This review is spoiler-free.
You know those stories that you enter knowing that all of the characters are going to die, but you read them anyway?
“Sunrise on the Reaping,” Suzanne Collins’ newest installment in “The Hunger Games” series, released into the world on March 18, 2025, is one of those stories.
The novel follows the 2023 release of Collins’ first prequel, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” That novel chronicled the 10th annual Hunger Games and the birth of President Coriolanus Snow’s monstrosity.
Ever since, the fandom has been calling for another prequel. This time, we get an inside look at the infamous Haymitch Abernathy’s backstory. Collins delivered it brutally on a platter crafted with no mercy. If you pick it up, “May the odds be ever in your favor.”
This newest prequel is set 40 years ahead of “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” However, it’s still 24 years behind our first look at Katniss Everdeen. It catapults readers into the midst of the 50th Hunger Games reaping, otherwise known as the second “Quarter Quell.”
As proven by “Catching Fire,” when (spoiler alert) Katniss was forced to return to the games for a second time, Quarter Quells tend to come underscored by an unusually gut-wrenching catch. For the “extra special” 50th games, President Snow decided that the usual array of 24 tributes, two from each district, would be doubled, sending 48 children into the arena.
“Sunrise on the Reaping” delves into the chronology of Haymitch’s victory and the harrowing journey that preceded it. It proves that the spark of rebellion against the Capital began long before Katniss. There is more to Haymitch’s story than what readers are led to believe in prior novels.
It is essentially the missing puzzle piece that creates more vivid histories for Haymitch and every character in “The Hunger Games” universe.
The book explores his connection to Katniss and the peculiarity of his fatherly presence in her life. It also examines the origin of his alcoholism. In the novel’s early chapters, Haymitch says, “I’m not a drinker.” This is an eyebrow-raiser, given the character’s alcohol dependency in the original trilogy.
The novel weaves together the invisible strings connecting the timeline between Lucy Gray Baird’s win in “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and the moment we meet Katniss in “The Hunger Games.” It provides readers with some long-sought-after context that explains who Haymitch is. We learn where he came from and what happened to him that made him hate the world so much.
It is truly a heartbreaking look at President Snow’s torturous grip and how it choked the life out of everything that Haymitch holds dear.
Like the rest of the series, this novel did not hold back on the gruesome depictions of death. The film adaptations that have been released thus far have significantly stripped the gore to fit within the parameters of a PG-13 rating. However, there is some debate as to whether this new film might break that cycle.
According to websites like ScreenRant, the movie will have to be rated R. However, the directors will likely tone down the brutality to remain PG-13. This will keep it in correlation with the rest of the series. The film is set to be in theaters in Nov. 2026.
