All I can say about this book is Wow. It is not for the faint of heart.

Haymitch turns sixteen on the day of the reaping. He is not chosen but one of the young men tries to run away and is shot dead by a Peacekeeper. Because this is the fiftieth anniversary, the Capitol is choosing double the number of kids: two boys and two girls. The love of Haymitch’s life tries to go to the victim. When Haymitch attempts to go to her aid, he is ‘volunteered’ for the reaping. His companions? Louella, a delicate girl, Wyatt, an obsessive oddsmaker, and Marilee, the most stuck up girl in the Seam. Louella and Haymitch become allies, but after their arrival at the capitol, these two form a reluctant group with the other two, despite their reservations.

District 12 is the poorest and the least of all the districts. They have no mentors at first, they are assigned a costumer that is addicted to toad venom and their costumes are old, used coal miners uniforms. Haymitch defies Snow and right away is marked for death in the arena.

The arena, full of poisoned water and lethal creatures, as well as the other tributes, weeds out eighteen tributes the first day. But District 12 has formed an alliance with most of the other districts and Haymitch involves himself in a resistance movement designed to destroy the arena. That, of course, is far more challenging that he expects.

Anyone who has read the Hunger Games knows Haymitch not only survives but is the victor. I was curious to see how Collins would manage to work that out. The price of his victory, and Snow’s unending vengeance, certain explains Haymitch’s retreat into alcohol.

Gripping, unputdownable, and absolutely heartbreaking. I can’t even watch a trailer for Survivor. It’s the sanitized version of the Hunger Games. This book leaves me with the question: how desperate for power, how cruel, does a society have to be to kidnap children (and they are. The youngest is 12.) to fight other people’s children to the death? How vindictive to program the lethal creatures to target a particular kid? To set the arena for maximum death? And to take revenge on the victor when a disliked tribute wins?