Bound To Stay Bound

Other - 03/31/2025 Set 40 years after the events of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, this heart-wrenching novel from Collins centers a 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy and his role in the climactic 50th Hunger Games. Though readers will know him as Katniss and Peeta’s ill-tempered, alcohol-dependent mentor during the 74th games, young Haymitch is a sweet-natured, responsible teen working hard to support his widowed mother and younger brother. In his free time, he attends to his sweetheart, Lenore Dove, a singer with a rebellious streak, who is one of the Covey, a group of formerly itinerant musicians. Then Haymitch is selected to compete in the second-ever Quarter Quell. His mother’s parting words-"Don’t let them paint their posters with your blood"-become his North Star as he balances the necessity of performing for the Games with maintaining his integrity and morality. As the Quarter Quell commences, Collins utilizes searing, precise language to vividly depict what each party-the tributes, the Capitol, and the districts at large-stands to lose and how these Games’ aftermath will come to shape the events of the original trilogy. Excerpts from Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Raven"-peppered throughout Haymitch’s first-person narration-heighten the story’s emotional resonance. It’s a brutal tale of compassion and rage, and a frank examination of propaganda and tragedy, that will satisfy longtime series fans and newcomers alike. Ages 12-up. (Mar.)Correction: The text of this review has been updated for clarity. - Copyright 2025

Other - 04/07/2025 Set 40 years after the events of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, this heart-wrenching novel from Collins centers a 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy and his role in the climactic 50th Hunger Games. Though readers will know him as Katniss and Peeta’s ill-tempered, alcohol-dependent mentor during the 74th games, young Haymitch is a sweet-natured, responsible teen working hard to support his widowed mother and younger brother. In his free time, he attends to his sweetheart, Lenore Dove, a singer with a rebellious streak, who is one of the Covey, a group of formerly itinerant musicians. Then Haymitch is selected to compete in the second-ever Quarter Quell. His mother’s parting words-"Don’t let them paint their posters with your blood"-become his North Star as he balances the necessity of performing for the Games with maintaining his integrity and morality. As the Quarter Quell commences, Collins utilizes searing, precise language to vividly depict what each party-the tributes, the Capitol, and the districts at large-stands to lose and how these Games’ aftermath will come to shape the events of the original trilogy. Excerpts from Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Raven"-peppered throughout Haymitch’s first-person narration-heighten the story’s emotional resonance. It’s a brutal tale of compassion and rage, and a frank examination of propaganda and tragedy, that will satisfy longtime series fans and newcomers alike. Ages 12-up. (Mar.)Correction: The text of this review has been updated for clarity. - Copyright 2025

School Library Journal - 04/04/2025 Gr 7 Up—The second Quarter Quell reaped twice as many tributes for the Hunger Games, but Haymitch Abernathy's name was not one of them. Not until one of the boys who was reaped is shot dead, at which point Haymitch is on the wrong side of the Peacekeepers and forced to take his place. Having no winners in the last 40 years, Plutarch Heavensbee is the tributes' escort while Mags and Wiress are the mentors for District 12. Despite their conditions in Catching Fire, both Mags and Wiress have their full faculties for Haymitch's games, invoking a creeping foreboding as familiar characters plan a rebellion we know is destined to fail. Readers of the original trilogy know how Haymitch won his games, they know what happened to his loved ones after, and despite knowing how his story ends, Collins manages to subvert expectations into white-knuckle moments. Haymitch's relationships are the backbone of the novel as readers compare who he knows with where they will end up: his romance with a Covey girl, his friendship with Katniss's father, and his disposition toward alcohol all break one's heart from the first mention. Collins adds considerably to the lore of Panem, while driving home themes of fascism, security, and propaganda. Katniss's unreliable narration in The Hunger Games led readers to believe many facts that are simply actually Snow's fictions, the propaganda now exposed under Haymitch's narrative. VERDICT Required reading for fans of the original trilogy. A must-have in all collections.—Emmy Neal - Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 04/01/2025 *Starred Review* Suzanne Collins, what a lore-driven menace you are. Readers are pulled back into the highly acclaimed world of The Hunger Games, as this prequel focuses primarily on the backstory of the gruff, alcoholic mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, and his participation in the Second Quarter Quell, the fiftieth anniversary of the Games. Haymitch is unfairly reaped into the Games (which feature double the tributes) after he tries to protect his girlfriend, Lenore Dove, from the mayhem that ensued during the District 12 reaping ceremony. From there, chaotic game prep ensues—from chariot accidents and dead tributes to intoxicated, useless stylists to a plot to destroy the arena from the inside. The propulsive story features several nods to characters in the original trilogy and connections that shine a new light on how Haymitch’s games influenced his choices as an adult mentor. Collins is unafraid to pose a scathing commentary on the active efforts of a propaganda machine, showing in real time how narratives are reworked to serve the Capitol’s agenda, help President Snow maintain his sickly grip on the Districts, and keep the Hunger Games alive. Haymitch is presented as a well-rounded, thoughtful character who struggles similarly in circumstance to Katniss; he's thrust into a rebellion but struggling with the seemingly fruitless nature of it under tyrannical authoritarianism. Raw, shocking, and deeply bittersweet, Haymitch’s backstory pulls the pieces of the Hunger Games universe together with ease.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Collins has mentioned in past interviews that she would not return to this series unless she had something to say—and she has a lot to say. Order multiple copies. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.