Jan. 28 2026 | Abbi Duhart | News Editor

Content warning: this article contains spoilers for “Sunrise on the Reaping” and descriptions of gore

Reading “Sunrise on the Reaping” was definitely a rollercoaster. Suzanne Collins’ new novel, which released last March, is a prequel to the original trilogy, taking place during the 50th Hunger Games and telling the story of a young Haymitch Abernathy — a character many fans, including myself, love. 

The novel opens with descriptions of Haymitch and his family living in District 12. We learn that his family is not well off — something that is pretty typical for those who live in District 12 — and that he often sneaks off with his girlfriend, Lenore Dove, to escape the realities of his life. On reaping day, it is announced that twice as many tributes will be reaped to celebrate the 50th Hunger Games, or Second Quarter Quell. Surprisingly, Haymitch isn’t originally reaped, but when chaos ensues, he steps between Peacekeepers to protect Lenore Dove, causing him to be chosen as the replacement for the dead tribute. 

Because District 12 had no previously known Victors, random mentors were assigned to Haymitch and the other tributes from his district. Through this, we’re introduced to a younger Wiress and Mags, characters from “Catching Fire,” the second book in the original trilogy. During training, we also learn about Beetee — another character in “Catching Fire,” and his young son Ampert, who was reaped. 

Because of his acts of rebellion against the Capitol, Haymitch is given a score of one — the worst possible score — by the Gamemakers. This doesn’t go the way they intended, though, because Haymitch is soon labeled and marketed as a “rascal” and gains popularity for his personality in the Capitol. 

Beetee eventually enlists Haymitch in a plan to rebel against the Capitol and the Games. While in the arena, Haymitch is meant to light explosives planted in the underground water system to prevent the Gamemakers from controlling the arena. While this plan ultimately fails, Haymitch still angers President Snow and is marked for punishment due to his contributions to the rebellion. 

Haymitch eventually wins the Games by leading the last tribute to the edge of the arena, which he learns is protected by a force field. The final tribute throws her axe at Haymitch, who then ducks, causing the axe to rebound off the force field and kill the tribute. 

While Haymitch does survive the Games, did he actually win? Like he says in “Catching Fire,” “Nobody ever wins the Games. Period. There are survivors…there’s no winners.” He eventually returns home, where he finds his house burnt down and his family dead; he then finds Lenore Dove, who found gumdrops she thought were from him, but were actually poisoned, which leads to her death. While it isn’t proven, Haymitch, along with many readers, is convinced that President Snow is responsible for these tragedies.

In the end, Haymitch slowly becomes the Haymitch we know in the original series, as he develops an alcohol addiction and isolates himself to cope with all of his losses and memories of the Games. 

I feel like many “Hunger Games” fans can agree that “Sunrise on the Reaping” was both the most chilling and most devastating book so far in the series. I know one scene that really hit me hard was when Ampert died in the arena. Ampert was not only 12 years old when he was sent into the Games, but was reaped on purpose as a punishment for his father Beetee plotting rebellion acts against the Capitol. In the arena, Ampert helped Haymitch sabotage the water tanks below and was punished by the Gamemakers for doing so. Mutated squirrels — which felt very similar to the mutts in the first “Hunger Games” — were programmed to only attack Ampert and were sent into the arena. Haymitch tried to save him, but the squirrels attacked Ampert to his death, and the book even goes on to say that only his pearly white skeleton remained. This was arguably the most gruesome scene in the entire series, and I’m curious to see how it will play out in the upcoming movie adaptation. 

I also really loved how “Sunrise on the Reaping” brought so many callbacks from the other books in the series. As mentioned, many characters from “Catching Fire” returned, but we also got more information about the Coveys. In “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” we met Lucy Gray, the first-ever victor from District 12. She won the 10th Hunger Games and was a part of the first-ever tribute group to get mentors. The mentor assigned to her was Coriolanus Snow, who later becomes the President Snow everyone knows in the main trilogy. Lucy Gray and Snow were very close at first, and even had a romantic connection, but Snow’s narcissistic and tyrannical tendencies won out. After Lucy Gray wins the Games, Snow is sent to District 12 as a Peacekeeper as punishment for helping her win. He eventually finds her again, and they plan to run off together. Upon leaving for the woods, Lucy Gray realizes she can’t trust Snow after learning he’s killed multiple people, and runs off. Snow, seemingly going mad, grabs a gun and shoots wildly into the forest at the mockingjays and everything else. The book ends, leaving readers in the dark on whether Lucy Gray survived or not, with many believing that Snow killed her. 

In “Sunrise on the Reaping,” we find out that Lenore Dove is related to Lucy Gray and that she is part of the Covey tradition, a traveling band, which was carried on. While Lenore Dove never talks about Lucy Gray, Haymitch knows there was one other District 12 victor, but, like everyone else, knows nothing about them. He watches the past tapes of the Games in hopes of discovering more, but finds that there is nothing about the 10th Hunger Games, when Lucy Gray won. Later on, he finds a tape that President Snow gave him showing Lucy Gray singing, and he realizes that this is Lucy Gray, the 10th victor, and that Snow intentionally erased her history.

Many fans of “The Hunger Games” know that Collins only writes a new book when she has something to say about the world we’re living in. I believe that “Sunrise on the Reaping” is meant to mirror the current state of our world, and she uses the novel to take a rebellious stand like many of the characters. Many aspects that contribute to this include Ampert being reaped to punish Beetee for rebelling, Haymitch being reaped because he interfered with Peacekeepers, Haymitch carrying Louella’s dead body to Snow and laying it before him, the Games being heavily edited to erase any signs of rebellion and seeing the videos of Lucy Gray knowing that all of her history was erased. Not to mention the reaping every year takes place on July 4. As Katniss says, though, “Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us.”

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu