Book Five in the messed up Hunger Games world ties together the characters from all the other books including The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (President Snow’s tragic tale) and lays the foundation for the uprising.
It begins on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Annual Hunger Games (The Second Quarter Quell). Young Haymitch is happy and madly in love with Lenore Dove, a singer from the Covey. (This echoes Snow’s love for Lucy Gray.) To “celebrate” fifty years of murdering children, twice the amount will be reaped—four per district so forty-eight in all. We already know that young Haymitch Abernathy, not only was chosen, but won (if you can call it that) so this book shows us, in vivid detail, how that came about.
Haymitch is chosen by rebels Beetee and Plutarch Heavensbee to sabotage the games along with Beetee’s son, Ampere, who was also reaped. This, along with trying to keep his team alive, becomes his mission. Each connection he makes in the arena and each subsequent death breaks him a little more. His descent into alcoholic madness is justified. The only other thing he could have done, given the horrific circumstances, was die. Since the story’s written in first person present tense, it’s very in-your-face. Nothing is held back and our hearts break along with Haymitch’s heart. Mags and Wiress also make an appearance, along with the brilliant Effie Trinket.
Collins brilliantly alludes to Edgar Allan Poe’s 1845 narrative poem, “The Raven,” where the narrator descends into madness after losing his beloved, Lenore. “Quoth the Raven, Nevermore.” Haymitch knows of the poem because his own beloved, Lenore Dove, used to recite it to him. In the end, Haymitch becomes the mad narrator. You’ll have to read the story to understand why, and I guarantee if you don’t hate Snow now, you will forevermore.
The movie premieres this November 2026 in Canada, and I can’t wait to see this tragic love story hit the big screen.
