On March 18, 2025 Suzanne Collins released her second prequel and fifth book in “The Hunger Games” series the book is called “Sunrise On The Reaping”. The book follows one of her previous characters, Haymitch Abernathy. The book finally gives readers the well-deserved back-story they have all been waiting for.
People treasure “The Hunger Games” series, and for Collins to release a new book in an attempt to live up to the last one is brave and risky. However, she did make a book that earns its spot in this monumental series.
The story had an amazing storyline and contained characters that developed throughout the story. In this book, the unsolved questions were finally answered while character arcs were built.
At the beginning of the book we see Haymitch Abernathy, a 16-year-old boy, whose birthday is the same date as the reaping day. He has a lover named Lenore Dove, who is part of the coveys, a group in District 12 that sings songs and performs. When it is time for the reaping, Haymitch is not one of the two boys who get called at first, but then a drastic change occurs that leads to the death of one of the boys who got reaped. This leads to Haymitch being forced into the Games.
This part of the book is the first three chapters and Collins does an amazing job of capturing the reader in the book. Usually in her past book, the intros have always been slow, especially when introducing the characters, but for this book she was able to introduce characters and concepts without it being boring.
Also how Haymitch got reaped really does tie in with the way his character acts in the original trilogy. She builds an optimistic character, which is crazy to think about because in the other books, he is perceived as a negative drunk.
There are some complaints about how the intro part was written. Collins did introduce a lot of characters with unique names, which did make it hard to follow along and remember who all the characters were and what their role was in the book. Some of these characters were also talked about later in the story, which made it even more confusing to remember who was who.
However, the upside of this is that they introduce characters that fans of The Hunger Games series thought they would never see such as Katniss Everdeen’s dad and Peeta Mellark’s dad. Readers have never met Katniss’s dad so for them to see what he was makes him such a good addition to the book, because it gives backstory to Peeta Everdeen, Katniss’s father.
In the next couple of chapters, Collins introduces the four kids who were reaped. Haymitch knows all of these kids, but also only favors one of them. This was a good addition to make in the book because for Haymitch to have an enemy that is from his district gives off tension throughout the story. He will eventually have to make allies with them, but the process is exciting and builds up some of the other characters on the way.
He not only has enemies but he also has a friend in the story whose name is Louella McCoy. She was someone who had a bit of a crush on Haymitch when they were little. She is also someone who represents Katniss in a way. There are hints throughout the story that show why Haymitch would act around Katniss the way he did, and that reason was because she reminded him of Louella. In the trilogy Haymitch refers to Katniss as Sweetheart, which is what he also calls Louella since she was his first sweet.
In the next two chapters, it seems like the author is trying to squeeze in a lot of information and also put in a lot of action. It is harder to read than the previous chapter, but it does end in a way that builds the tension and plot further.
However, the book introduces four characters who were in the last book of the original trilogy. These characters are Mags Beetee Wiress, and Plutarch. The first three characters are previous winners of the games, and now, in this book, we finally get to see how they won and what their areas were. The last person Plutarch is an upcoming game maker in this book. The readers understand and see the character arcs growing in this book.
The next couple of chapters are about making alliances. Haymitch and the two other tributes from District 12 are trying to form alliances bigger and better than the Career Pack, which consists of kids from Districts one two, and four. These chapters don’t add anything to the book except for the fact that they show everyone who dies later in the arena, whom Haymitch knew personally.
There is one important detail that happens within this chapter, and that is when Haymitch has a private conversation with President Snow. Readers who have read the prequel before this, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” will be fascinated with this chapter. During their conversation, Lucy Gray Baird, the winner of the 10th annual Games, is brought up. Haymitch concludes that Snow was likely a former lover of Lucy Gray, implicating a complicated backstory between them. Also a surprising twist happens in their conversation: a person is brought back from the dead.
This insert in the chapter makes it intriguing and worthwhile, since the rest of the chapter is a bit dull. After this chapter, all the chapters leading up to the actual games are not crucial to the story and are also a bit bland. Collins seems to just be leading on the story and adding unnecessary detail and information while leading up to the actual games.
There is one piece of information that she adds, which causes Haymitch to be perceived as a rascal. She sticks with this characteristic and makes it seem like it is a really important detail that will be acknowledged later in the book, but it seems like she forgets about it and doesn’t use the characteristic she implied about him.
Now, we get to the games. Collins has done an excellent job leading up to the games and making sure there were allies and enemies. She has done an amazing job of making sure there is a perfect amount of tension before the games and during the games.
When the games start it really focuses on Haymitch and not any of the other characters. Collins focuses on Haymitch and the first couple of moments in the arena, such as him knowing his surroundings and finding water which is really important for him. Also, Haymitch has the task of destroying the arena; this is the main point of him in the games. She doesn’t focus on the other tributes trying to kill him like the first couple of books, but focuses more on the arena and Haymitch trying to break out. This is most definitely an interesting strategy to try to make this book different from the others, but I don’t know if it’s the best.
It becomes confusing to understand what is happening in the plot because Haymitch seems to place a lot of importance on trying to find his friends, destroying the arena, and also saving the love of his life. Collins was doing MCub, trying to add all of these features, when she really should have been focusing on one main thing so the readers could follow along more easily.
Even though there are many negatives to this part of the story, there are most definitely many positives. One thing that Collins does exceptionally well is creating the arena itself. She really expands her creative abilities, and it is most definitely shown by this arena. It is beautifully described as a lush type of forest with plenty of creatures; however, these creatures and the forest itself is man killing. The way she switches up the arena from this whimsical type of thing to a very savage type of thing is amazing, people may even say the arena in this book can be considered a character itself. Even though the gamemakers make the arena, she makes the gamemakers herself.
The rest of the chapter about the arena is very blurry, and they all sound somewhat the same. She talks about the same concept and it’s not very interesting or entertaining. In this book, when Haymitch gets to the arena it is very clear that the games themselves are not the main plot point, which is why the chapters of the games are very slow and not well written.
The last chapter of when Haymitch is in the games it is good. It thickens the plot, and readers finally get to see how Haymtich won the games. It also shows how Abernathy becomes a rebel and how he knows so much about the games in the trilogy.
The chapters that are between the games and when Abernathy returns home are a bit scary and quite short. These chapters feel like fillers to make the book longer and to add something to the plot that doesn’t need to be included.
When the main character Abernathy returns home this could be considered the climax of the story, even though it happens in the last couple of chapters. It is the main turning point where we finally see how Haymitch becomes the character he is in the first three original points. Not only do we get this explanation, but we also get an ending to the previous winner, Lucy Gray, which is incredible.
Now we get to the epilogue. One may argue that this three-page part of the book was the best part of the whole story. It is Haymitch when he is living in District 12 with Peeta and Katniss, that is when the war is over, and they are finally free. This part was great because readers get to see Haymitch living in his environment with the knowledge that he has from his game, and everything finally comes together to make one beautifully tragic ending.
One thing about the book that has something to do externally, unlike internally, is the cover. The cover of the book is the ugliest cover of the series. It is this weird purple color with a snake head and a bird head connected. Readers just wish that Collins had given this book justice and made the cover better.
Overall, this book had an amazing storyline with many of the original characters that readers finally got to see the backstory of. However the book was not one of Collins ‘ best-written books, but it was most definitely was very emotional.
