After years from the initial success of her The Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins has recently published yet another prequel novel to the original books. Sunrise on the Reaping was published on March 18 and has already over a million copies, more than Collins’ previous prequel novel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, sold when it was first published in 2020. Sunrise on the Reaping follows one of the beloved characters from the original trilogy—Haymitch Abernathy, Katniss’ and Peeta’s mentor and friend—during his original games.
Haymitch’s past was mentioned briefly throughout the original books, allowing fans to piece together a basic story but still yearn for more. What made his games especially interesting was that he competed in the 50th Hunger Games, the second Quarter Quell. Because of this, his games had a horrible twist to it: There were double the number of tributes, meaning 48 children instead of the usual 24. Because of his compelling character and the brutality of his Games, I think that many fans—including myself—have been wanting to learn more about his backstory for a while.
Sunrise on the Reaping takes place during the 50th Hunger Games where Haymitch is 16 years old and is one of the four children picked to compete in the second Quarter Quell. The book follows his experience in the Games and the relationships he had at the time, continuously drawing parallels to the original trilogy and The Ballard of the Songbirds and Snakes. I won’t go into MAJOR spoilers, but the novel does have a lot of references to previous characters and relationships. For example, it includes that Haymitch was best friends with Katniss’ father, and that his mentors in the Games were Wiress and Mags, two characters originally introduced in Catching Fire. This book also includes some really intense and horrible events and doesn’t hold back on showing the cruelty of the Capitol and its parallels to modern America.
I feel like in the age of cameos, especially in franchises, many people might complain that Collins is including these character mentions simply for fanservice or to play on the nostalgia of fans. I don’t think this is the case, and all these cameos (in a sense of the word) make sense because they truly show how everything that led up to the revolution in Mockingjay is connected and has been built off each other. I think connecting Haymitch to other characters like Katniss’ father, Wiress, and Mags shows how everything that happened in the revolution in the original trilogy existed long before Katniss. These relationships have been building for a long time, and these characters have rebelled before.
Back in 2024 when the Sunrise on the Reaping novel was first announced, it was only hours after the announcement that it was revealed that there would be a film adaptation released in 2026. Obviously, as a huge fan of this series since middle school, I am very excited to see how the book is adapted. But there are things I worry about when anticipating The Hunger Games film adaptations. For one, I worry that the message Collins is trying to convey in her books will be lost to hypocrisy if too many books on the Games are released. The entire point is how these Games are sensationalized for their violence and used to control the masses, and if too many films are made for this same sensationalism, I think this point is drowned out.
My other concern is the casting. I think the best choice for the protagonist would be to actually cast a younger (mid-late teens) and more unknown actor to play Haymitch as opposed to an actor in their 20s playing a 16-year-old. Not only would this be more accurate to the book, but I also think it would make seeing the story more compelling.
Nonetheless, I am excited for the film to come out next year, and I think that if you enjoyed the original series, you will love Sunrise on the Reaping. And if you haven’t read the previous The Hunger Games books, it’s a series worth reading, especially because I think it’s one of the few young adult dystopian novels that thoughtfully critique contemporary society. And the new Sunrise on the Reaping is no exception.