Storyline: 4 Stars
Of course I had to read The Hunger Games prequel. I was obsessed with the Hunger Games when I was younger. I read them and watched the movies and was completely obsessed with them. I was not the biggest fan of the last prequel. A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, mostly because I did not love Lucy Gray and Snow was the worst. He was awful the whole time and I have no idea why he was as terrible as he was. Anyway, I did not have super high expectations going into this prequel after reading that.
This was a good prequel. I enjoyed it, and I know the middle school me would have even enjoyed it more. However, I don’t know if it was just me being older or if it was the book itself, but I just did not love all the characters, and I was really annoyed with how many cameos there were from the other books. I wanted a separate story in the world, but it seemed that Collins was writing for the fans instead of just writing a good book that weaves into the broader storyline. The cameos were very in the face, and I would have actually liked to get to know some other people outside of the ones that we already knew from the original trilogy.
I expected to be heartbroken while reading this, but I did not tear up. That was not because there were not some dramatic and terrible parts because they were, and my mouth dropped open several times with how brutal everything was, but it felt like some of the scenes were brutal just to be brutal instead of showing something bigger or making a good connection. I didn’t have the same Rue moment in this book, but again, maybe that’s because I’m a different person than I was when I was younger.
Parental Guidance: 65% Recommend
I would recommend this book 65% of the time for parental guidance. The language was fairly mild. There were a few instances of swearing, but they were far and few between. There was not much for intimacy, and the most that I recall were a few kisses. Other than that, it was mild.
The points I had take off were for voilence. There were a lot of brutal scenes. A lot of them I cringed and my mouth dropped open. I tried to recall if there were such awful things in the original trilogy, but I couldn’t remember such brutal deaths. It was pretty shocking, and honestly that may be why I was not as emotional while reading the book because everything was so grotesque and terrible.
There was also a brief mention of rainbow characters, which I guess makes sense because it’s a different age from when Collins wrote the first triology. I’m sure she had pressure from publishers to include a little cameo of that.
Real Book Chat
*Spoilers Ahead*
Alright, I have a lot of thoughts, but I will try to keep it on the shorter side compared to the many thoughts that I have. Overall, I really enjoyed the book. I thought it was better than the other prequel, and I liked the characters and story a lot better.
One of my biggest pet peeves was all the camoes. I found myself rolling my eyes. Haymitch’s best friend is Katniss’ dad. Katniss’ mom helps with some of the medical stuff around town. The Maisilee connection. The Mallark bakery (how many generations of bakers was Peeta a part of?), the covey connection with Haymith’s girl, “Dove” meaning gray, Wiress and Mags being the mentors? Beetee getting thrown in there with his son, of course that’s a terrible, sad storyline, but why did it have to be so connected to everything we already knew? Plutarch, really? There were many more connections, but they were so obvious and in your face. I wish there had been some more subtley with the connections. It was too much.
The cameos aside, I was honestly expecting more from the games themselves. I could be wrong, but I don’t recall so many tributes dying from the arena in the other books, which was probably on purpose because Collins’ clearly wanted to demonstrate that it was the capital killing the children, but I missed the subtle way that Collins used to do it. I think that was what bothered me the most in the book. Collins was very upfront and in the reader’s face about the point she wanted to convey, whereas in her original trilogy it was more subtle.
I did enjoy Haymitch’s point of view, and I appreciated his storyline and growth. I thought that Collins’ developed his character well and showed us how he came to be the Haymitch that we know in the original trilogy.
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