REVIEW: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Dear Suzanne Collins:
I was an enthusiastic fan of The Hunger Games trilogy back in the day, and enjoyed the movies as well (maybe “enjoyed’ isn’t the right word for a series so fraught with tragedy though). The ending of Mockingjay (both book and movie) was a bit of a mess, but overall the series was really compelling and thrilling to me. I forget how much I enjoy well-done action until I read it.
Anyway, when the prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes came out a few years ago, I considered getting it, but I was trepidatious because 1) having President Snow be the protagonist was questionable for me – I wasn’t sure I wanted to read a book that had such an evil character as the protagonist. 2) I am iffy on prequels in general, at least certain types of prequels. The stakes can feel different when you already know how everything ends.
I was a bit more intrigued when Sunrise on the Reaping came out, but I still wasn’t sure about getting the book. A friend put an end to my hesitation by actually gifting me with both books. So here we are!
Sunrise on the Reaping is the story of Haymitch Abernathy and his experiences in The Hunger Games as a 16-year-old. Haymitch was never my favorite character; I don’t dig alcoholic characters in general and his brand of brutal cynicism was off-putting for me (though I acknowledged even before reading this story that he had undoubtedly earned his anger and despair). Haymitch is different as a 16-year-old, of course, before his harrowing time in the arena, and in some ways he felt like an entirely different character, at least until the end.
Haymitch lives with his mother and younger brother Sid – in many ways he’s the male version of Katniss from the original series. His family is impoverished, his father dead, and he feels responsible for his mother and brother and their well-being. Katniss provided for her mother and sister with her hunting; Haymitch helps the local moonshiner make her brew to earn money for the family.
The Reaping occurs on Haymitch’s 16th birthday; it’s the 50th anniversary of the Hunger Games, and so, as with Katniss’ second go-round in Catching Fire, it’s a Quarter Quell, which requires each district to provide two male and two female tributes for the Hunger Games, double the usual number. Haymitch is chosen after the original choice flees and is shot by the Peacekeepers, the ironically named occupying police. The other tributes are Louella, a young girl that Haymitch considers a sort of little sister, Maysilee, vain and spoiled daughter of a town merchant, and Wyatt, who is somewhat tarnished by his family’s profession – they take bets on who will win the games each year.
In addition to his mother and brother, Wyatt loves Lenore Dove, a local girl with rebellious tendencies. He is worried about how she will react to him being reaped, and distraught that he will never see her again – Haymitch is fatalistic about his chances of surviving the games. I thought for the longest time that Lenore was her first name and Dove her surname, and found it so irritating that she was constantly referred to by her full name “Lenore Dove.” I figured later that those must both be first names and she has some other last name that is never mentioned. But for some reason I had residual annoyance with the character and the name that I never shook. She had a whiff of Manic Pixie Dreamgirl – not that exact type but sort of an offshoot – “wild and free wise child.”
Once the tributes reach the Capitol, things go sideways for Haymitch and he ends up on sinister President Snow’s radar (again, much like Katniss 24 years later). Haymitch meets various characters from the later books, including Plutarch Heavensbee (who shows early stirrings that presage his eventual turn against the Capitol), and Wiress, Mags and Beetee, who are all mentors for this iteration of the games. Beetee is being punished by Snow for defiance by having his young son Ampert participate in the games, and he enlists Haymitch to both watch out for Ampert if he can and to attempt an act of sabotage on the arena.
Haymitch makes allies before entering the area; he helps recruit a coalition they name the Newcomers – it’s essentially everyone against the careers. The Newcomers have the numbers – they comprise essentially two-thirds of the tributes – but the Careers have everything else. They have training and support in the form of sponsors who send them gifts during the game to help them succeed. But the alliance does give the Newcomers a better chance than they would have otherwise had.
So, this probably needs a spoiler tag:
Spoiler: Show
At the end of the game, when Haymitch has been declared the winner, you can begin to see what his victory has cost him. But of course it’s not the end, and the actual end, back in District 12, is brutal even by the standards of the series. This may be one place where the book being a prequel makes all the suffering a little less traumatic to read about. The reader “knows” Haymitch 25 years in the future, knows all the other things he has gone through. Still, reading it in detail in “real time” (for Haymitch at least) is harsh.
I ended up getting into the story almost in spite of myself, and I’d give it a B+ overall. There’s something about the world of The Hunger Games that really does draw me in. So next, probably – The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Best,
Jennie
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The Hunger Games books were not my cup of tea but my husband and daughter both read them and watched the movies. My husband recently read this book and stated it was worth his time. I’ll read with interest your review of The Ballad of … should you read it, Jennie.
@Kareni: I definitely plan to read it at some point!
@Kareni: I definitely plan to read it at some point!
You’ve sold me! I loved The Hunger Games but as someone with a little sister I felt I had to protect in childhood, the death of Prim devastated me, so I do feel some trepidation.
I’m not a prequel fan either but I’m glad that Suzanne Collins is writing fiction again, especially with all the weaker Hunger Games knockoff books that are circulating right now (Powerless and The Sunbearer Trials, I’m looking at you).
I also agree there’s something very compelling about Collins’s writing and the world and premise of this series. I’ve never read the Gregor the Overlander books but I have some interest in those too.
@Janine: Oh, let me know what you think!