Where the Panthers Roam

Fourteen-year-old Lark Rowan has always lived between worlds half in the soot-stained streets of District Twelve, half in the wild forests beyond the fence where two black panthers roam and the Capitol's reach feels far away.

When her name is drawn for the 49th Hunger Games, Lark must fight not just to survive, but to hold onto the wild, quiet soul that the Capitol cannot tame. Her victory makes her the youngest victor in Twelve's history and its most forgotten.

A year later, another name is drawn: Haymitch Abernathy. His defiance in the arena shakes Panem, but when he returns home, victory feels more like a curse. Haunted and drowning in drink, Haymitch finds the one person who still believes in him Lark, the girl who once learned to survive by becoming the forest's shadow.

Over decades of loss, rebellion, and the endless cycle of the Games, Lark and Haymitch become each other's constant proof that even in Panem, love can grow from ruin, and home can be found in the unlikeliest heart.