Suzanne did it again. Completely on-the-nose commentary on the state of the world. Unfortunately for me, the stakes didn’t feel nearly as high as they did in the original trilogy, even with 2x the tributes.

I appreciated the parallels between Haymitch and Katniss, as well as the callbacks to characters from the revolution and why Haymitch so readily trusted the victors Katniss chose to ally with in Catching Fire. 

I do think the pacing was off, and other than wanting to/deciding whether or not he should

blow up the water tank

it felt like Haymitch wasn’t struggling with much internally, for example, whether he’d have to eventually turn on the tributes he allied with in the arena. He didn’t even have much of a drive to make it home which felt strange considering how much he was shown to love his mom, Sid and Lenore Dove. 

Finding out how he lost his mom, brother and Lenore Dove was a gut punch, but the book as a whole didn’t have the same emotional impact on me as the original trilogy.