me sad, I loved Maysilee, the arena was everything I wanted it to be and more (the eye reveal at the end had me in a chokehold), the quotes from the Raven made my literary heart happy, and the propoganda motiff was *chefs kiss.* Haymitch’s manipulation of the game is a precursor to Catching Fire’s manipulation??? LOVE!! President Snow is an evil bastard and I absolutely loved how this book showed how demented he is. The milk during and after the games?? The hacked TV playing Lucy Gray’s interview song???? Never allowing Haymitch to feel a moment of happiness ever again????? Thanks, Suzanne! Also, the epilogue was what really brought this review up from a lower score, because oh my gosh the feelings I felt seeing Katniss and Peeta help Haymitch heal with his own Geese because they’re his only family left and stop it stop stop stop. Ugh. The line about him being the first thing that they see when they hatch had me rocking back-and-forth in pain. Like I said, this was a great and totally happy time.
There were some issues with the book that I was a little suprised by. I didn’t feel that connected to Lenore Dove, which suprised me because I loved Lucy Gray, who she was definitely modeled after. The main issue I had with it overall was that it felt kind of… fanfiction-y? Listen I have no qualms with fanfiction, and I’ve dabbled in that sphere myself, but some things just felt like it was added in for fan service. I hate to say it, but the addition of Mags and Wiress seemed like a way for readers to go “I know them!!” Plutarch and Beetee had actual depth to their roles in this story, making their connection to the original series stronger, but I just felt like Mags and Wiress were just kind of… there. I did like how this book gave backstory to why Wiress has the issues we see in Catching Fire, though. Also, speaking of Plutarch, I was hoping we would get some more backstory to his pro-revolutionary tendincies. Now, it has been over 10 years since I read Catching FIre/Mockingjay, so maybe his backstory is told in that and I am just forgetting, but I was a little disapointted that he was already pro-revolution from the start. That may just be me misremembering the original series though.
So yeah, I had some issues with it, as seen above, but it was overall a great backstory for one of my favorite characters from the original series. Like yeah, if I tried everything in my power to end the Hunger Games, failed, and then was punished for it by having everyone I loved die in horrible ways because of my failure, I too would become an alcoholic and hate everyone. Out of the entire series, in my opinion, this book showed the brutality of Snow and the Capitol the best, specifically how they would do anything to stay in power: by having eyes everywhere and by diminishing all feelings of hope. Some of the deaths in this book genuinely shook me up, and at some points I even felt helpless with Haymitch. I’ll leave my review by quoting Plutarch and Haymitch’s final conversation, which encapsulates the entire point of this story and just felt pertinent in general:
“And maybe it won’t be realized today, maybe not in our lifetime. Maybe it’ll take generations. We’re all a part of a continuum. Does that make it pointless?”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Police brutality
Minor: Rape, War
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
what was my life before this book?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Torture, Violence, War, Classism
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Haymitch’s story is so heartbreaking, and it was difficult reading his book knowing he won’t start the rebellion that he’s been planning the whole book. I know i’ll be devastated when the movie comes out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence
Minor: Torture, Death of parent
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
ok i'll just get it out of the way right off the bat and say it was disappointing to me that suzanne returned to first-person narration for this. her prose in the ballad of songbirds and snakes was certainly not brilliant either, but it did significantly help mask her limitations with the facility of language. i've certainly read far worse written first-person stories (hello, twilight) but you've got to be soooooo good at writing for it to be not irritating on any level, even when the story is good.
which, of course, is the saving grace of the hunger games. it really might be the best story in YA lit of all time. i called for her to write a new book centering on haymitch's games not too long before it was actually announced, and i'm very pleased that i was so right for that. i don't think it was absolutely brilliant or anything, and though i've rated it a half star higher than TBOSAS i might still actually like that book better, but i think it was a very satisfying return to panem and re-contextualization of haymitch's character all the same. so i simply don't really get many of the criticisms i've seen of the book, to be honest. personally i'm happy to see suzanne keep writing new stories in panem for as long as she sees fit, though at this point i'd have no clue where she would set another full-scale novel now that we've run out of district 12 victors to use. i've said this before too, but maybe she could do novellas of the games of the former victors we saw in the original trilogy? or something that explores the underground formation of the rebellion? (those things could probably be combined somehow as i think about it?) something explaining how panem came to be? although the ambiguity of that i think has always been intentional, so that might be too much to hope for.
anyways! point is, though full books might be difficult to execute at this point, i'd take anything she wanted to give. so i'm just continuing to put that energy out there 👀
finally. sending all my forever love and adoration to lucy gray baird, who i was not expecting to still haunt the narrative this much forty years later, and was so pleasantly surprised to find was still basically an active character in this book. she is still alive out there in the woods i just know it!
which, of course, is the saving grace of the hunger games. it really might be the best story in YA lit of all time. i called for her to write a new book centering on haymitch's games not too long before it was actually announced, and i'm very pleased that i was so right for that. i don't think it was absolutely brilliant or anything, and though i've rated it a half star higher than TBOSAS i might still actually like that book better, but i think it was a very satisfying return to panem and re-contextualization of haymitch's character all the same. so i simply don't really get many of the criticisms i've seen of the book, to be honest. personally i'm happy to see suzanne keep writing new stories in panem for as long as she sees fit, though at this point i'd have no clue where she would set another full-scale novel now that we've run out of district 12 victors to use. i've said this before too, but maybe she could do novellas of the games of the former victors we saw in the original trilogy? or something that explores the underground formation of the rebellion? (those things could probably be combined somehow as i think about it?) something explaining how panem came to be? although the ambiguity of that i think has always been intentional, so that might be too much to hope for.
anyways! point is, though full books might be difficult to execute at this point, i'd take anything she wanted to give. so i'm just continuing to put that energy out there 👀
finally. sending all my forever love and adoration to lucy gray baird, who i was not expecting to still haunt the narrative this much forty years later, and was so pleasantly surprised to find was still basically an active character in this book. she is still alive out there in the woods i just know it!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Gore
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Police brutality, Alcohol
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
this book was the most gut wrenching of all the hunger games books. I could rate this either 5⭐️ or non at all because of how devastated this left me.
Suzanne Collins better sleep with one eye open tonight.
Suzanne Collins better sleep with one eye open tonight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Alcohol
Minor: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Gun violence, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Violence
Minor: Torture