Sunrise on the Reaping (A Hunger Games Novel)
Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Press
Published March 18, 2025
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads
About Sunrise on the Reaping
The phenomenal fifth book in the Hunger Games series!
When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.
Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.
When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.
My Review
Where do I begin? In some ways, I think Haymitch’s story may be easier to tell than President Snow’s origin story. Snow becomes the villain. We know how Haymitch’s tale ends, and though it does start at kind of a low point when he enters the scene in The Hunger Games, we sense that he was more than the alcoholic recluse he’s become. This story shows us how much more.
I think Collins did a great job connecting this book to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which occurs fifteen years before this book, and The Hunger Games, which occurs twenty-four years after it. That couldn’t have been easy.
The story also contains a lot of surprising moments and some really fun cameos. (Wiress and Beetee, for example.) Katniss’s parents are also in the story. We know Haymitch outlasts the other tributes, but the story introduces some other goals and stakes. It sets up how and why Haymitch reacts the way he does to Katniss and Peeta in The Hunger Games, especially when Katniss reacts to the game makers the way she does.
Beneath its surface, the story explores the power of propoganda. Haymitch gives a lot of thought to the difference between how the Capital defines itself and its policies versus his real experience in District 12. Participating in the Hunger Games gives him a unique opportunity to share his own message, if he can find a way to do so that can’t be ignored.
Some of the story’s components are similar to the other stories. The tributes from certain districts have trained their whole lives to compete, while those from others are barely surviving. It was interesting thinking about what motivated the tributes to behave as they have, and to watch Haymitch evaluate those motivations in light of his own values.
All in all, Sunrise on the Reaping is a great addition to the series. You could read it without having read the rest of the series first, but it will spoil some events in the original trilogy. I’d recommend starting with The Hunger Games first, if you haven’t read it yet.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 13 up.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.
Spiritual Content
Lenore believes when people die, they move to another plane of existence, where loved ones might find one another.
Violent Content
Multiple brief graphic descriptions of harm and death. Situations of peril. Gun violence. Fire. Poison. Animals attacking people.
Drug Content
References to drinking alcohol and illegally making alcohol.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I borrowed a copy of this book from my library. All opinions are my own.
