{Put This One on Your TBR List} Sunrise on the Reaping (A Hunger Games Novel) by Suzanne Collins by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Sunrise on the Reaping (A Hunger Games Novel) by Suzanne Collins

by Karen S. Wiesner 

  Beware spoilers! 

Read my previous review that contains a summary of the gist of this series here: https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2024/02/karen-s-wiesner-hit-list-young-adult.html 

What fresh hell is President Snow about to unleash during the 50th Hunger Games, which took place 24 years before the events of the original The Hunger Games novels? Sunrise on the Reaping (A Hunger Games Novel) was released March 2025, another "prequel" to the dystopian series The Hunger Games. 

Haymitch lives in District 12 with his poor but upbeat and commendable family--his mother and younger brother Sid. His best friend is Burdock Everdeen--Katniss and Prim's father and a distant cousin of Haymitch's girlfriend. Haymitch and Burdock's friendship isn't given a whole lot of on-screen time. Burdock's future wife Asterid March (mother of Katniss and Prim) is also mentioned in this novel. Haymitch illegally distills moonshine, kind of a foreshadowing of the drunk he's to become in the original series. The Second Quarter Quell has everyone anxious because, this year, twice as many tributes are to be selected from each district. Because he's put his name in the running to compete more times in order to improve his family's lot, he genuinely worries he'll be chosen. But if means helping and eventually saving his family and the girl he loves, Lenore Dove, he's willing. Though his name isn't originally drawn, a series of unfortunate events forces him to compete. Several familiar faces make appearances in this book, including Plutarch Heavensbee, Mags, Wiress, and Effie (and probably others I've forgotten between readings). 

Haymitch Abernathy was a favorite character of mine from the original trilogy. As a 16-year-old, he's brash, funny, charming, and a natural born leader who's willing to sacrifice whatever he has to in order to protect those he loves and cares about. His stand on the side of justice is without question--which isn't something that we might have believed when we were first introduced to him in the initial novel, The Hunger Games. Instead, we wondered there how this drunk could possibly have won the games in his time. Rather than trying to win, Haymitch does everything in his power to shut down The Hunger Games once and for all. Even when he repeatedly fails, he keeps trying. For that, President Snow punishes him and continues to do so until Haymitch is broken seemingly beyond repair. 

After the last release in this series, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, I was ready to be disappointed. I felt like that prequel posed far more questions than it actually answered, ones that I might never get illumination or closure on. I didn't purchase Sunrise on the Reaping when it first came out because I wasn't sure whether it was worth continuing to follow the series, but when I discovered it was available in audiobook from one of my library apps, I thought I should give it a listen. Fortunately, I believe Sunrise on the Reaping actually clarified a few things for me that cropped up in Ballad (more later on that). Jefferson White, an actor that a lot of people have no doubt heard of but I hadn't, narrated the audiobook. He has a very strange voice, and I worried I wouldn't enjoy his reading because of that, but he actually did a fantastic job and made the story both memorable and thrilling. 

I was very glad to witness Haymitch's side of the story, as well as to get a peek at the pasts' of other familiar characters from previous books. Haymitch's story was fully fleshed out and really made me understand who he was, where he came from, what he'd lost and all the vicious ways Snow destroyed him (no doubt under that psycho's misdirected heading of cruel to be kind), justifying Haymitch's broken and mostly-but-not-quite-defeated personality in the original books. 

Feel free to skip this paragraph if you're worried about spoilers: As I said, I left Ballad with more questions than answers about why President Snow became the monster he was. The author never made it entirely clear there how he could have been working to effect change and then turned back and became twice the son of hell he originally was. Because of the connections made in Haymitch's story, I feel I understand better what shaped Snow was Lucy Gray's betrayal (which was just bewilderingly confusing in Ballad). See my previous review about this for specifics. It seemed nearly the whole of that novel that Snow was beginning to turn around and realize that The Hunger Games had to be stopped at all cost. But, after Lucy Gray betrayed him (had she been working with the revolutionaries all along and made him believe she really loved him in order to turn him toward their plight?--that seems the only logical conclusion), he threw himself headlong into gaining revenge. From start to finish in this series, Snow never really learned the lessons taught by two wise men: "Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves" (Confucius) and "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind". (Mahatma Gandhi) 

Haymitch, however, is cunning, clever, and compassionate--all the hallmarks of a hero. Throughout the first three books in this series, he played his role amazingly, making everyone believe he was nothing more than a lush who couldn't be counted on to lift his head from his latest bottle let alone be instrumental in a revolution. The epilogue is devoted to bridging the gap between the past Haymitch, Hunger Games 50th winner, and the drunkard who became Katniss's District 12 mentor. 

Oh, and the filming for this movie began in July 2025, set for a November 2026 release. Yes, I fully intend to watch it, though I think I will miss the fantastic Woody Harrelson playing Haymitch. Not logical on my part, since, of course he'd be far too old to play a 16-year-old. (Joseph Zada, another actor I've never heard of, will be doing that.) 

If you're a fan of The Hunger Games, this one is well worth your time. If you're not, don't delay. This series stands the test of time and keeps being compelling with each new installment. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website and blog here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Karen S. Wiesner: The Hit List: Young Adult Series Favorites {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hit List: Young Adult Series Favorites

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

by Karen S. Wiesner

In the first half of the 2000s, Young Adult series were all the rage, dominating the attention of teenagers and adults alike. Several that became household topics at the height of their popularity, enjoying fame as both book and movie series, seem to have fallen by the wayside since. Even still, I find many of those unique tales are well worth returning to for a fresh perspective. Over the next month or two, I thought I'd revisit a few series that would make any hit list of past favorites.

What an odd idea for a series! As a very basic summary, kids from each district are forced to compete in violent, brutal "games" to the death as punishment for the past sin of rebelling against the controlling state--all for the entertainment of Capitol citizens. When I first heard about this series--the first three books published between 2008 and 2010--I just could not buy the premise. The concept was beyond ridiculous to me. Parents would never allow it, and who the heck did the Capitol think it was to punish anyone for anything? They participated in the same wars in the past. Active and ongoing retribution following a war is just not done after a succession of fighting and a peace treaty is agreed to by both sides, is it? I admit to being the opposite of a war buff. Also, that people in the future could be as barbaric as in the times of the Roman gladiators didn't sit well with me either. I read the trilogy the first time, never buying the premise for an instant. I had a visceral reaction, especially, to how the author treated Peeta. I wasn't a fan of Katniss. Only one decision she made was one I could agree with--and that was how she handled the poor, pathetic rulers in Panem after the war. I remember writing  a violent review that I've since lost.

A decade passed and a new book was released--a prequel to the series. Though I had very bad memories of the original trilogy, I thought I'd give it another shot. My perceptions about everything changed. Buying the premise still wasn't easy, but I managed this time, and I found Katniss a much more sympathetic protagonist this time around. Here was a mere girl with so few choices in her life. Everything she did was so that those she loved could survive. I still didn't like what was done to Peeta, but I was grateful, as before, that he at least had something of a happily ever after here. I even enjoyed all four of the movies, which closely followed the books, at this point.

Although this series has been around a long time and, if people wanted to read it, they probably already have, in fairness, I'm including this disclaimer because The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is fairly new: Warning! Spoilers ahead!

I went into Ballad… eager to figure out what the heck was wrong with President Snow, how he could possibly justify all the horrible, selfish things he did, what explained his madness. I didn't get anything I was looking for, other than more questions, more shock at just how abysmally the author failed at trying to explain Snow's behavior. The book is, wrongly in my opinion, written from Snow's point of view. While I believe that antagonists should be well-rounded, with strong justifications for any evil they've perpetrated, as well as good traits, the author immersed us too far into Snow's character to ever see him as a villain. He wasn't at all … until he was. And then we were left wondering, what the hell? What changed that this young, seemingly virtuous person who seemed on the edge of starting a revolution in the Capitol that he suddenly turned his back on worthy ideals? Everything he did for most of the book seemed to be pointing us toward him finding a way to change the constant penance visited unfairly upon those who lived in the districts and were barely getting by, treated like animals and mere entertainment. Now this person we thought we knew as good abruptly became such a heartless monster. How was it that Lucy Gray's plight hadn't made any impact on Snow if he could leave behind anything resembling a conscience in order to do what he ultimately did, turning against everything he'd seemed to stand for in the first three-fourths of the book?

Instead of answering the questions the Hunger Games Trilogy left us with, we were overloaded with even more. I can't understand the motivation of the author to write a story about Snow that doesn't really explain what motivated his lifelong cruelty after he betrayed everything he was moving toward in redeeming the districts. Could it really be that everything he did all along was simply because he couldn't bear to be hungry, couldn't stand the thought of allying with those he considered beneath him? When the truth about his two-faced betrayal became clear to me, reading the book, I felt sure I must have missed something. I went back and restarted the chapter only to come to the same end. My niece had the exact same reaction, went back and re-read…nope, Snow is proving he's a traitor to the districts, has been all along. What?!?

I didn't want to watch the movie when it came out in November 2023, but I couldn't resist. The movie was a very faithful adaptation, with some of the most beautiful music imaginable. Even though I remained confused about why the author bothered writing a book that didn't answer any of the questions that needed logical reasoning, I admit I enjoyed the movie. Despite my reservations, I also enjoyed the first three-fourths of the book. I just don't understand. It's all senseless to me. But I easily recalled my deeply disturbed reaction the first time I read the trilogy. When I came back to it a decade later, my perceptions were radically changed. Maybe the same will happen if I come back to Ballads years from now.

In any case, I'm left with recommending this series for the reason that anything that inspires such a passionate response in me is worth my time, even if I'm not fully satisfied by it and I wish the author had done many things differently. Even long years after the first publication of these stories, their impact is undeniably powerful.

Next week, I'll review another favorite YA series published in the early 2000s.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/