Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

Suzanne Collins—my goodness. Never stop wielding that pen, my glorious queen. You have done it again.

This may or may not be coming from a place of recency bias, but Sunrise on the Reaping might be the best book in the Hunger Games series for me, which I was absolutely not expecting going into it.

The series’ first prequel, A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, was a solid book that was enjoyable and interesting and had a lot of merit, especially as a character study of its two main characters—but for me, it just didn’t have that same clarity, or the same stakes, or the same hard-hitting emotional punches, that the rest of the series has. It also had some pacing issues and more general things I didn’t love; you can check my review for that one down below. I recommend that book too, though; it was still really good.

But to my delight, SOTR corrected nearly everything (that I thought) BOSAS struggled with, and absolutely excelled at all of it in its execution.

For starters, the book is intriguing from the start. There’s a lot of backstory and exposition at the start of BOSAS that felt kind of clunky and even difficult to get through. Here, we jump pretty much right into the reaping on Haymitch’s birthday—not disregarding or breezing past the characters we do meet who are important to his every day life, but not lingering unnecessarily on them too much either. We know what life looks like for Haymitch and what’s significant to him, and we know exactly what he’s tragically taken away from. The way the reaping goes down and how Haymitch is chosen as tribute is shocking, jarring, and tragic. It’s so unfair, and the story lets us bask in that unfairness as the Capitol whisks him away from everything he’s known, never to be the same again.

Also unlike its predecessor, SOTR has a lot of characters in a way that is done right. As I mentioned, not too much time is spent on Haymitch’s family, nor even on Lenore Dove, his love, but through his perspective alone, we understand what they mean to him, how important they are, and how they are absolutely everything to him. Lenore Dove, despite only having a handful of actual moments in the story with Haymitch, becomes as beloved to us as she is to him through those small, meaningful moments and through his internal dialogue about her that just drips with pure love. We know how defiant and passionate she is, reminding readers a lot of the spirit of Lucy Gray. We know how much Haymitch treasures her. We know how hard his mother works, how innocent and young and willing to dream his brother is. This makes it all the more devastating when they are ripped away from him so cruelly in the end.

We’re also reintroduced to so many familiar faces, which is always fun. We get to see Effie before she began participating in the reaping ceremonies. We get to see Plutarch and his mysterious, morally questionable activities. We see Snow back at it, in all his evil glory. We even meet Katniss’s father, who is finally given a name to fit the voice we know impacted Katniss so much—Burdock.

For a Hunger Games with double the candidates, the amount of solid characterization here of the tributes is insanely impressive. In the previous book, it felt hard to keep track of what characters were important, but here, all ground is covered so, so well. We get a feel for each and every district’s tributes and how different they all are—as well as how dangerous, all in different ways. In our main four tributes from 12, Maysilee stands out as one of the book’s most memorable fighters. Her primness doesn’t discount how cutting and fierce she is from start to tragic finish, and I loved the relationship she developed with Haymitch. Louella’s reaping and death is terribly tragic, especially with the desecration of her body and her place in the Games with a Capitol doppelgänger, Lou Lou, being sent in her place before the Games even begin to cover up the Capitol’s irresponsibility for her end. And Wyatt, while certainly the least developed, had an impact as well by serving as a representative of District 12’s less than stellar community, who redeemed himself in the end by protecting one of his own.

Haymitch’s determination to get to the Capitol in any way he can, while doing his best to protect the people he loves, is inspirational and jaw-clenching. Lenore Dove’s rebellious instinct is built into him, as is the submission the Capitol forces upon him through fear, and it’s intriguing to watch his two sides battle throughout the story. He makes a great protagonist with his wit, strength, and charm. The parallels between him and Katniss are amazingly executed. I also loved the detail of Louella being Haymitch’s original sweetheart, with that nickname being passed down to Katniss years later.

This book also had such a brilliant mystery factor. It always keeps you guessing, and it’s full of more surprises than you would think. Most readers know how Haymitch turns out from how he’s represented in the first trilogy, and the book sure takes its sweet time breaking him into something horribly recognizable to us. There are so many heart-wrenching moments of fear and despair, both during and after the Games. Wyatt’s heroic death, redeeming him from the simple machine-like oddsmaker. The realization that everything within the beautiful arena is poisonous. Innocent Lou Lou’s poisoning. Young Ampert’s terrible death, being eaten to the bone for his attempt to destroy the arena with Haymitch. The volcano erupting, killing so many due to Haymitch’s plans. Maysilee’s death, tragic and personal by the very Capitol itself. Wellie’s murder by Career. Haymitch’s twisted victory. His family’s murder by arson. Lenore Dove dying by Snow’s twisted poison, at Haymitch’s helpless hand. Haymitch’s despair and grief and guilt for it all.

As for critiques, I find myself with very few. There were no dull or boring parts of this book. Maysilee touting about knowing Lenore Dove’s “secret” of vandalizing anti-Capitol sayings on buildings was a little silly, since Haymitch already suspected her of it, but him coming across her art in the end made it hit hard. And sure, the metaphor for Haymitch’s grief with the entirety of The Raven being recited is a little on the nose in the end, but the chapter after Haymitch loses Lenore (get it? Lenore?) is so heart-wrenching that I didn’t even care.

And that ending? My god. The calm after the storm, the beauty and peace and healing at the end of a vicious, bloody war—both outwardly and internally for Haymitch. It was beautiful.

The novel is great, guys. I haven’t cried like this since The Song of Achilles. Please, even if this is your introduction to the Hunger Games series, give it a read.

5/5 for me!

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As always, thank you guys so much for reading!

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