Sunrise On The Reaping - A Hunger Games Novel (Book Review)

Growing up, I was a huge fan of The Hunger Games trilogy. I’d never read anything like it before, and it’s a story that is timeless. Then the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes came out and I wasn’t such a fan. I couldn’t tell if it’s because it was the origin story of the villain, or if perhaps I’d just outgrown the Hunger Games world. Then we were given Sunrise On The Reaping. Safe to say… I didn’t outgrow it.

Sunrise On The Reaping is the latest Hunger Games novel written by Suzanne Collins and tells the story of Haymitch’s games. Haymitch is an incredibly popular character in the original Hunger Games trilogy, but he starts of as an incredibly pessimistic, moody, old drunken man. Originally, it’s safe to assume it’s because he was in the hunger games and probably had to do some questionable stuff but now we find out what his story truly is, and boy, is it heartbreaking.

This Sunrise On The Reaping review (like most of mine) will mostly be spoiler free. It’s something I value in reviews as I want to go in as blindly as possible but I think it’s also interesting to take note of some interesting things before going in.

The first and most important point is this book did not disappoint. Initially, I found Sunrise On The Reaping to be quite slow. It didn’t grab me from the get-go and I feared it would leave me feeling similarly to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. However, in the last third, it really picked up it’s pace and left some very hard hitting messages. We all know by now that The Hunger Games are a reflection of actual society and there are some home truths which are sad to hear/read.

The book is set into three parts which effectively are: the reaping, prepping for the games and then the actual games. It makes sense but then it didn’t make much difference to me, whereas Donna Tart’s The Secret History had to be in two parts for the story. The only thing that I can take away from Sunrise On The Reaping being split into three parts is actually how the trajectory of Haymitch’s story changed in those three parts. Each part ended a different way than Haymitch would have planned.

One of the most surprising elements of this book in particular was the parallels between the original The Hunger Games and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Haymitch has similarities to both Snow and Katniss in a way that is truly intriguing. Haymitch’s story also follows a very similar path to Katniss’ but with a very different ending. The story also adds more depth to the history that came before Katniss and her rebellion. Haymitch takes part in the second quarter quell which is the fiftieth annual hunger games, meaning it is a well-established tradition but there are still differences between his games and Katniss’ games.

There is one big difference between this story and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, we already like Haymitch. His character is well established and we also know that he has a somewhat happy ending. Don’t get me wrong, Sunrise On The Reaping will definitely tug on your heartstrings more than you can imagine, but we are rooting for the good guy the whole way through whereas with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, we are trying to sympathise with someone who turns out to be an awful person.

Ultimately, this book is full of action and social commentary that is worth taking onboard. It’s entertainment of course and a big trip down memory lane with a number of references (meaning that it’s a good idea to read all of the previous books before this one) but it’s more than that. In a world where we are glued to our phones, consuming information that has been curated by someone on the other side of it, we should be careful what we believe. We shouldn’t be so quick to judge or assume that every ‘fact’ is indeed true.

The end of Sunrise On The Reaping is powerful. Enjoy it.