Sunrise on the Reaping, published on March 18, 2025, and written by the iconic Suzanne Collins, is the 5th installment in The Hunger Games series. It following a 16 year old Haymitch Abernathy competing in his games, the 50th Quarter Quell. Sunrise on the Reaping has a reputation of being the most gruesome and dark book in the series, and after reading, it lives up to its rep. Haymitch’s story is extremely tragic, highlighting the innocent childlike nature of the children in the games, and their inevitable deaths. The exceptional tragedy that emerges in this book is that even if you win the games, you must deal with trauma, guilt, and the manipulations of President Snow for the rest of your life. As Haymitch says to Katniss and Peeta in Catching Fire, “this trip doesn’t end when you get back home, you never get off this train!”
Perhaps Collins’s most impressive SOTR feat is connecting the old Haymitch (youthful, love sick, clever), with the new Haymitch (rebellious, pessimistic, sarcastic). You can feel him change and lose his innocence with each chapter of the book. After reading SOTR and thinking back to the first book, you realize the ways that he has held on to pieces of the tributes and his loved ones that accidentally come out around Katniss and Peeta. As Haymitch’s relationships with Katniss, Peeta, and Effie Trinket grow in the original series, you can see elements of his original, loving self reemerge.
Sunrise on the Reaping was a fantastic and addictive read that provided context to the complicated character of Haymitch Abernathy. I hope that Collins continues to write Hunger Games books, they are so vivid, emotional, dystopian, but most importantly, they leave you wanting more.