I have a message for President Snow: What is wrong with you?!
Since this book’s release was announced on June 6, 2023, I don’t think I have yet managed to calm down. I mean, come on… a book about Haymitch? The alcoholic mentor slash father figure to our fierce protag Katniss Everdeen? A freaking origin story as to why he’s so drunk all the time? Count. Me. In.
When The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was announced in 2019, it felt impossible that readers would get to return to this captivating universe—and with a prequel about the ruthless President Snow no less! When it came out during quarantine in May 2020, fans were abuzz with this chilling origin story and fanatic over the elusive Lucy Gray. In November 2023, the movie’s release turned the world (or at least my world upside down).
The idea that there would be another prequel— and this time about a character we actually appreciate—sounded absurd. And yet, here it is.
On March 18, 2025, the release of Sunrise on the Reaping simultaneously overjoyed me and filled me with dread.
I read the book in the span of 24 hours and am still reeling a week later. I genuinely feel like this book changed my entire life.
Going into this book, there were a couple of things I knew as a championed Hunger Games fan: (1) Haymitch was the victor of his games; (2) His games were the 2nd Quarter Quell where there was double the tributes; (3) Maysilee Donner, a tribute, was the owner of Katniss’ Mockingjay pin; and (4) Haymitch’s mom, brother, and lover were killed by Snow because of the “stunt [he] pulled with the force field.”
So, yeah. Already, we know this is not a happy story. Nor will it end well!
And yet, we persist. Here is where I start spewing spoilers. Be warned.
As far as opinions go, I think this book was incredible. Haymitch and Lenore Dove’s love and loyalty were absolutely beautiful (and heartbreaking). All the tributes from 12 were so easy to root for that I almost forgot only one person could win— I totally gaslighted myself into thinking Haymitch would pull a Katniss and Peeta with berries, or something, but alas. Haymitch stayed kind throughout the whole game—protecting the kids, his doves, etc—and was so touching, too. And this is not to even mention the political message behind the book!
The propaganda of the Capital was utterly shocking. As someone who read the narrations of Katniss, I thought she had all their bullshit figured out. But now, with all that happened to Haymitch (i.e. the Reaping, Louella and Lou Lou, and all the cut footage from his games), she definitely did not!
All the lies and secrecy make me want to reread the original trilogy through a new lens. (I just started rereading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and oh, boy!)
Genuinely, genuinely, the storytelling was done so well. Obviously, this is Suzanne Collins we’re talking about— Ms. Only Writes When She Has Something To Say— but I’m still baffled every time she accomplishes her message again and again. She told Scholastic, “The story also lent itself to a deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative,” and oh my god yes it did.
How much was Katniss being controlled when she didn’t realize it? What about all the other victors? I feel like this book completely shifted my perception of all the other books! I am gobsmacked.
Though, on top of all the propaganda, my boy Haymitch could not catch a break.
First, he was put into the games after protecting his girl from a Peacekeeper. He was never supposed to be in the games in the first place! (Welcome back, Lucy Gray Baird.) Then, Louella, his 13-year-old neighbor, was killed in an accident and replaced by a hijacked girl from a different district. He had to stand face to face with the constant memory of her death! Next, his plan to hijack the arena failed—and thus the games continued for 24 more years before Katniss ended it. He watched the other tributes die—Wyatt, the oddsmaker boy who bet against himself, Lou Lou, the hijacked Louella, Ampert, Beetee’s son whom he made a promise to, and Maysilee, the girl he called a sister. Vile.
He won, and had to live with all that survivor’s guilt and the lasting failure of the game’s continuation. You might think, “Hey that’s enough to live with, right? Surely Haymitch has suffered enough,” but you would be wrong. It does, in fact, get worse.
When Haymitch arrives home, he gets there just in time to watch his mom and brother be burned alive from a house fire! And when he goes to visit his girl Lenore Dove, she eats the gumdrops Haymitch gave her that were then laced with poison from the Capital, and died.
Absolutely vile.
What makes it worse is the parallels between Haymitch and Lenore Dove and Katniss and Peeta. The poison berries in the first arena… Katniss and Peeta making a suicide pact as a statement to the games? Yeah. Lenore died of poisoned gumballs that she couldn’t manage to throw up. Haymitch said he “would welcome death if it wasn’t for [his] promise to Lenore Dove,” which makes it even worse! In another universe, he would have gone out the way Katniss and Peeta almost did.
With her dying breath, Lenore Dove made Haymitch promise not to “let [the sun]…. rise…. on the reaping.” Haymitch promised her he would, but not without more pain! He pushed away everyone he cared for (one being Burdock Everdeen, his best friend and Katniss’ late father), and started to drink. He mentored tributes for 23 years before Katniss and Peeta came in and broke down his walls. This is right about when I started crying:
I didn’t want to let them in, her and Peeta, but the walls of a person’s heart are not
impregnable, not if they have ever known love. That’s what Lenore Dove says, anyway.
Christ. I feel for Haymitch so much.
He had everything he loved taken from him, all because he was the flint that tried to start the revolution (and failed), just for the one to complete the mission— lighting a spark to his flint stone— to be the daughter of the best friend he pushed away. It’s so beautiful and so devastating to think about all Haymitch could have had if he hadn’t needed to push everyone away because of what Snow did. Would he have been Katniss’ godfather?
She’s not an easy person; she’s like me, Peeta always says. But she was smarter
than me, or luckier. She’s the one who finally kept that sun from rising.
They are two sides of the same coin, but Haymitch was the unlucky initiator while Katniss was the luckier (yet, still very unlucky *cough* *cough* Prim) victor. This epilogue made me cry so much that I couldn’t see straight LOL.
Another crippling line about Haymitch and Lenore Dove:
Like the geese, we really did mate for life.
What the hell. He could never move on from his childhood love— could never escape what Snow did to him, all because he tried to stop the games.
Haymitch Abernathy, you are so loved.
Goodness, this book was incredible. If you couldn’t tell, it changed my life! If you’ve made it this far, I’m assuming you’ve read it already, but if not, go read Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins!
I am anxiously awaiting (and dreading) the movie’s release next November. I can’t wait to have my heart shattered again.