Sunrise on The Reaping by Suzanne Collins
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Prequel to Hunger Games
Corruption/ Rebellion
YA fiction
Being a huge fan of the original trilogy, this book was one of my most anticipated books of the year. Sunrise on the Reaping is a prequel to The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is set in Panem, a country divided into 12 districts and a capital. The districts produce goods for the capital. 74 years before the first Hunger Games, district 13 rebelled against the capital. As punishment, the capital created the Hunger Games, where tributes from each district are chosen to fight to the death. The winner receives a home in the victors’ village. In the original, Katniss volunteers for the 74th games when her sister Prim is reaped. She goes with Peeta, a boy from a bakery family, and is mentored by Haymitch, the previous winner. Sunrise on the Reaping follows Haymitch’s games, the 50th. Every 25 years, the capital changes the games to commemorate the anniversary. For the 50th games, they double the tributes, taking two of each gender.
In Catching Fire, Katniss shares information about the other victors and their games. We also get a small section of Haymitch’s games. As a huge fan, I wanted more stories. The trilogy has much happening, but more knowledge of the past and the overall events leading to Katniss’s revolution would’ve been interesting. The prequel book, following President Snow and the first District 12 winner, lacked interest. This book avoids following a character we know will help. We get bits of Haymitch’s origin story and how he becomes the mentor we know in The Hunger Games.
From the originals, we know Haymitch has no family and drinks excessively. He mentors Peeta and Katniss but is cynical and believes they won’t survive the games. By the series’ end, he helps Katniss lead the revolution and stands by her side.
Sunrise on the Reaping is the HARDEST book in the Hunger Games universe. At this point, the game makers are very much using the games as propaganda and shielding Panem citizens from everything the tributes and other districts are trying to show. They are more brutal and vile in their acts, currying the game. It is the 50th; they want the bloodbath and the high stakes for every tribute. The difference with this is that the tributes aren’t wanting to play into their antics. At every time the tributes fight back, the Capitol comes back harder. We get to know more about some of the victors we meet during Catching Fire and can build more of the backstory of what happens in the years before and can see how President Snow uses “the things they love most to destroy them.”
Looking at my take always from this book, I really looked at how we as a society sometimes let things happen, but also how sometimes even the smallest resistance is beneficial to the bigger game. This is a perfect message for young readers who feel like their voice or actions don’t matter, but they do. Sometimes the actions we deem too small and not big enough can lead to big impacts.
This book builds the groundwork that all along these victors have been adding little seeds of rebellion every time they win the games or through the way they won the games to lead to an overall rebellion and uprising that gives the army necessary for the original trilogy. Reading this, I took away two things: that sometimes the small fights for change can lead up to the biggest of changes, and it doesn’t go unnoticed. I also took away the ways not being optimistic and hopeful for changes is also how you can be complicit and not an active warrior for good or change.
This book is a prequel for the originals but I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend reading it after you have read the original trilogy. There are parts that will have a significant impact once you have read the trilogy. Building up not only the world but just the emotional attachments to characters will have a greater impact. I could not put this book down it had so many high points that made me want to just stay locked in the whole time. This was one of my fastest reads of the year so far and I’m so excited to be able to experience it all over again in the movie next year.