The book begins on Haymitch’s 16th birthday, which is also the day of the Reaping for the second Quarter Quell. This means, because The Capitol don’t consider killing off 23 innocent children in the most brutal bloodbath of all time punishment enough, that double the amount of tributes from each district are reaped this year. As readers ourselves, we see a different side to the 50th games compared to how it was mentioned in Catching Fire, due to the censorship of The Capitol. If this doesn’t say a lot about the political state of our current society, I don’t know what does!
We find some very familiar names mentioned throughout this book, bringing various storylines together. Haymitch’s mentors are Wiress and Mags Flannigan, who we all know very well from the 75th games! Seeing these influences during Haymitch’s youth build up a greater understanding of certain actions Haymitch encouraged as Peeta and Katniss’s mentor in the original novel. Also, not a coincidence at all, we find that Haymitch’s best friend is called Burdock Everdeen! Not to mention, Burdock is the cousin of Lenore Dove Baird, Haymitch’s love interest. If these names mean nothing to you, please go and read the original books again!
Collins very cleverly ties all of the 5 novels together in Sunrise on the Reaping, exposing the manipulation, control and propaganda spread by The Capitol, yet also the early ideas of revolution and revealing the constant existence of revolutionaries that work over time to achieve pure justice. Discovering the origin behind Haymitch calling Katniss “sweetheart” originating from his district partner Louella, who was killed in the opening ceremony and replaced by a medically induced and monitored young girl from District 11 purposely to avoid commotion and the blame on The Capitol is shocking. Haymitch is also revealed to the footage of a young woman singing at the reaping of the 10th Hunger Games in District 12.
This novel ends beautifully with an epilogue describing Haymitch’s first experiences with Katniss and Peeta, bringing this devastating story line into a full-circle moment connecting all of the storylines across all five novels. As always, this was a heart-breaking book but so enjoyable, especially as we have been waiting for it for so long! My own devastation and guilt for Haymitch was occasionally broken by the surprising number of familiar names dropped in, revealing so much more backstory than we had before. This novel is perfect on so many levels, and now all we can do is hope that the movie adaptation next year does it justice!
Rating: ★★★★★
Sunrise on the Reaping (ISBN: 9781546171461) was published in 2025
