Review: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

Warning: very mild spoilers in this review

Blurb:

When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honour of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town.

As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight… and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

My thoughts:

Stepping back into The Hunger Games world, Sunrise on the Reaping is both nostalgic and bittersweet. It’s an emotional story, one that will take a while for any fan to recover from – if they manage to at all.

In this prequel, we’re introduced to a young Haymitch. Even though district 12 has its difficulties, he still enjoys his life. He has his girlfriend – Lenore Dove, many friends and a close-knit family. I thought his character arc was done well – as we see the innocent child long before the games destroyed him. One line that stood out was when he declared “I don’t drink” on multiple occasions.

There are a few familiar faces thrown into the mix which is a fun addition to the story. I won’t be listing any character names as I don’t want to spoil anything for someone who hasn’t had the chance to pick the book up yet. It didn’t feel like they were being thrown into the plot just to appease fans either because they added context to Haymitch’s story before and after the games.

We’re immediately thrust into a similar timeline as the first book – with the characters hopping on a train, beginning training and being paraded around the Capitol; and then being thrown into the brutal, barbaric arena. While the story felt familiar, as many of the things Katniss and Peeta had to endure also happened to Haymitch, it didn’t feel repetitive. There are major differences in the plot as well as some difficult chapters to read. One difference is the number of children being submitted to the games had doubled as a result of it being a Quarter Quell. So instead of one male and one female from each district entering the games, for the 50th anniversary, two of each gender did – a total of 48 children. The layout of the arena and what Haymitch and the other tributes had to endure was interesting too. The scale of the brutality and graphic detail felt like it had increased a notch. Many deaths had me completely blindsided and my mouth was on the floor.

Collins has managed to add so much more depth to the original trilogy with the addition of this prequel. Many readers might be thinking why would you read the book when Mockingjay tells us the story of Haymitch and many other characters’ games. But there are many things that weren’t told. There are also so many layers to this book that makes the stories from the originals and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes even more meaningful. We find out about the friendships Haymitch forms, more about the rebellion, and, if possible, Snow becomes even more wicked than ever before. Reading Sunrise on the Reaping after the other four books made the parts of the story we already knew emotionally painful to read and there are still many shocking parts of the book that many readers are unlikely to predict.

While the book is fiction, it is very political. Collins shows this with the level of propaganda that is propelled on the citizens in the districts over the years – as Snow hides anything that doesn’t fit his agenda, including all traces of Lucy Gray (who we know from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes). The author demonstrates how deep the divide between those in the Capitol and the districts are – the first having libraries at their disposal but choosing not to read or not being encouraged to and the latter passing stories to each other because they have limited access to resources. I found it interesting how one revels in the entertainment of the games, not seeing reading as a popular pastime thus discarding it, while the other would love nothing more than to have more knowledge and a better education in order to improve themselves.

There are certain moments that stood out to me the most during this read – one being the author’s choice to humanise the children. She could easily have made some characters wholeheartedly good and others fully evil but that’s not what we as humans are. There is one scene where a child, who has been vicious with their killings, begins to cry and there’s an act of kindness from Haymitch that shows they’re all just children. They didn’t choose the life they were handed. And it made me realise how unkind and unjust it was that they had been taught and expected to become animals in order to survive. It was one of many heart-wrenching scenes in this novel and is just one of many examples of how beautifully the author writes.

Fans of Edgar Allen Poe might enjoy Collins’ use of his poem, The Raven, which is a major part of the story and the progression of Haymitch’s life taking a downward spiral towards the end of the book as everything starts to unravel. It’s a lovely addition as it encapsulates the love the author has for poetry into the story. Previous books have shown how songs and poems have kept generations of districts strong and ready to fight the patriarchy, with the addition of the Hanging Tree song. While The Raven is a far more personal and somber part of a singular journey that leads to self-isolation.

Sunrise on the Reaping is an extremely addictive, fast-paced book that’s going to make you want to reread the entire series immediately after finishing. This is up there with the best work Collins has written. It might even be my favourite Hunger Games book to date. I encourage you to pick it up if you haven’t already.