I approached this hunger games prequel with a mixture of irritation and excitement – irritation because it’s basically the same story again – noble but powerless teen sacrificially causes themselves to be picked for the reaping and tries their best to be defiant and stand up to the terrible capital society and government while also staying alive and helping their weaker allies; and excitement because of course I’m going to read it for all the reasons above!
This is Haymitch Abernathy (the drunken mentor from district 12 who looked after Catniss) ‘s backstory and after reading all the way to the end you can very much understand how he ended up so jaded and so dependent on alcohol to numb his pain. Oh my word, without wanting to give spoilers, all I can say is I found the ending of this book to be so moving and I felt outraged and hollowed out by what happened to poor Haymitch.
Sarah Wray Writer 