APRIL 3, 2025 | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | By Greta Patterson (A&E Copy Editor)
Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers.
Well, folks, it has arrived – Suzanne Collins, legendary author of “The Hunger Games” trilogy and “Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” released the newest book in “The Hunger Games” universe, “Sunrise on the Reaping.”
I read it in approximately 48 hours and felt truly every emotion possible – anger, disgust, hope, excitement, confusion, so much sadness (probably more than I should), and this book has, quite frankly, consumed my thoughts for the past week.
Published on March 18, this book has dominated my social media and it has already been announced that a film adaptation of the novel will be released on Nov. 20, 2026. Since finishing the book, I’ve been rewatching the original “Hunger Games” movies and cannot recommend them enough as so much nuance is added through “Sunrise on the Reaping.”
Set during the 50th Hunger Games, “Sunrise on the Reaping” follows the perspective of the District 12 mentor fans all know and love, Haymitch Abernathy.
A very interesting plot structure is presented, given that, as readers, we know how his games will end – with Abernathy as victor. With this preexisting knowledge, readers entered the book with different expectations given the imminent outcome. Collins was still impressively able to deliver plot twists throughout the book, an early one being that Abernathy was not reaped, or selected to participate in the games, in the typical manner by having his name drawn out of the bowl of all possible tributes. He instead was chosen illegally after the boy whose name was drawn tried to flee and was killed by peacekeepers.
The game itself, referred to as the second Quarter Quell, is different from the usual games in that double the amount of tributes are reaped, meaning that four children from each district participate.
During training, many of the tributes, including Abernathy and Ampert Latier, formed an alliance in which they called themselves the Newcomers, a contrast to the alliance of the Careers. The Capitol’s targeting of Abernathy is clear from the start after he received a score of one, on a scale from one to 12, for how well they thought he would fare in the game.
Prior to the game, Abernathy and Beetee Latier, Ampert’s father, connect and form a plan to destroy the arena. Latier knows that the Capitol is punishing him for previous insubordination by forcing his son to be in the game, thus making it inevitable that Ampert will die during the game. I will spare the details for you to read for yourself, but somehow, despite knowing that Ampert was going to die during the game, his death was even worse than I could have pictured.
Abernathy decides that, while he is still allied with the Newcomers, he needs to leave them and continue the game on his own in order to protect them. Abernathy quickly realizes that while it looks like an Edenic paradise, everything in this Hunger Games arena is poisonous. Collins’ writing of the game was fast-paced and exciting, making it an easy read while still remaining complex. The deaths were endless and gruesome, truly reflective of the Capitol’s desire to silence the districts into submission. The story just makes the nickname “sweetheart,” which he later calls Katniss Everdeen, all the more tragic.
After his victory in the arena, Abernathy continues to suffer at the hands of the Capitol, not being permitted to return home or see anyone. He is confined to the apartment that the tributes stayed in upon arrival to the Capitol, haunted by memories of the other District 12 tributes who did not survive.
Upon returning to District 12, Abernathy is met with even more heartbreak. His house is lit on fire and his mother and younger brother Sid end up dying. He is reunited with his lover, Lenore Dove, a Covey girl, for a moment, only to have her die seconds later in his arms because she ate poisonous gumdrops. Even in the Abernathy that we come to know in the original books, he never meets or loves anyone else, remaining wordlessly committed to Dove.
Ultimately, Abernathy played a critical role in preventing the sun from ever rising on a reaping day again. It should be noted that reaping day, also Abernathy’s birthday, falls on the Fourth of July, sparking discussion around independence and what it means for a day to be marked as the embodiment of freedom.
One particularly devastating realization is that Abernathy’s name is the last name to ever be called in a reaping, and while Peeta Mellark does volunteer and take his place in the 75th Hunger Games, Abernathy is ultimately the last tribute ever selected to participate in a Hunger Games.
Something that made this book so fun to read was the way that Collins tied in the stories and origins of characters we came to know from the original trilogy. We get Effie Trinket’s origin and connection to Abernathy, Burdock Everdeen, Katniss’ father, who is best friends with Abernathy, Asterid March, Katniss’ mother, and her love story with Everdeen. Even Peeta’s dad Otho Mellark is mentioned. Characters from the third Quarter Quell are pivotal to the story – Latier, Mags, Wiress and even Plutarch Heavensbee who is a cameraman for the games. Heavensbee is one of the most fascinating characters to learn more about considering that in the original trilogy, we see his evolution from head gamemaker to central player in the rebellion.
Glimpses of this subversiveness are present in his character in the novel, prompting the reader to wonder when he joined the rebellion and the extent of his involvement.
It’s no secret that Collins’ books deliver remarkable commentary on political structures and power within an oppressive society, making it clear to many readers why this is such an apt book for the current moment. In a statement, Collins shared that “With ‘Sunrise on the Reaping,’ I was inspired by David Hume’s idea of implicit submission and, in his words, ‘the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.’ The story also lent itself to a deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative. The question ‘Real or not real?’ seems more pressing to me every day.” In “Sunrise on the Reaping,” we are invited to recognize how easily the truth can be manipulated, particularly through the use of social media and widespread platforms.
It would be a disservice to the novel and Collins as an author to say that the books within “The Hunger Games” universe are simply young adult novels – they go beyond this classification and instead deliver superb commentary on our ability to exist as free agents within an increasingly surveilled society. In the novel, an emphasis is placed on the ability that the government has to manipulate the truth into a more suitable narrative. We see this in particular as Abernathy, after winning his game and being declared victor, rewatches the footage of his game and realizes how the Capitol contorted both the pre-game interviews and the footage of the game itself.
Collins reminds us of the power that information, and disinformation, hold in our society, and prompts us to not take everything we see at face value. Instead, question the power structures in place that allow for the control and weaponization of content.