By Norah Jewett ‘25
March 18th marked the release of Suzanne Collins’ highly anticipated fifth novel in her Hunger Games series titled Sunrise on the Reaping. Fans rushed to obtain this latest book, and a whopping 1.5 million copies were sold across the world in the first week of its release.
If you are unaware, The Hunger Games is a dystopian trilogy that is set in Panem, a futuristic America. Every year, 24 children between the ages of 12 and 18 are chosen by chance to fight to the death in an arena for the entertainment of the Capital, the ruling city of Panem. In 2020, Collins released a prequel titled A Ballad of Songbird and Snakes, a novel that takes place 64 years before the first book and follows the trilogy’s main antagonist, Coriolanus Snow.
Sunrise on the Reaping is another prequel to the original beloved trilogy. It takes place 24 years before the events of the first book The Hunger Games, and follows the 50th Hunger Games, the ones that Haymitch Abernathy––Katniss’ mentor–– fought in. This game is particularly special because 48 children are forced to fight in it instead of the traditional 24, heightening the stakes of the brutal death match.
Suzanne Collins never fails to deliver an emotionally impactful story through a hyperbolized dystopian world that frighteningly mirrors our own.
At the start of the novel we meet Haymitch, a character already well established in the original trilogy. But this Haymitch is young, wide eyed and full of hope and warmth, a major contrast from the emotionally distant alcoholic we know. Opening like this, readers are already put on edge because they’re waiting for the ball to drop for when this naive kid gets destroyed by this corrupt system.
The parallels Collins employs between this prequel and the original trilogy round the stories together brilliantly. Namely the connections between Haymitch and Katniss, their upbringings and their defiance, adds another layer of complexity to the series as a whole and explains Haymitch’s actions and attitude towards Katniss in the trilogy. This novel is seamlessly woven into the world, everything clicking together perfectly that makes for another compelling story in the world of Panem.
The book also features a wide variety of both new and old characters. Readers get to meet new characters such Maysilee, a character only mentioned in the trilogy, but one full of fire and life here. Her snappy remarks have quickly marked her as a fan favorite. On top of these endearing new characters, old, well-known characters make an appearance as well. Many who are background characters in the trilogy have time in this book to have their characters expanded upon and explored, adding a new sense of depth to them.
And of course, Collins’ books would never be complete without extensive social commentary that deeply reflects our current world state. Common themes in this series circle around classism, sizable use of propaganda to manipulate society, human morality revolving around children, and what people are willing to go to for the sake of entertainment, just to name a select few. This novel in particular focuses on the use of propaganda to shape a false narrative. Even what readers think they know about these games turns out to be a product of the Capitol’s propaganda, making this book all the more surprising as the “narrative” readers are aware of turns out to be quite different than the actual event of the 50th Hunger Games.
If that wasn’t obvious enough, Collins opens her new novel with several relevant quotes, including one from George Orwell, an author whose works typically revolved around the use of propaganda to control society, noticeable in his famous dystopian novel 1984:
“All propaganda is lies, even when one is telling the truth. I don’t think this matters so long as one knows what one is doing, and why.”
This is very relevant not only in the novel, but our current society as a whole. The use of propaganda to shape a narrative is dangerous, even more so because many people aren’t even aware that what they are consuming is an exploitation of the original story. This idea represented through Capital citizens and even eager Hunger Games tributes is paralleled in today’s world of blindly following things on social media, news outlets, and even out of the mouths of world leaders.
What’s arguably the most heartbreaking about this story is that readers already know how it ends. In Catching Fire, Haymitch’s games are recounted and readers become aware of what happens to his life when he returns to District 12. But that doesn’t stop readers from consuming Sunrise on the Reaping with a naked form of hope, thinking that the story will end differently than we know. But we’re always proved wrong.
One thing that readers have pointed out is just how quickly the actual games went. While most of the original The Hunger Games novel was set in the arena itself, a good half of Sunrise on the Reaping was leading up to the actual games, and then the tributes were in the arena for just around a hundred pages. You would think the games would be more drawn out because there were double the amount of kids in there than normal, but that was not the case. Depending on how you view the choice behind this, you could chalk it up to lazy writing, but knowing Collins, it might very well be to portray how quickly life can be extinguished and the sense of insignificance of human connection the second tributes set foot in the arena.
Another common complaint that arose even leading up to the release of the novel was the worry that the book was “fan service” and was just a money grab for the author. Depending on your opinions of the book and the author, that could potentially ring true. However, Suzanne Collins had stated in interviews that she only writes when she has something to say about the current world state. With the Hunger Games being centered around social commentary of capitalist societies (most notably America), coupled with recent world events, it makes for the perfect breeding ground for a new novel that handles today’s world issues.
Was Sunrise on the Reaping an absolutely necessary book? No, but it added another complex layer to the world of Panem and explored the depth of a well loved character who is complicated enough to warrant a book traversing his inner workings. It was emotionally devastating in all the right ways, and Collins never fails to deliver that gut punch that makes your heart break for a fiction character that many other authors fail to achieve.
Sunrise on the Reaping also serves as a warning, yet another book of Collins that attempts to point out the world’s faults, urging people to take this extreme situation into consideration when society makes choices that impede on people’s freedom as individuals safe from harm.
It almost feels as if we’ve failed to heed her warnings in her previous book, so she publishes another one to hit us over the head with while screaming “what don’t you understand?!”
And who knows, with all that has happened even since Sunrise on the Reaping’s release, the next four years may warrant us yet another Hunger Games novel exploring America’s faults.
Image credit: Barnes and Noble
Be First to Comment