Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins - Review
★★★
Sunrise on the Reaping is Suzanne Collins’ second prequel to her beloved Hunger Games trilogy that started in 2008. The latest story follows Haymitch Abernathy, a major supporting character in the original books, and his experience as a participant in the 50th Hunger Games, over two decades before Katniss Everdeen’s story.
As someone who has only experienced the story of The Hunger Games in the film adaptations, I was cautious in picking up Sunrise. Luckily, the book is very accessible to new readers who have only seen the films, which is likely an intentional selling point as Sunrise has been marketed as a multi-media project and will be getting a film adaptation before the end of next year. With my knowledge of the films I’d seen, I was able to pick up on many of the references to other events and characters from both The Hunger Games trilogy and the first prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. However, more important than Easter eggs and hints to the rest of the series, is the book’s plot. So does it hold up as its own story?
In many ways, Haymitch’s story is a retread of Katniss’ adventure in the first book. Both have similar backgrounds living in District 12, and we follow the beats from the initial reaping to the games in essentially the same order. Because The Hunger Games is a reality show within the books’ universe, it has a certain structure that it must adhere to, and thus Sunrise is given very little wiggle-room to branch out. I was pleasantly surprised by the film adaptation of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in how it was able to take the Hunger Games concept and make it feel fresh with a new behind-the-scenes perspective of the soon-to-be tyrannical President Snow. I was hoping for Sunrise to similarly expand the world, but instead it sits comfortably within the rigid boundaries it sets for itself.
As a retread of the original story, Sunrise works. The characters (both new and old) are interesting and fleshed-out. In particular, I was impressed with Maysilee Donner: a fellow District 12 tribute in the games. She brings some light-hearted moments to the book in her dialogue but also has a lot of heart that makes her more sympathetic as the story goes on. Collins writes her expertly, and I felt like I understood her completely before the book was over and was delighted in every scene she was in. I was also very engaged by Louella McCoy, also a District 12 tribute who Haymitch takes care of as an older brother figure. I was captivated by the direction they took her character, although I wish they went slightly further with that aspect of the story. The rest of the characters are memorable either from their previous appearances in the series or their distinct personalities, which make them all feel alive.
Another aspect that took me by surprise was the book’s violence. The kills within the games are brutal and vividly described, which added a needed weight to the stakes of the book. The deaths are both creative and horrifying, with an abundance of new mutated animals (muttations) cooked up to spice up the games. I particularly enjoyed the variety of muttations and their corresponding skills and weaknesses which the tributes have to figure out and overcome. I didn’t expect there to be as many as there were, but it was a delightful surprise to keep reading only to discover a new terrible species of beast in nearly every second chapter. These kept me enjoying the story at a point where I was growing impatient with the amount of time spent in the arena when the reader already knows the outcome.
Addressing the elephant in the room: if you have read or watched the other movies in the series, you know how this book ends. You know that Haymitch will win the games and be the last tribute standing because he is alive and well in the original trilogy. This saps a lot of the tension from the plot and replaces it with a sense of dread waiting for the inevitable fates of the characters around him. In this sense, the story plays out as a tragedy. There are enough twists and turns throughout to keep from losing your attention, but knowing the outcome from the start may leave some readers feeling like they’re just waiting for the pieces to fall into place. In this way, Sunrise almost feels more like connective tissue to the other books in the series rather than a complete story in itself. I was never bored, but perhaps I was waiting for something truly fresh and exciting to happen to justify this story’s existence. I expected a good section of the book to be dedicated to what happens after the games, but this is saved for only the last 50 pages, which were successfully harrowing despite feeling way too short.
Overall, Sunrise on the Reaping was an enjoyable read elevated by its great characters and engaging action, but let down by its retread of story beats and self-imposed limitations as a similarly-plotted prequel to The Hunger Games.
Rating: 3/5