Sunrise on the Reaping - Suzanne Collins

Published by Scholastic Australia Pty Limited: Gosford, NSW, 2025.

Subtitled A Hunger Games Novel, Sunrise on the Reaping is a prequel to the main series - the second Suzanne Collins has written in recent years, actually. I have yet to read The Ballad of Snakes and Songbirds, which tells the story of a young President Snow, but I spotted this one - telling the story of a young Haymitch - at the library, and got it on a whim.

Fans of the original Hunger Games series, particularly the first book, will remember that Haymitch was introduced as a perpetually drunk, cynical, checked-out past winner of the Hunger Games, who doesn't see any point in training Katniss or Peeta because they are not going to win anyway! Throughout the book - and the series as a whole - we see him regain his spark of life, and eventually become a true protagonist, working to bring about the downfall of the corrupt Capitol and its evil President.

And of course, if you are looking for a subject to write a spin-off about, Haymitch seems like a good choice. What happened in his Hunger Games? How did he win? How did he get so cynical? Fans demand the answers!!!

We get them.

Be careful what you wish for, though.

Sunrise on the Reaping is a well-written book. I have found all of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games books to be so. Haymitch is likeable, with his old sense of humour already in place as a younger man. He is in love. He has a lovely family. We want nothing but the best for him. And... wait, he's going to become cynical, drunk, and bitter against the world! This isn't going to end well, is it?!!

The first Hunger Games book balanced a lot of things well. It had a sweet romantic subplot or two. It had subterfuge. It had the fear of not knowing who was going to die. And it had the (mild) twist ending where more than one victor was announced, and in some ways the Capitol was defeated. So, a happy ending! 

Sunrise on the Reaping, by chronological necessity, CANNOT end well. The sword of Damocles hangs over EVERYTHING. So the sweet romantic subplot has an uneasy feeling to it - run, love interest! Get away, before it's too late! Every alliance that Haymitch makes feels destined to failure. Every plan to bring down the Capitol must inevitably go wrong. Every non-Haymitch character that we begin to feel attached to is surely NOT going to make it to the end (except for those who we meet again in the original Hunger Games or Catching Fire).

Add to this, that the original Hunger Games, despite being about 24 children fighting to the death, kept most of the actual death 'off screen.' Not so, here. Heads explode. Skulls are crushed. Ravenous 'mutts' literally eat children alive. A young, helpless child is decapitated, and their murderer holds their severed head for Haymitch to see.

It may be aimed at young adults, but its pretty intense.

It suits the story that Collins is trying to tell. It explains fully why Haymitch becomes the way he becomes. But its a fairly tragic tale to tell.

Completed 19 December 2025.

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