e-Audio, 12:48:08
Narrated by: Jefferson White
Release Date: March 18, 2025
Published by: Scholastic Inc.
Read from: March 18-19, 2025
The Hunger Games, #0.5
Source: Purchased
Content Warning: Child death, Violence, Death, Alcoholism, Death of a Parent, Alcohol, Suicide, Torture, Rape
For Readers Interested In: Dystopian, YA, Most Anticipated, Sparkly CoversWhen you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.
Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.
When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I was hella late to the party when I read the original Hunger Games. At first I said I didn’t want to read it at all because I was bored at the very beginning. But then a friend said “Just make it to the games…” And once I did, that was all she wrote.
Haymitch was always one of my favorites. I always knew there was a reason he was the way he was. I thought we’d never get to hear the reasoning behind it. But leave it to Suzanne Collins to tie everything back together. And in such an emotional way! OMG I was boo-hooing at like 92% of this book. I don’t think I’ve cried that much in the entire rest of the series. Even in the others I was crying at certain scenes. And I have to say, I don’t think I would have done anything different than he did. It was all heartbreaking.
What I didn’t like was the small resistance pod they were trying to make. It just didn’t make any sense? Sorry, spoiler if you haven’t read it yet, but, HOW HAVE YOU BEEN TRYING TO STOP THIS FOR SO MANY YEARS BUT THE CAPITOL NEVER CAUGHT ON? Because they’re the all powerful. I get it. But at the same time, I still think someone would have been caught or publicly killed by then if they were making this trouble all this time. I just didn’t find that believable. Someone would have known that Snow was batish by then because they just out right killed someone.
One thing I did love tho was the message on propaganda. If I was in the branches I would most definitely use this as a way to teach the teens what propaganda is and how it can be used. Because when I tell you the level of manipulation that was used in every part of this book was wild. I hope it makes teens and adults alike to think and learn more about how they can make and lie about these things.
I don’t want to say more because I don’t want to spoil anything. I’ll just say I loved going back down memory lane. I know that this isn’t something that can really be spoiled (I saw that crazy controversy after I finished, like we didn’t all know that he won the games because HE LIVED lol) but I don’t want to say anything else. Let’s just say I loved it and now I need to get Finnick Odair’s story and I won’t rest until there is at least an announcement about it lol
Overall, I give this
