Spoiler-Free Review: 'Sunrise On The Reaping' By Suzanne Collins
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Suzanne Collins has released the second of her Hunger Games prequels, Sunrise on the Reaping. In this book, sixteen-year-old Haymitch Abernathy has been reaped for the Hunger Games from District Twelve. But it’s the second quarter quell, so that means there’s a twist. In this Hunger Games, there are twice as many contestants. The name of the protagonist should sound familiar as he was Katniss Everdeen’s mentor from the original series.
It’s best not to pick up Sunrise on the Reaping if you’ve never read a Hunger Games book/watched a movie. The plotline is a parade of cameos (from both A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and The Hunger Games OG Trilogy), Not only do we see backstories of established characters play out, but there are so many read-between-the-lines hints (including what happened to Lucy Grey Baird), that a newbie is going to be scratching their heads in confusion. But fans will absolutely love dissecting and pulling apart the clues. Sunrise on the Reaping is obviously for the hardcore fandom, it’s one big lore-fest, but Suzanne Collins doesn’t fall into the trap of boring readers with long info-dumps. She prefers to tease slowly.
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This book is 400 pages and, in truth, it probably needed to be a bit longer. It covers a lot of ground. There is a large cast of characters, everybody in District Twelve, all the tributes, and the Capital staff. No one gets enough time on the page. Most of the tributes are hardly present, readers really get to know those reaped from District Twelve, aside from one boy from District Three. Haymitch spends ten chapters out of the twenty-seven in the arena. But there are a lot of plot threads in the build-up and afterwards, that Collins could have spent more time on to increase reader investiture. A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was 530 pages, and that’s probably where this novel needed to land.
Some of the returning characters, (including the mentors and a certain camera operator) have excellently engaging storylines, but it seems to be at the expense of Haymitch. He’s constantly handing over the spotlight in his own book. It doesn’t help that he’s very one-note until he enters the arena. The sixteen-year-old Haymitch is such a sweet naive romantic (and doesn’t drink coffee, let alone alcohol) that it’s hard to picture him as the gruff mentor to Katniss.
The female District Twelve tributes are going to be popular as they stand out on the page. Maysilee Donner has all the best lines, and Louella is completely enthralling, more unfortunately than Lenore Dove. Haymitch’s love interest is talked about but rarely seen, and her connection to the reader suffers as a result.
No one writes villains like Suzanne Collins. Coriolanus Snow will probably go down as one of the best bad guys of modern times. Snow’s scheming and savagery are the drivers of this story, and it’s responsible for the hardest-hitting endings in the series. Yes, it’s more dramatic than the Peeta kidnapping or Prim’s death. The book is worth the purchase for that alone.
Suzanne Collins was writing Sunrise on the Reaping with a movie deal from Lionsgate in place, and that’s clear in the text. The narrative will fit into a two-hour run time, and some scenes are written shot for shot. This is especially true in the arena, where you can almost visualise it from the camera’s point of view at times. Sunrise on the Reaping is going to adapt well to the screen. Collins writes tight action sequences that are always speckled with emotional gut-punches. And this is no different. However, if we’d gotten to know the tributes better, we might have cared a little more.
This book is classed as Young Adult, but it does have violence, character death, and other themes that may not be suitable for some young readers, so it is best to check before buying it for others.
Rating: 7.5/10
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Source(s): Good Reads, Amazon
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