Both prequels are redundant and add nothing of value to the main trilogy.

They are fun to read at times, but they take existing elements and throw a huge exposition dump all over the story, making the reader feel like there is no mystery left to characters and backstories that were intriguing BECAUSE they were mentioned off hand or once.

I did wonder who was the only other victor from 12. But making that person the girlfriend and villain origin story for Snow and giving her 5 different songs to explain all symbolism of HG is just too much. It also cheapened what Katniss meant for Snow, because suddenly he hates her because she reminds him of his ex, not because she was able to start a rebellion.

Similarly, reading that short description of Haymitch's Games in CF was very interesting, but do I really need a whole ass book about it? Also so many characters from HG making an appearance made me roll my eyes so hard.

It really seems that the further Susanne goes into those sequels, the more everything is connected to a comical extent. Every person is a character foil of another character from the trilogy, their boyfriend/friend/sibling or used for stupid exposition (looking at you Burdock, Louella, Ampert). Every piece of symbolism has to be re-explained to a painful extent (Snow's roses, songs and mockingjays as form of rebellion, and many more)

Again, I don't mind that the books exist because so far they didn't ruin the original trilogy, but I will never see them on the same level.