ghostbat enthusiast

there are just so many pieces of the plot that either make no sense, should not have realistically happened, or are just so unbelievable that I had to close the book a few times (the fact that this book takes place during a quarter quell and there's the same amount of shit going wrong that there was in tbosas—if not more—with significantly less repercussions is. crazy lmao) let me list a few things that genuinely baffled me from the top of my head:

the kid that was reaped getting SHOT instead of detained and forced to participate. (and haymitch defending lenore being the reason he was chosen instead of it being random dumb luck) which makes no sense at all I'm sorry

a tribute dying because of a chariot accident. at a quarter quell.

said tribute being replaced by a replica. there are good elements of this that I liked I will admit. but this was never once shown or suggested or even hinted at being a viable option in the rest of the series. which makes it just crazy to include.

haymitch was able to nearly kill snow and continuously disrespect him with 0 repercussions

haymitch was able to break into the behind the scenes of the arena with 0 repercussions

if tributes can be replaced by fakes why didn't they just kill haymitch after he caused problems and replace him with another. why was this only one in one specific case

lenore dove eating poisoned gumdrops she found on the ground was just. wow.

there's so many other pieces of the plot and several details that I cant remember because it's been a minute but you get this gist. and you might be wondering: well, jamie, a lot of these things were done to emphasis or build on the theme of propaganda and how we never really know the true story or how things are edited or changed—

I didn't like the theme of propaganda

what? but they're important and relevant!

the themes of this book were forcibly shoved down my throat with the subtlety of a neon flashing sign. which is never how suzanne collins rolled in the past so it was an uncomfortable switch up

yes the message itself is good. the execution was not. it somehow stripped several layers of nuance away from haymitch instead of adding to him, and also reduced his already established story and relationship with katniss and peeta to being full of lies and discrepancies. it took away so much agency from his character for the sake of ramming collins' ideas into our heads

this could have been executed better. I think haymitch was not the character to use to present this message, and I believe collins only chose him because she knew there was high interest in him & his games and it would sell well (I think this novel was a cash grab just in general though). the idea of using the games where there's 2x the tributes to share a theme of government interference instead of using that to highlight how even seas of children can be stripped of identity and authority under authoritarianism. or something more compelling and slightly more nuanced or subtle like the rest of the series. but no. everyone single kid except the careers banded together and became friends because that makes sense. (also she just really hates the careers and portrays them as comically 1 dimensional and evil even though she established previously that they're victims in different ways and that once again removed nuance and honestly feels like it goes against what she's trying to preach in the book—understanding there's sides to everything that we don't see. nah careers are just bad lol)

she (moreso the fans of this book honestly) also uses the theme to excuse every retcon or change from the trilogy as "capitol propaganda". please be serious. she did not plan out all of this when she wrote the trilogy and haymitch's tape in catching fire and nothing can convince me otherwise.

speaking of the fans. let me talk for a minute on fan service, or as I like to call it, how much can be shoved into this book before it just becomes ridiculous

mags and wiress being mentors for district 12 (wiress specifically is insane because she was in the 49th games. why would she be assigned to 12 instead of 3 which probably didn't have as many victors especially if she's freshly out of there)

beetee, not only having a son in haymitch's games, but running a station during the preparation period. PLEASE this is ridiculous

lenore dove being covey because. of course she had to be. the covey being created in tbosas was interesting and just old enough to feel okay as an established thing that was never mentioned in the trilogy but it being brought into sotr so blatantly just didn't work for me.

haymitch's best friend was katniss' father. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. collins worked overtime to mention every single person from district 12 in this book. but the idea that his bff was katniss' dad and he never told her is genuinely ridiculous. especially because it cheapens the fact that haymitch pulled himself out of alcoholism for some random girl who had a spark. that was interesting and highlighted how katniss isnt a "chosen one" but a girl who loved her sister and wanted to live. now it seems like he felt an obligation to her father to help and I dislike how that cheapens her as a character

effie making an appearance of course

hey plutarch. you too? I guess everyone's here then

oh except for chaff. who was stated to be good friends with haymitch in the trilogy and was the only person haymitch was established to have a connection with aside from effie. wonder why he's not here... surely not because he was one of the only characters written to be a person of color and he's being erased similarly to how people living in the seam like haymitch and louella are barely described with traits that were previously coding them to be indigenous in order to make it easier for lionsgate to make a movie with white actors to maintain continuity across the films without people having a basis of pointing out how that's problematic and would've been better to fix their mistake of casting haymitch as white even though he's not described as such for the sake of having a blond woody harrelson lookalike... course not. she probably just forgot he existed completely because no one cares about him

and snow giving a shoutout to lucy gray

that last point leads me into my next tangent which is: bad characterization

snow is supposed to be calculated. cruel. he presents himself to everyone in the same way: without weakness and with power. why is he whining to haymitch about his dead situationship and coughing up blood in front of plutarch. where is his threatening demeanor who is this man. where is the snow that was just carefully developed and beautifully written in tbosas or the scary and tyrannical president shown in the trilogy. this guy is just a loser and don't you DARE tell me that's because of propaganda or narration. no matter whattttt this guy would not behave so carelessly #notmysnow

oh haymitch. what did they do to you my darling boy. so much of your snark, sassiness, intelligence, sarcasm, critical thinking was erased in this book. I have no idea why. THE FACT THAT COLLINS TRIED TO CHANGE THE AXE/CLIFF TRICK AS BEING A COMPLETE MISTAKE ON HIS PART. I will never understand the reason and I will never accept that as canon. top 5 smartest and coolest haymitch moments retconned for. what purpose exactly? he was basically used as a vessel for the rebellion's plans and had almost no ideas or strategies of his own. why am I reading a book about haymitch, one of the smartest and careful characters in the hunger games, and constantly going "is he stupid?" also the majority of his alcoholism, depression, and grief being tethered to lenore's death instead of the horror of the games or his family dying felt so wrong to me

which connects to the lady herself. lenore dove barely had any personality and felt like a combo between mpdg and fridged wife. I wanted more development and uniqueness from her but I just got cheesy romantic lines and. gumdrops. and geese I guess man whatever. if you're gonna make haymitch's tragedy revolve her at least make her complex or at least interesting not just a combination of katniss, lucy gray, and juliet capulet

not exactly mischaracterization per se but the suggestion that wiress was mentally damaged by capitol torture instead of driven insane by her games didn't feel right. and I thought mags was mute because of a stroke but now that's also capitol torture? oh my bad that's just propaganda right. I forgot sorry

but honestly one of the main things I disliked about this book overall was just the writing.

I love and adore the original trilogy, and thought tbosas was also excellent in its worldbuilding and development of characters especially. sotr fumbled the bag on everything, but I dislike how it also added almost nothing to the world of the hunger games (in fact it took away a lot) and undermined the development of haymitch. two things that collins previously excelled at just completely flipped around

the pacing was awful. my friend who enjoyed this book thoroughly shared my complaint on this. it felt like everything and nothing was happening at the same time. the ending was rushed and the jarring inclusions of the raven in chunks didn't do it for me. I know collins can write madness well because she had JUST done it with snow and I ate it up. this was just not it

the writing itself felt clunky and flat. it didn't have the same feeling as the other books in the series. none of the descriptions or details ever stood out to me, and it felt like the quality was drastically diminished. it just wasn't good there's really no other way to spin it. I honestly wondered if sotr was ghostwritten at points because it just felt so different from the others and so much worse. I cringed at multiple points whether it was from dialogue, plot not making sense or being cheesy, or blatant attempts at trying to make me cry when collins gave me 0 reason to care about these characters

there's also a few miscellaneous things that peeved me that I'll just throw in down here

changing how things ended between haymitch and maysilee was not only pointless but also less impactful. the fact that haymitch originally ran to save maysilee after hearing her scream showed that he deeply cared for her and would risk his life even though they had ended their allyship. it showed how much haymitch cares for others even with his closed off demeanor. but no that was edited. also why were they roughly forced into having a sibling dynamic. genuinely came out of nowhere and was so unnatural & forced to me

why were potatoes mentioned so damn often. and if it's not coincidental and actually because katniss is a swamp potato. I might cry because that's so stupid

already mentioned it a bit earlier but as a big fan of the raven I don't like how it was used at all. sue me. no reason for all that.

and then just generally the response to this book being nothing but positivity and praise irks me. So. Badly. iirc it has the highest rating on goodreads of any other hunger games book which is insane. criticism of sotr is met with so much hostility or dismissal which is so incredibly frustrating and frankly annoying. tbh I've tried to just forget about this book altogether and erase it from my mental canon and if that means I fell for capitol propaganda then honestly oh well. if you rank sotr anywhere but dead last in this series I don't want to hear what you have to say about the hunger games. and the further up it goes the less I trust your literary opinions. number one? automatic block you cannot be real

I'm sure I'll remember other issues I had after I post this but there's already so much here so I'll leave it at that. to prove I'm not just a hater and I do have room for love in my heart I will give this book its flowers for a few things I liked

wyatt, the oddsman, dying for lou lou even though he knew she had almost no chance of winning. he wanted his last act to be selfless and redeem his family and trade, so he saved her because it was the right thing to do even if it was nonsensical... that was good

the scene of haymitch in the cage was decently compelling and one of the only parts that made me feel much of anything. I like how it expanded on how the capitol sees district kids and victors as either animals or spectacles, and from what I remember it was a pretty disturbing few paragraphs

I wasn't invested but I didn't ever get bored or put the book down despite the pacing and everything else. I was entertained (because I love the world, mostly) and able to tear through it quickly

the very basic concept of this book had potential. with a different character, different games, different world even? it could have worked out. (possibly. with better writing too) but the execution did not stick the landing