Rambling Review: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins is the second prequel for The Hunger Games series, whose first book was released in March 2012. Just over ten years later, Collins released a prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which followed 18-year-old student Coriolanus Snow, the (future) president of Panem in the original trilogy. Sunrise on the Reaping takes place years later when Snow is president, and Haymitch Abernathy is reaped for the 50th Hunger Games. As a fan favorite from the original trilogy, Haymitch’s prequel was long requested and long awaited. 

Since I was the perfect age for The Hunger Games series when it was first released, I, like many others, became a devoted fan. Katniss was the perfect narrator for a young teenage girl. I still remember reading the books for the first time and later watching and loving the adaptations. The series was huge— blockbuster movies and millions of copies sold. Yet, I never expected the prequels to actually happen despite fans’ wishes for them. 

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was a great prequel. It took a character we knew in one capacity, as the villain of the original trilogy, and gave him more dimension. While I don’t think the narrative redeemed his character in any way, it offered the reader more information about how he became who he is in the first three books. Furthermore, the first prequel expands majorly on the “Hunger Games” themselves, and the novel provided a lot of detail and history that added depth to the other books, which was my favorite aspect of it.

All of this brings me to Sunrise on the Reaping. I was very excited when I heard about this prequel. Fans were begging for years to read about Haymitch’s games. Haymitch appears in the original trilogy as Katniss’ mentor and becomes her friend and co-conspirator in the revolution. His alcoholism and indifferent attitude about the games emphasized the negative effect of the hunger games on its winners and the way trauma can change a person. In the original trilogy, I couldn’t help but love him because of his charm, sarcasm, and persistence despite the darkness in his life. In the second book, Catching Fire, Katniss and Peeta watch a taping of Haymitch’s games, in which double the amount of tributes were chosen: 48 children. Haymitch ends up winning by tricking the last remaining tribute with a forcefield, and her thrown axe boomerangs back to kill her. While a reader of the original trilogy would know how Haymitch’s games end, the prequel provides insights about Haymitch, Panem, and the Hunger Games as a whole. 

The main theme of Sunrise on the Reaping is propaganda, how it’s used, and why we should be wary of it. While Katniss and Peeta watch the recording of the games, the tape leaves out major details and information. The Capitol used the Hunger Games as a tool for both the Capitol and the districts, and Snow manipulates the audience by broadcasting whatever suits his narrative. For example, in Reaping, it’s revealed that two gamemakers, Capitol citizens who work on the games, make it into the arena and are killed by two tributes. These two tributes are then mauled to death in revenge by “mutts,” or animal mutations created to kill in the games. The killing of the gamemakers was not broadcast, so to all viewers, these two tributes died of bad luck, being at the wrong place at the wrong time. However, we understand that it is a punishment and a warning to the other tributes. While the games were teased in the original trilogy, Haymitch’s perspective reveals much more about the truth of what occurred. 

Another way Collins emphasizes the propaganda theme is through the arena built for these games. Haymitch rises into the arena to find a staggeringly beautiful and saturated field. Everything is in vibrant colors and seems alive with possibility. The vegetation is overflowing with fruit, and the water looks clear and blue. Such beauty leads them to think they are in a safe haven. Yet, Haymitch learns quickly that everything in the arena is poisoned. The water, the food, and even the air is full of chemicals that leave them in a daze and kill them when consumed. This heavenly world looks safe but is the most dangerous place they could be. Using the setting as an overt symbol, Collins highlights how people must look deeper and see through the haze to what is true. 

There are several more examples in the book of how the media can be manipulated. Haymitch is reaped unfairly, thrown onstage after he tries to fight back against a peacekeeper, but they film another scene to make it look like a random reaping. In addition, one of District 12’s tributes dies in the days leading up to the games, but Snow sends a lookalike as a replacement, and the audience has no idea that the girl was replaced. It may be worth noting here that the novel also engages with the symbolism of doubles and twins. Maysilee Donner, also reaped from District 12, is a twin as well. Through the imagery of doubles, Collins highlights the individuality of the tributes and shows that while they may be visually replaceable, their personalities and lived experiences are unique. The replacement for the District 12 tribute is an entirely different person to Haymitch and his friends, but the rest of the world sees them as the same. The cover-ups and replacements show how the Hunger Games’ broadcasting is used as a tool to control the people. Capitol citizens view the tributes as characters on a show for entertainment because the edited broadcast insists they view it that way. Meanwhile, the people in the districts struggle to fight back or gain solidarity because they lack correct information about their situations. 

While I found the themes and ideas in the novel engaging, I felt this was the weakest of The Hunger Games novels. The original trilogy cannot be replicated in terms of intrigue, voice, and themes. Katniss was such a strong narrator, and it was very easy to see the world through her while still reading between the lines. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was an interesting character study into Snow and an expansion on how the games and their uses developed over time. For me, Sunrise on the Reaping was a bit overt and almost shameless in its directness about the themes. I felt like Haymitch was less charming than Katniss, and I couldn’t reconcile his youthful personality with who he was as an adult. The other novels within the series were more subtle in their messaging by nature of their plot and structure, and I believe that made them more successful.

It’s also difficult to read a book when you know exactly what will happen. Knowing who dies and when, or what happens to a character and who they become makes the narrative slightly less engrossing. While the “how” wasn’t obvious to the reader, if you had read the original trilogy, you would know a lot of Haymitch’s story: how he wins, when his allies die, what happens to his family and his girlfriend, and how he ends up. Knowing all of this made me feel like this novel lacked tension. It was hard for me to stay engaged because of how bleak the outcome is. While we didn’t know exactly how his mother, brother, and girlfriend died, we still knew they were killed by Snow after the games and that Haymitch turns to drinking after. It’s a depressing story, with little to lift it up, whereas the original trilogy had the tension of not knowing the ending, and while horrible things happened, there was triumph at their eventual success in rebellion. Haymitch’s story ends with an epilogue about how grateful he is for Katniss and what they all accomplished despite their pain, but it doesn’t really make you feel any better about his life.

Still, I enjoyed this book, and I enjoyed being back in the world of Panem. I think Collins is a talented writer, and I had to remind myself that these books are YA and therefore meant to be suitable for young readers, like I was when I first read and loved them. Some things might need to be a bit more overt for young readers than they would be for me. As a result, I can’t judge this book too harshly for the faults I found. I think as a whole all of these books tell interesting stories about power and propaganda, resistance, inequality, and surviving with hope in difficult times. They are books that will always be relevant in my eyes, and I’m grateful that an author of YA is engaging with these difficult topics in a compelling way.