BookSixteen-year-old Haymitch Abernathy wakes up on his birthday, which is also reaping day for the 50th Hunger Games. It's a Quarter Quell, so twice as many tributes are taken. Haymitch isn't supposed to be one of them.
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When a reaped boy tries to run and is shot, Haymitch steps in to protect his girlfriend, Lenore Dove, from the Peacekeepers. The Capitol quietly swaps him in as a tribute and edits the chaos out of the broadcast. In the Capitol, his friend Louella dies in a chariot accident at the parade. Haymitch carries her body to President Snow and slow-claps him, and Snow promises him a slow death.
Beetee, a former victor, recruits Haymitch into a plan to sabotage the arena from the inside with Beetee's son, Ampert. The arena is beautiful and lethal. The flood only half works, and Ampert is killed by mutant squirrels. Haymitch teams up with Maysilee Donner, and together they find the arena's edge: a force field that throws anything back. Maysilee is killed by mutant birds.
In the final two, the last Career throws her axe at Haymitch. It rebounds off the force field and kills her.
How it ends
Haymitch wins, and the Capitol punishes him for it. His mother and little brother are dead and his house is burned. The candy he gives Lenore Dove was poisoned by Snow, and she dies in his arms after making him promise never to let the sun rise on another reaping. Twenty-four years later, he keeps that promise through Katniss Everdeen.
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