Book Review 2025 #4 - Suzanne Collins's Sunrise on the Reaping
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Published by: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: March 18th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
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Haymitch Abernathy was born on July 4th which is also the start to Panem's annual Hunger Games. It's the day of the reaping. He has never lived in a world where the games didn't exist and when catching a few quiet moments with his girlfriend Lenore Dove before the Quarter Quell festivities kick off he honestly tells her that he can't envision a world where the Capitol isn't in power. He has a better life than most, a little money in his pocket from bootlegging, a girl whom he loves, and a family he cares about. If he can just get through today he'll be safe for another year. This year though there are double the tributes and he has twenty entries. After the four names are called and he and Lenore believe themselves to be safe one of the tributes, Woodbine Chance, tries to make a break for it and is shot and killed. Lenore Dove tries to keep the Peacekeepers away from Woodbine's body and Haymitch steps in to protect her, unwittingly putting a target on his own back. He is chosen to be Woodbine's replacement. Lenore herself would have been killed for her insubordination if not for the fact that Plutarch Heavensbee thinks her tears will play well with the Capitol. On the train to the Capitol Haymitch appraises his fellow tributes, Wyatt Callow, whose family is into bookmaking, so he knows the odds, Louella McCoy, a sweet girl whom Haymitch instantly forms an alliance with despite the disadvantage to himself, and Maysilee Donner, her family owns a sweet shop so she and her twin sister have always been well-off, Haymitch doesn't think she'll be of much use, but she is far more strategic than he could have imagined. Because District 12 is looked down upon and therefore never really viewed as a contender. This year they aim to change that despite everything. When Louella is accidentally killed during the chariot ride Haymitch snaps. He decides that what he wants to get out of these games is to prove to the Capitol that they are people, just like them, and his death, all their deaths mean something. This means he needs alliances to rival the careers. And a young tribute who's in the game just to control his father might be the key. Ampert Latier, the son of victor Beetee Latier, says his father wants to discuss tactics with Haymitch. And when they meet Haymitch asks if it's possible to break the arena. Time is running out, President Snow has told Haymitch that he will die in the games, and yet, a spark could change everything. Once Haymitch escapes the Cornucopia bloodbath he has a chance. A chance to survive and perhaps start a revolution. After all, he's found the allies he needs, now everything else just has to fall into place. He knows that the house always wins, but there's always an exception that proves the rule. He needs to be the exception.
While no one could accuse Suzanne Collins of writing light fare, the two Hunger Games prequels that have come out in recent years show the true depravity of the world she has created and her creature Coriolanus Snow. And I am here for it. Because I adored this book so much I decided to pick up the original trilogy for the first time in years and I was really struck by how much is left unsaid. Finnick Odair's spilling of the tea is more about what Suzanne Collins omits. At least on the page. Because victors were sex trafficked. They were used for their bodies and for their minds. Little spies for their president. And The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Sunrise on the Reaping are far more upfront about these horrors. These show the true darkness, the true depths of despair, and how far Coriolanus Snow will really go. This is a man who will literally poison himself to kill his enemies and will kill everyone you love. He doesn't do anything by halves. And that's what I kind of feel like the original trilogy is after the brilliance of the prequels, it was only half the story. Sunrise on the Reaping showed me why I could never fully get behind the original books, and it's Katniss. Until I got to see Haymitch in action I never realized how passive Katniss is. It's not that she doesn't want to survive. She does everything in her power to survive. It's that she doesn't act she reacts. She's a hunter-gatherer, going from day to day and kill to kill, not someone destined to plan a rebellion, just someone who is in the right place at the right time and is willing to trust Haymitch's instincts to become the spark that ignites the fire. And that rebellion? Well, here at the 50th Hunger Games people are already testing the boundaries in part due to Snow's extra barbarity with regards to the second Quarter Quell. Quite literally when Beetee finds a way for Haymitch to attempt to break the machine that is the arena by targeting the boundary which ends with a literal earthquake and a victory for Haymitch. After all, there's a reason they don't re-air Haymitch's game. It showed the fallibility of the gamemakers. Everyone was already working, already secretly rebelling, it would just take twenty-four more years for the right candidate to arrive and twenty-five years, to the 75th Hunger Games, the third Quarter Quell and Snow's mistake of placing his victims all in one arena, for everything to fall into place. Which oddly made this book a comfort read for me. Yes, revisiting characters you know and love is generally a comfort, but here I took comfort in the fact that Panem was completely at the mercy of a madman and yet by coming together they defeated him. It didn't happen overnight, but it did happen. That's the message I'm taking from this book. It's possible. We can get through this. It might just take awhile. And while we might never fully heal, but a pet goose couldn't hurt.
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