Hunger Games fans rejoiced on March 18, 2025, with the release of “Sunrise on the Reaping” by Suzanne Collins. It was the fifth book in the series, and like “Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” it was a prequel.
The book followed Haymitch Abernathy’s story and the 50th Hunger Games, a Quarter Quell. A quarter quell is how the Capitol celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Hunger Games. For example, while Katniss’s 75th Hunger Games was unique because it reaped from the existing pool of victors, in Haymitch’s game, double the normal number of tributes were reaped.
The book brought characters back from every book, and it was a very emotional experience seeing the characters I had read about years ago teaching Haymitch. It really connects everything from the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes to the original Hunger Games books. I think it really thoroughly explains how his perspective and experiences warped him as a person and how that affected his mentoring of Peeta and Katniss.
Additionally, there were easter eggs spread throughout the book, which I enjoyed. Seeing a reference from the original books really helped connect the books for me. It connected them in a way deeper than surface level; it’s more than only seeing the same characters, it is being able to see every book Collins has written shine through this one.
One of the few complaints I had was how long it takes to get to the actual games. It takes roughly 100 pages, and while there are some great and heart-stopping moments, it sometimes felt like the in-between moments were too long. I was expecting this, though, since it is a pattern in her previous books. I also didn’t like how it answered so many questions but created so many more. These questions I have might be nearly impossible to create plausible theories to answer them because of how the book is set up. In all honesty, these were small things that just bothered me a little bit, but it doesn’t overshadow the rest of the book.
Sunrise on the Reaping was one of the saddest books I’ve ever read. It was heart-wrenching from beginning to end, particularly because of how Collins depicts that the Capitol and President Snow will do anything to crush a sign of rebellion. It highlights the depth of how far Snow will go and how his thought process with crushing rebellions is the more emotionally distressing to the people in the districts, the better.
With the original series, there was always this sense that everything was going to be alright one way or another, but with this one, it went from starting to be a little sad and then progressively got more depressing as the book went on. Lionsgate already announced that Sunrise on the Reaping would be a movie coming out in Sept. of 2026, and I hope that it will be as good as the book. I would recommend this book even if you just watched the movies because of how much insight it provides on Haymitch. It’s an amazing read, and I think it’s my favorite out of the entire Hunger Games series because of how much more emotional it was compared to the other books.
