My heart has been left bleeding on the floor.  As a member of the rebellion since the beginning, I knew Haymitch had a sad story that made him the hard man we readers meet in the Hunger Games.  This is the book I wanted when we got Songbirds and Snakes.  I wanted the story of a character that was hidden, not something to try and get me to root for the bad guy.  

This is Haymitch’s story of the 50th Quarter Quell.  We knew it was bad, but not how bad.  This story isn’t just of love and loss, but of defiance, propaganda, and war.  It is often said that winners write the history books, but what exactly does that mean?  And what does it really mean to win?  All of this is packed into a tight story of a man who wanted to save his family, help those who are expected to lose, and bring some type of dignity to the horrors faced by the few at the hands of the many.  This book asks us readers to look at why we do things. Why wo we go along with things just because we are told to?  Why do we constantly choose the easy way out when the “easy way” is just more death and destruction.  I am glad this want ’t the first book in the series, but it is a story I desperately wanted.   I think it is a story we all need. 

And while I would never want to live in the world of the Hunger Games, I am not ready to leave it behind.  I want to know more about Plutarch.  I want Mae’s story.  What happened in her Hunger games.  And I want more about the Avox and why they are not really seen in this book. 

This book was fantastic.  It has the power of the Hunger Games to make us think about what this book means, what it means in our society, and what is it trying to teach us, so that we can make our society better.