Even if you already know how it all ends (if you’ve read or watched the Hunger Games that is), it still doesn’t make the deaths any less painful or shocking. I found myself trying to create an emotional distance from the characters because you know that there’s only one survivor, one victor.

But foresight doesn’t blunt the impact of the story because the journey- a painfully tragic one for Haymitch Abernathy- makes the ending all the more meaningful because finally, it illuminates all the major players, revealing how they came to be when Panem finally falls.

What a goldmine of stories and movies for Suzanne Collins! Four games down, 71 more to go!