In 2008, author Suzanne Collins released The Hunger Games, the first book in a trilogy surrounding a dystopian America called Panem and a girl, Katniss Everdeen, who brings it down. Loved by readers everywhere, the trilogy was eventually adapted into four movies, making $3.3 billion worldwide. In 2020, Collins released a prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, to the beloved trilogy, about the upbringing of the corrupt President Coriolanus Snow and how the Hunger Games came to be. Fans asked for more books about beloved characters, a popular one being Haymitch Abernathy. Their dreams came true June 6 when Sunrise on the Reaping was announced.
For years, fans have anticipated a book about Haymitch’s game, and Sunrise on the Reaping was finally released on Mar. 18. With limited information about what happened in Haymitch’s Hunger Games provided in a short few pages in the second book, Catching Fire, readers were thirsting for anything Collins would give them.
I ran to my local Barnes and Noble as soon as it opened on Mar. 18 and immediately started reading. Finishing the 400-page book the following day, I enjoyed this story immensely. Starting the morning of the reaping, readers learn it is Haymitches’ birthday and are introduced to recognizable characters like Katniss’s mom and dad, Peeta’s dad, and others. Readers also meet Lenore Dove Baird, Haymitch’s girlfriend and a relative of Lucy Gray Baird, the only victor ever to come from District 12. Collins does a great job at introducing and including these characters into the new story.
One of my favorite things about this book is how different it is from what readers thought we knew about the 50th Hunger Games. It’s briefly explained in Catching Fire but in minimal detail, and we learn much more throughout the new novel, which shows the Capitol’s controlling nature. In Catching Fire, Peeta and Katniss only know what happened in the 50th games from what the Capitol aired on TV, but when reading from Haymitch’s perspective, you learn much more went down — a failed uprising.
As Haymitch and the other tributes from 12 make their way to the Capitol, readers are again introduced to familiar characters. Learning about these relationships makes the original story all the more enjoyable. We learn about the backgrounds of the characters in Catching Fire, how they came to plan the revolution, and how Haymitch was the original Mockingjay. The relationship between Beetee and Hyamitch is interesting, as is the relationship between Haymitch and Ambert, Beetee’s son. The formation of the Newcomers’ alliance against the Careers and the plan for Haymitch to essentially break the arena helps set the scene for how the events of Catching Fire and Mockingjay were able to happen so quickly.
The characterization of Haymitch is one of my favorite parts of this book. What readers know of him from the original trilogy is that he is, on the surface, a sad, old drunk, but through this book, we find out so much more about him and who he was before the games. We see a gentle teenager who just wants to protect his family and is thrown into something bigger than himself.
Suzanne Collins says she won’t write a new Hunger Games book unless she has something to say, and Sunrise on the Reaping says something about the current state of the American government. Collins discusses media manipulation and propaganda in this book. How the Capitol uses this propaganda to control the districts and maintain its power mirrors the spread of misinformation and manipulation of the media in the real world. It causes readers to sit and think about their enjoyment of the story. In an article by MSNBC producer Hannah Holland says, “The Hunger Games” series makes its reader culpable in the grotesque deaths of tributes, of children. Collins masterfully writes these scenes to be fast-paced, engrossing and detailed. You like reading them. You enjoy the horrifying brutality of the Hunger Games. In this way, the reader is complicit — just as complicit as the series’ wealthy citizens of The Capitol, who watch from safe perches in colorful outfits.”
The newest installation of the Hunger Games world explores characters fans know and love, what led to the eventual uprising with Katniss, and a new side of Haymitch, making him even more loveable than before. This incredible story will be treasured by fans.
