I first read the original Hunger Games trilogy in 2016 and the entire franchise has been such a huge part of my life ever since. Now at 19 with the recent release of A Ballad of SongBirds and Snakes and Sunrise on the Reaping I have fallen in love with Suzanne Collins’ fabulous and twisted mind all over again.
The Hunger Games is presented as a teen dystopian novel but it really is an intricate and detailed political critique. Collins skillfully satirises our own governments and society, with this recent release heavily condemning propaganda.
As such a big fan I was worried that Sunrise on the Reaping would not do the franchise justice, that it would be repetitive and lack the life of the original story, and that it did not necessarily need to be a book that was written. So many times we see through literature and movies a continuation of a story being so dragged on that it ruins the entire series. However, I was wrong and this was not at all the case for Sunrise on the Reaping.
This story follows 16-year-old Haymitch, told from his perspective, as he is reaped for the 50th annual Hunger Games, a Quarter Quell year, on his birthday.. Each Quarter Quell has a unique set of rules and this Quell calls for double the amount of tributes, two boys and two girls from each district. Much like Lucy Gray he was never meant to have been a tribute and still he must leave his friends, family, and the love of his life behind, to fight for his life, and maybe even something deeper, in the games.
I thought I knew the story of the 50th Hunger Games from its description in Catching Fire, however Collins still manages to tell Haymitch’s story in such a shockingly tragic yet beautiful way. From the reaping to the games to its ending – the whole book is so different from anything I could have ever imagined.
The emotions Collins portrays are so vivid and painful it is as if you are able to feel it in your own chest. The images illustrated are so descriptive it is like gazing at a model that captures the entire world. Each word is strung together so gracefully it feels like every sentence is a poem so complex you would have to read it a hundred times over to fully understand its beauty.
Knowing the outcome from the previous novels is what makes this story hit even harder. A few pages in, Haymitch says, “I’m not a drinker,” and as we know his life later becomes consumed with sadness and alcohol. Reading about the hope and love he had as a teenager, knowing it was all going to be ripped away, was truly a kind of torture.
The choices he makes throughout the games lead him to the absent, sarcastic and slightly rude Haymitch we know. From the original trilogy and A Ballad of SongBirds and Snakes it is very clear now that the Capitol and Snow are capable of changing the narrative, positioning it to manipulate the masses. Which becomes the major theme for this novel.
One of the other key themes in this book is ‘how we paint our poster’, it is mentioned several times. Which not only parallels back to Peeta in his games when he discusses how he doesn’t want to be changed and manipulated for Capitol propaganda but also serves as a crucial message reflected within our own world.
It is so interesting to look back at the original trilogy where we see so many hints at the stories to come. The stories that, of course, were not yet written at the time. Collins is so incredibly talented and clever in the way she makes this prequel connect and intertwine as if it had already been written well before Katniss’ narrative.
From Haymitch having to mentor his best friend’s daughter to her wearing Maysilee’s mockingjay pin to Peeta being controlled in the same ways LouLou was. Mags, Wiress, and Beetee – everything even down to the smallest details are so connected.
Effie also randomly makes an appearance as her younger self which was not necessary to the story at all but again was a nice touch.
As exciting as it was to draw all these connections, what really hit home was how much of what we learn about Haymitch in the original books isn’t true—it was all Capitol propaganda that even Katniss fell for. Haymitch’s story is so much more tragic than we have been led to believe. It goes oh so much deeper, and as the plot unfolds, we see that the spark of rebellion was set from the very beginning.
Lucy Gray was this spark that ignited a fire she never lived to see. The Capitol erased her, but her songs became anthems of rebellion, passed down through the Covey until Katniss unknowingly retrieved them. Rebellions don’t happen overnight – they take generations. Lucy Gray may have been forgotten, but she was the first note in the song of freedom.
It took 75 years for Katniss to turn this spark into a blaze and 25 years for Haymitch to keep his promise to Lenore.
Katniss is Haymitch’s win. He mentored her and he contributed significantly to make her the Mockingjay. After everything we learn about Haymitch’s games in this new novel and the appearance of many favourite characters from Catching Fire. It becomes so obvious how alike Katniss and Haymitch truly are and I’d like to think that he lived vicariously through all her success instead of it ripping him apart.
“She’s like me … but she was smarter than me, or luckier. She’s the one who finally kept the sun from rising.”
The entire storyline to destroy the arena was so engrossing. We see ex Victor and third Quarter Quell tribute Beetee helping Haymitch in a plot to end the games. It comes to the reader’s attention that Beetee’s son Ampert has been reaped to punish him for past defiance against the Capitol. Although Haymitch failed in blowing up the arena to ultimately save Beetee’s little boy, 25 years later Beetee succeeded in his original plan and completed his son’s job to save Haymitch’s little girl – Katniss.
Surprisingly, through all the spoilers and reviews currently trending online I have seen no one talk about the fact that Haymitch makes this connection between Snow and Lucy Gray. Before Haymitch is sent to the arena in which Snow promises his inevitable and painfully long death, he’s called for a private discussion – where our infamous President of Panem reminisces on his painful memories with his very own songbird. What’s even more bizarre to me is how in all his drunken glory, Haymitch never mentions their past ‘situationship’, if it can be classified as such, to anyone. Perhaps this was because he knew Lenore Dove never spoke about her and he wouldn’t purposefully want to discuss something that would upset his ‘girl’ or maybe he just didn’t have anyone to tell. After all, his entire family was killed after his games.
I did not expect Maysilee Donner to be my favourite character. The original owner of the mockingjay pin. A pin she thought to be so unfashionable she tossed it to the back of her cupboards to collect dust that would later become the symbol of the revolution. If only her time came a few decades years later I know she would have adored Cinna. She had six necklaces, witty remarks, fashion advice and a dream. I fully believe that if Haymitch was not the main character and protected by plot armour she would have risen so quickly as a victor.
The only happiness to come out of this novel is that there was absolutely no reference to Gale whatsoever.
Overall, I loved this book. It was the missing piece in the Hunger Games story and it gave Haymitch so much more character and compassion from what we first saw of him in the original trilogy. No matter how A Ballad of Song Birds and Snakes made you feel, Collins once again reminds us with another excellent novel how Snow does in fact “land on top”. The odds were never in their favour but after 75 years of the games he stopped the sun rising on the reaping.