What can I say about Sunrise on the Reaping that hasn’t already been said more eloquently by the other reviewers of Cannonball Read? I’ll start by quoting a joke I’ve heard repeated on TikTok: Suzanne Collins saw everyone thirsting over Coriolanus Snow after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie came out, and decided to remind us all what a monster he truly is. If she had to do that by torturing our favorite grizzled old alcoholic mentor and breaking all our hearts in the process, so be it.
Sunrise on the Reaping is set 24 years before The Hunger Games, and features the 2nd Quarter Quell – the Hunger Games that Haymitch Abernathy, aforementioned grizzled alcoholic, was forced to compete in. The Haymitch we know is completely alone in the world, after Snow had his mother, little brother, and girlfriend all killed in retaliation for Haymitch’s “defiance” during the Games. He’s since been the only mentor for District Twelve, and thus had to send two children to their deaths every year, for 24 years. Including the kids in his own Hunger Games, Haymitch has witnessed (and in his mind, been complicit in) the deaths of 95 innocent children. That would be enough to destroy anyone. But as we learn in Sunrise, Haymitch wasn’t always alone. When the book begins he’s a well-liked member of the community. He has a girlfriend from the Covey, Lenore Dove, that he plans to build a future with. He’s best friends with Burdock Everdeen and his girlfriend Asterid. (Yes, Katniss’ father and mother, finally named!) And he’s close with his mother and baby brother, Sid. But a terrible twist of fate sees Haymitch selected for the 50th Hunger Games and sent off to the Capitol to face certain death.
We thought we knew Haymitch’s games, and what made him tick. After all Suzanne Collins wrote a summary of his games for Catching Fire, where Peeta and Katniss watch the recaps of all their potential opponents’ games. But it turns out that we fell victim to the same propaganda at which the Capitol so excels. Without spoiling too much, Haymitch was not the loner that he was portrayed to be, and the rebellion against the Capitol had been in the works long before Katniss and Peeta raised the nightlock berries to their lips. Throughout the book, Suzanne plays with messaging, and how different factions can use imagery to convincingly sell their side of their story. As we learn more about Haymitch, the other Tributes, and the former Victors now forced to be mentors in the Capitol (and worse), we see how the Capitol has used propaganda to influence how we perceive everything about Panem.
Sunrise on the Reaping will tear your heart into tiny little pieces. You think you’re ready – after all, you know that 47 of these 48 kids are going to die – but you’re not. For anyone worrying about Suzanne Collins “glorifying” the Hunger Games, or writing books that make the audience feel as complicit as the Capitol, you can stop. This isn’t terrible violence just for fun, these are the horrific actions of a despot and his willing populace, and you will spend the entire book wishing it would just stop.