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You can gasp all you want, but for me, despite loving The Hunger Games trilogy, it was only after seeing him on screen impeccably played by Woody Harrelson that Haymitch Abernathy - the misanthropic alcoholic mentor of District 12 tributes - came to life in all his sardonic glory.

I was never among those who thought the prequel with his story was necessary. After all, we know that whatever happened in his Hunger Games, it still took a quarter of a century and Katniss Everdeen to finally destroy the system that created those games. In the grand scheme of things, the last prequel - the one about the rise of President Snow - was actually giving more of an interesting new perspective. I mean, how many times can we see the same formula play out �� kids killing each other on screen for entertainment of the depraved rich viewers?

“It’s on all of us stupid, clawed district piglets. Animals for their entertainment. Expendable for their pleasure. Too dumb to deserve to live.��

And I still don’t think it was that necessary, but that’s not to say I regret reading it.

Yes, the same formula from the original series is still here - the Reaping (again from District 12), the surreal prep for the bloodbath presented as a show in the Capitol, and finally the Arena and the games. Same as we have seen before, even narrated in the same first person present tense voice. And to add to the strange familiarity, the galore of Easter eggs as well as references left for even the most casual fans of the series. Any named character from the original series and Snow/Lucy Gray prequel seems to have made it in here as a cameo of themselves or at least their descendants or ancestors in the odd Easter egg hunt; the same songs and artifacts and even pieces of clothing. The world of the Hunger Games universe seems like a tiny fanservice village at best. Difficult choices were conveniently disposed of ((view spoiler)[Haymitch never had to turn on his allies to become a winner - here went one of my theories about the source of his trauma (hide spoiler)]), and Haymitch’s girlfriend seemed little but a throwback to Lucy Gray.

And yet, despite all the cameos and the usual formula, it still scratched the right spot. Suzanne Collins never really went for subtle in her books, and here she megaphones it (maybe because the unfortunate live triangle overshadowed her point for many fans in the first trilogy). There is something very relevant to our society about what is happening �� the focus on how easy it is to manipulate the narrative for your own means, and how important appearances are for creating convenient - or inconvenient - versions of reality. And how terrifyingly easy it can be to rewrite history not only after the fact but also in real time.

Perhaps this book is not quite necessary to advance the story, but it does add a few more layers to it, changing a few perspectives �� and if it’s done through a bit of retconning and name-dropping and a parade of cameos, then so be it. And it’s not even Haymitch that gets that extra layer, as it had been clear that behind seemingly callous exterior there is a heart of gold deeply traumatized by events that for him continued on and on for a quarter of a century. It’s the other smaller things - like Beetee and his bombs making more sense in their seeming cruelty, or the evidence that the work behind the rebellion was starting way before Katniss was even born, with the final revolution being the result of years of work rather than one Hunger Games �� even if it was edited out of television and memory for Panem for years.

“We could’ve at least done some damage,�� I tell Ringina.
“At least a little. Possibly a considerable amount,�� someone says behind me. I turn to see Plutarch. He waves his camera crew over to record the knife training, but his attention stays on me. “The question is, why didn’t you?��

(Now, Plutarch seems to be deserving of a book of his own, to say the least. It may break us out of the comfortable formula, just like Snow’s book briefly did).

But hey, Maysilee was great. I would have cut out 90% of Lenore references to have more of her, and the entirety of at least one Edgar Allan Poe poem. (And I’d have Effie out of the book as well, because who the hell needs more Effie, ever???) Let’s take a moment of silence for Maysilee, shall we?

“Shut up,�� says Maysilee. “Listen, Louella, if you let them treat you like an animal, they will. So don’t let them.��

I wouldn’t mind reading book from an adult point of view in this series, just to get some life experience on page and perhaps the lack of first love coloring the perspective �� but that’s asking something of a book like this that it’s not built to be. I wonder what I’d think had I been still a young adult reading it �� but I’m still going to follow this series regardless of graying hairs.

3.5 stars.

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