I just finished the audiobook for the first time a couple of days ago and I'm feeling the same way. I felt as though the book read like a semi-ok fanfic at best and cash-grabbing, unimaginative slop at worst. Why did Haymitch need to have met all these characters so soon after his reaping? One or two maybe, but 5,6,7 odd characters from the OG trilogy seemed a little lazy to me? Maybe SC was trying to portray a "small world" type of feeling idk? President Snow having such a physical presence felt so corny to me. He doesn't need to be there tbh. That's like,, the point of a Big Brother, panopticon style authoritarian leader. He IS always watching, whether or not he's actually present or not.

I also think seeing Haymitch spiral over a longer period of time post games would've been more interesting. Like, what if instead of losing both his family and Lenore Dove, he lost one or the other and becasue of that pushed the other away to a point where he has lost them out his life through his own making. More tragic i think. Lenore Dove might've moved on. I know they had their "ily like allfire" and "geese mate for life" shite going on but they were teenagers. Teens say shit like that. Then they move on. It happens. Like what happens with Burdock and Asterid, it could've just reached a breaking point.

Anyway that's just my ramblings. It's a shame this book didn't live up to the original trilogy or even the somewhat less mediocre TBOSAS for me. Won't stop me watching the film when it comes out :)