By Carmen Chin
When The Hunger Games novel hit bookshelves seventeen years ago, protagonist Katniss Everdeen and her plight were embraced by millions of readers across the globe, spawning three more bestselling books and five major motion pictures. The series was undoubtedly one of the most successful book franchises since Harry Potter, securing its pop culture status during the 2020s. When a prequel exploring fan favourite Haymitch Abernathy’s origin story, titled Sunrise On The Reaping, and its accompanying film adaptation, was announced last year, many were unsure. Being an avid fan of The Hunger Games series myself, I was worried that Sunrise On The Reaping would befall a profit-oriented fate and the chances of a new prequel opening more plot holes in the overarching storyline than connecting them. To my surprise, my concerns were debunked once I gave the novel a chance. As part of the wider Hunger Games franchise, Sunrise On The Reaping stakes its claim as the best in the series. It has provided a more holistic understanding of the Capitol’s machinations in hosting the Hunger Games and the longstanding friction that was born as a result. Change is never immediate, but the product of generations worth of action.
In Sunrise On The Reaping, Collins turns her focus to Haymitch Abernathy, who many will recognise as the jaded, alcoholic mentor who coached Katniss and Peeta in the original trilogy. Readers of the Hunger Games series are already familiar with the important details of Haymitch’s past and ensuing fate: he was crowned the victor of the 50th Hunger Games, only to return home to tragic punishment meted out against him by the Capitol. He was forced to spend the rest of his days mentoring District 12 tributes, knowing he was leading them to their deaths each year. I was sceptical about whether Haymitch’s backstory could provide substantial detail to further engage fans. Upon finishing Sunrise On The Reaping, however, I found myself diving back into the previous Hunger Games books with a fresh perspective that made me embrace this world and its flawed, complex characters all over again.
Collins exposes the Capitol’s propaganda machine, uncovering its pervasive indoctrination and authoritarianism. Sunrise On The Reaping opens among the familiar coal mines of District 12, but this time through sixteen-year-old Haymitch’s eyes. It’s reaping day for the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the second Quarter Quell—and it’s also his birthday. Haymitch already envisions his future out in the Seam: he’s going to build a comfortable life for his single mother, little brother and his Covey sweetheart Lenore Dove, and stay out of trouble’s way.
But when twice as many tributes are reaped in a tweaked version of the Games for the Quarter Quell, Haymitch is illegally reaped to participate after a male tribute is killed at the reaping ceremony. What follows is what we already know: the train ride to the Capitol, the fanfare and competition for sponsors and allies, and the horrific reckoning of their participation in the Games and its consequences. Some old friends from the original trilogy can be found in Sunrise On The Reaping, such as District 3 victor Beetee, whose own twelve-year-old son, Ampert, was reaped as punishment for his rebellion against the Capitol. Mags and Wiress from Catching Fire also make a return as District 12’s mentors, along with cunning Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. I especially loved the inclusion of recurring characters from previous Hunger Games installations. Their presence in Haymitch’s backstory adds new layers to the final Mockingjay rebellion, their roles in overthrowing the Capitol, and most importantly their relationships with one another as individual pieces of the bigger picture and how they have collided in the past.
This book undoes most of what the average reader thinks they know about the series’ lore. It also establishes deeper, underlying connections between the fruition of the Mockingjay in Catching Fire and the seeds of rebellion planted by Lucy Gray Baird in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes—who haunts Haymitch’s games years after her disappearance. Sunrise On The Reaping sheds light on the fact that even our heroes are not safe from propaganda. It provides a full disclosure of Haymitch’s Hunger Games that even Katniss Everdeen didn’t know or had been misinformed about. The novel also explores the slow-growing nature of a rebellion as large in scale as this; how many times have the districts tried and failed behind the scenes to create a Mockingjay before Katniss Everdeen came along?
Sunrise On The Reaping elevates the blood thirst synonymous with the first books; it boasts more than a handful of barbaric scenes of tributes being beheaded or mauled to death in an arena made to augment the terrors of the earth. When we are once again plunged into the same depraved voyeurism the Capitol enjoys, the novel finds its beat when its characters display their unapologetic humanity in the face of such brutal predicaments. The book’s spirited cast, specifically the other three District 12 tributes—the soft Louella, utilitarian Wyatt and the unexpectedly wise Maysilee—are sharply defined by their unwavering hope for a better future, torment and tenderness. Every character has their part to play in dismantling the authoritarian apparatus that runs the grim tradition of the Hunger Games, even if it goes unseen and unacknowledged by the broader Panem while under the Gamemakers’ heavy censorship.
Above all, Sunrise On The Reaping feels like a poignant acknowledgement from Suzanne Collins to the young readers who grew up with the Hunger Games series and are now adults, weathered enough to confront the Capitol’s horrors with a more seasoned perspective. Where the original trilogy balanced its brutality with the boundaries of young adult fiction, this prequel boldly embraces a grittier, more mature tone that reflects the growth of its audience and invites us to revisit Panem’s grim history with a deeper understanding. Sunrise On The Reaping isn’t just a return to Panem—it’s a conversation between author and audience, a shared reckoning with the nightmares that shaped us, and a reminder that some stories grow up right alongside us.
Carmen Chin is a freelance music and culture journalist with bylines under NME, Teen Vogue, tmrw and more, and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Publishing and Communications at the University of Melbourne. They are a Kieran Culkin-as-Caesar-Flickerman truther.
Sunrise on the Reaping was first published by Scholastic Press in 2025 and has an RRP of $29.99. It is available from most online and local retailers.
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