First published 2025

382 pages

Dystopian, Young Adult, Dark

This is a prequel to The Hunger Games; this is the long-awaited story of Haymitch. We all know Haymitch from the main trilogy, but we never get to see how he ended up being the crass, drunken mentor. We get a small glimpse of his games in the initial books as Katniss and Peta prepare for their games. Haymitch was in the second Quarter Quell, the fiftieth hunger games, where the tributes were doubled from the standard twenty-four, to forty-eight. We get Haymitch's backstory; how he loved a covey girl named Lenore Dove, and how he was even picked for the games in the first place.

This novel ties everything together seamlessly. It was so fun to see how the games were run from the beginning in Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and how it compares to the fiftieth year in Sunrise on the Reaping. In each of her Hunger Games books, Collins reveals a little more context for each of the characters. That context adds depth and understanding for the other novels. They all feed into each other and create a connected narrative. The other novels reference certain things, like the singing tribute from district twelve being the only one to ever win the games until Katniss and Peta. We all know who Lucy Grey is and why she is so important to Snow's story, and in turn, everyone else's story as well. A mark of an amazing storyteller is the ability to reveal information at the right time so the reader can make the connections on their own. Collins does it perfectly.