Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins Review (Book, 2025)

content warning: blood, gore, violence against women, violence against children, violence against animals, mental wellness, addiction, medical/surgical content, grieving

You all asked for it. Me? I dreaded it.

Suzanne Collins’ Sunrise on the Reaping is a new book in The Hunger Games universe focused on the Second Quarter Quell and its unlucky victor Haymitch Abernathy, better known as the drunk and depressed District 12 mentor in the original trilogy. The original trilogy gives a cliff notes version of how Haymitch won the games–manipulating the arena’s force field to thwart his final opponent’s attack–which was enough to tell me that any further adaptation of these Games would be brutal.

For those unfamiliar, the annual Hunger Games in the dystopian future America called Panem are meant as retribution for a failed rebellion against the Capital. Every year, each of the 12 surviving districts will have one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 reaped to fight to the death in a Capital-designed gladiatorial arena. The last one standing is the victor, who is showered in wealth and everything they will ever need for the rest of their lives; the 23 losers die. This is broadcast throughout all of Panem to keep the Districts in check and entertain the oblivious citizens of the Capital.

For Quarter Quells, the rules change. Every 25 years, the Districts face a more brutal, symbolic Hunger Games designed to punish their role in the initial rebellion. For example, the 1st Quarter Quell had each district vote for the two children who would fight to the death to remind them that the Districts chose to rebel against the Capital. Unfortunately for Haymitch in the 2nd Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will fight to the death as a reminder that two District rebels fought and lost for every one Capital citizen. Strength comes in unity, not numbers.

As upsetting as Sunrise on the Reaping is, and I did find myself sobbing many times throughout my read, this newest edition to the world of The Hunger Games is Collins’ strongest entry in the series. Haymitch, who brands himself as the District 12 rascal to earn sponsor support in the games, is a fascinating and flawed protagonist. The 16 year old poor boy from the Seam is quick to impulsive righteousness that time and again seals his fate. He’s charming as all get-out, but he chooses the wrong time to make the right decision every chance he gets. 

President Snow is in the glory of his reign here, no longer the weepy pretty boy who fell for the Covey girl and District 12 victor Lucy Gray Baird in A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. He is ruthless, destroying his enemies with poison and controlling the narrative to convince the entire population of Panem that all his murders are tragic accidents. Haymitch catches Snow’s attention and is warned, “Snow always lands on top.”

In a twisting novel of espionage, propaganda, and failed revolution, we watch as Haymitch is reminded time and again that Snow runs the country. You cross Snow, you sign your own death warrant; that man will never let you know happiness again.

Take, for example, the recognizable victors-turned-mentors that Haymitch meets throughout the game. What has Mags, winner of the 11th Games from career District 4, done to be lumped with the presumed dead weight of District 12? Why is Wiress, winner of last year’s 49th Games, being punished with the certainty of losing all four of her District 12 tributes? And why is poor Beetee, winner of the 34th Hunger Games and technology genius working for the Capital, forced to mentor his only son Ampert and train all the tributes in how to turn a potato into a light bulb? 

We know from the original trilogy that all three of these tributes were part of the rebellion that started in the 3rd Quarter Quell, though seeing them punished with one of the worst performing Districts in the Hunger Games already shows the brunt of Snow’s cruelty. Despite doing their best to prepare their tributes for the arena, they know nothing they can do will protect their tributes if Snow has decided they cannot win. While Mags’ strategy is not revealed in the book, both Wiress and Beetee took advantage of the arena itself to win their games. This kind of unintended method of victory is not treated kindly by the Capital.

Meanwhile, the Mutts, animal mutations created by the Capital to shake up and control the games, are out in full force for the 2nd Quarter Quell. Haymitch and his fellow 47 tributes rise up from the underground to discover a beautiful meadow filled with colorful flowers, fruit-bearing trees, easy to catch bunnies, and fresh water as far as the eye can see. They discover shortly after the bloodbath at the Cornucopia that everything they can see in the arena is poisoned. The tributes who don’t get their own bag of supplies at the start are left with no food, water, or antidote to save them if they try to drink the river water or smell the flowers around them. 

Worse still, any other animal they encounter can be targeted to specific tributes, the opposite way the rainbow snakes in the 10th Games were harmless to anyone whose scent they previously encountered. A team of squirrels or butterflies or ladybugs can descend upon a tribute with no warning and pick them clean to the bone. The 2nd Quarter Quell is designed to be fast, brutal, and punishing, even before Haymitch starts playing with powers far beyond his control.

Despite knowing how the games have to end and the fate of Haymitch by the 74th Games featured in the original trilogy, Suzanne Collins crafts a dystopian political thriller filled with unexpected twists and surprises. Haymitch is not an unreliable narrator, but rather an unknowing narrator. He will learn how the Capital machine works first hand, and we will all suffer for it.

Sunrise on the Reaping is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.