After reading the new Hunger Games book, I can’t wait for the movie. Haymitch’s story may be predictable, but that doesn’t make it any less gripping.
Last week saw the release of the new book The Hunger Games: L. The Day Begins * and as a fan of the previous novels and movies, I naturally had to return to the world of the Hunger Games immediately. A week later, I had caught up with Haymitch’s story and was certain that the next film adaptation, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, would offer the best conditions for a thrilling, devastating and engaging narrative. Why, I will explain here without spoilers.
Returning to familiar territory: The Hunger Games throw us into the harrowing 50th Hunger Games
After Katniss Everdeen and Co. have ended the Capitol’s reign of terror and the oppressed districts have been freed, there is only one way to return to the dystopian sci-fi world of The Hunger Games without scratching at the hard-earned happy ending: we travel back in time in the new Hunger Games story. Not as far back as in the most recent prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which is set during the 10th Hunger Games. But back to the 50th Hunger Games (as the Roman numeral L in the German book title reveals), which was 24 years before Katniss’ first trip to the arena.
It is the year in which Haymitch Abernathy, Katniss’s later mentor, is thrown into the fight for survival. Readers of Suzanne Collins’ book series have known since the second The Hunger Games book (more precisely: six pages in chapter 14) that Haymitch once won the second Jubilee with double the number of tributes. However, reading the summary of the events and experiencing them yourself page by page are two very different things at school, so the new novel only needs a few paragraphs to reliably bring you back to the cruel world of District 12 and the Hunger Games.
Haymitch leaves his great love Lenore (a Covey singer) at home and is taken to the Capitol with three other tributes. Apart from Louella, a friend who is much too young, he can’t stand his co-tribute: Maysilee comes from a relatively wealthy background and is the most arrogant girl in his homeland. Wyatt, on the other hand, comes from the poor family that is hated in District 12 for organizing the betting on the Hunger Games; as a bookmaker, he calculates which tribute has what chances.
In the face of the common enemy, the Capitol, the four of them have to work together anyway. Even more: for the first time, the Games do not only see the formation of the “Karrieros” alliance (the strong, Capitol-friendly tributes who almost always win). Twelve-year-old Ampert, from District 3, manages to bring together most of the underdog districts into the “Newcomers” group, who want to win by outnumbering and outsmarting rather than outpowering their opponents. Haymitch is also thinking about how he can make a mark before his death and forges a plan to destroy the arena. Let the Hunger Games begin…
Can Haymitch’s Hunger Games beat the prequel problem?
In its structure, The Hunger Games L is strongly reminiscent of the first Hunger Games story. Once again, an underrated tribute from the poorest district 12 has to stand up to the superior might of the Capitol. At times, the major parallels between the main characters Katniss and Haymitch are almost too obvious: both have lost their fathers, a single mother and a younger sibling (Haymitch’s brother is called Sid). Both grow into their rebel role rather involuntarily and initially remain to themselves in the arena. Both befriend younger tributes and lose their allies (Haymitch’s Rue is called Lou Lou).
US author Suzanne Collins doesn’t skimp on fan service in her new Hunger Games novel either. Whether Everdeen ancestors cross Haymitch’s path, Covey singers refer back to Lucy Gray Baird with songs like “The Hangman’s Tree,” the origin of Katniss’s Mockingjay pin is explained, three fingers rise, or a spotter flutters by: Easter Egg hunters can quickly fill their reference baskets. Counting the many returning characters, you’ll soon run out of fingers to count President Snow, Beetee, Mags, Wiress, Effie Trinket and more.
This inevitably raises the question of the independence of Haymitch’s story. Don’t I already know how it all ends from the later The Hunger Games stories? Since Katniss only ends the Hunger Games after their 75th edition (the third jubilee), the hero of the new story can only lose… and at the same time must survive, which is why the fear for Haymitch is limited. Despite the prequel problem of a familiar outcome, the story overcomes its hurdles. And not least because Collins plays with our knowledge.
In the beginning, Haymitch’s predecessor did not even mention Haymitch’s name when he was “harvested”. The amazement is followed by an even worse twist to make him a tribute. Besides, history is written by the victors, as we know. When Katniss and Peeta watch Haymitch’s Hunger Games via a video summary 25 years later, it is the sanitized version that the Capitol has entrusted to tradition. Hats off for this clever explanation for everything unknown, which also contains a deeper political commentary.
The fact that Haymitch’s girlfriend stays at home also shifts the arena dynamic from the romantic touch to (tragic) friendships. But it’s not just emotionally that The Hunger Games seems tougher than ever; the violence is also ratcheted up to such an extent that scenes with severed children’s heads, man-eating squirrels and surgically altered doppelgangers inevitably make you wonder whether you’re really still reading a book for young people. The nerve-wracking tension, which is also likely to drive the planned film adaptation, can definitely be felt here.
Daybreak: the new Hunger Games story is already cinematic on the book page
When I look down through the grasping arms of the flying corpse collectors at the latest victim and Plutarch Heavensbee negotiates a tearful farewell with Haymitch’s family, impressive images already form in my mind as I read, showing how stunning the new Hunger Games movie can be, which is scheduled for release in November 2026.
In particular, the new arena of the 50th Hunger Games holds a lot of gruesome potential. The colorful idyll of a lush meadow landscape is likely to come up with bold colors before everything there – from stun gun butterflies to the poisonous scent of flowers to blood-sucking ladybugs – is transformed into an absolute and visually intoxicating horror.
Combined with the new characters, who quickly grow on you, I’m not worried about Haymitch’s life, but I am very worried about that of his companions. Despite the predictability, it pays off to cheer until the last twist. After that, everyone will understand why Haymitch is still numbing his pain with alcohol a quarter of a century later. The Hunger Games are back in a devastatingly beautiful way. Between horror and consolation, only the familiar wish remains: May luck always be with you.
