Sunrise on the Reaping (A Hunger Games Novel)
“Fans will be delighted to have another window into the world of Panem and the Hunger Games.”
Author Suzanne Collins has served up another much-anticipated piece of the Hunger Games franchise in this prequel to the original book, highlighting the life and Game of Haymitch Abernathy, mentor to Katniss and Peeta in the first volume. In this tale, Haymitch’s story begins when he is only 16, yet to be reaped for the Games. Readers learn about his family, his girlfriend, and his illegal bootlegging business that brings extra money into the house. The story begins on the morning of the Second Quarter Quell reaping, which happens to also be Haymitch’s birthday.
“The upside of being born on reaping day is that you can sleep late on your birthday. It’s pretty much downhill from there. A day off school hardly compensates for the terror of the name drawing. Even if you survive that, nobody feels like having cake after watching two kids being hauled off to the Capitol for slaughter.”
A side of Haymitch readers will not have seen in the other books comes through in his early relationships, both with his mother and younger brother and his girl, Lenore Dove. The drunken, bitter Haymitch of the previous stories is not yet apparent in this smart, optimistic, love-bitten adolescent. Haymitch wakens early on his birthday, looking forward to the day’s later activities.
“I’m hoping to finish my work before the ceremony so I can devote the afternoon to the two things I love best—wasting time and being with my girl, Lenore Dove.”
Readers will find it interesting to learn to know this Haymitch; while his life in this book starts surrounded by the darkness of reaping day, he has not turned into the broken man of the coming years.
Fans who know the franchise will expect the basics of this narrative: how Haymitch ends up in the Games, who he meets and with whom he allies, the horrors of the arena, and the result of the Games. While this novel in many ways reads like yet another version of the other books in the series, and fans of the series know the basics of how it will end, there are characters, twists, and plot points enough to keep the story flowing and engaging.
Readers learn the beginnings of the resisting factions, and more about how reaping day and the Games themselves work.
“Lately the theme has been ‘No Peace’ and the slogans bombard you from every side. NO PEACE, NO BREAD! NO PEACE, NO SECURITY! And, of course, NO PEACEKEEPERS, NO PEACE! NO CAPITOL, NO PEACE! Hanging behind the temporary stage in front of the Justice Building is a huge banner of President Snow’s face with the words PANEM’S #1 PEACEKEEPER.”
Other characters show up who are present in the initial trilogy, as well, so readers learn more about their histories. Fans of the franchise will also recognize Easter eggs, such as an introduction to the families of Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark and the origin of the Mockingjay pin.
Collins’s writing is skillful and easy to read. The structure of the narrative feels familiar, and sometimes like a repeat of earlier stories, but the new characters are welcome, as is filling in the gap of Haymitch’s past. Fans will be delighted to have another window into the world of Panem and the Hunger Games.