{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: Divergent by Veronica Roth

The Hit List: Young Adult Series Favorites

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

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.

Divergent captured me the very moment Four (Tobias) made an appearance. Before that point, only the very unique, unexpected plot kept me turning the pages. The basic story here is set in a dystopian future where society is divided into each faction, each dedicated to a particular virtue in order to remove any one person exercising independence and freewill, which is seen as a threat. Those who don't fit nicely into any of the factions, or refuse to, are factionless and live on the fringes of society, poor and shunned. Those who are divergent are required to hide within their chosen factions because such a thing is illegal and feared. As one might expect, in this series, one of the factions wants to dominate all the others and set up their own leader.

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: Warning! Spoilers ahead!

I didn't find the initial chapters particularly well written, though I didn't notice that as much as my first taste was of the audiobook of the first book in the series, listened to nearly from start to finish on a trip across the country. After that, I knew I had to read the rest of the series, but I started by reading Book 1 myself. The beginning was underwhelming, but I kept reading more out of intrigue of the faction concept until Four became the highlight of the book and, in my opinion, the series. The main character, Beatrice (who becomes Tris after she makes the choice to join Dauntless instead of remaining in Amity), never won me over. There was almost nothing likeable about Tris after, in the first few chapters of the first book, she stood up bravely and changed her whole life to join the faction that best fit her, even when it meant leaving her family. In fact, the major issue I had with the series was that this weak-playacting-strong heroine who turns into (sorry for the bluntness but it's the most accurate description) a total bitch and basically disintegrates her way through the series until she just gives up at the end and sacrifices herself needlessly, making everything they'd fought for worthless. Tris and Four's romance in Divergent, Book 1, is beautiful, passionate, worth every effort they made to be together when it was forbidden. It was simply breathtaking. But that fragile miracle was destroyed by the author's mistreatment after the initial series offering, and the relationship was hard to even look at in what followed.

Four was the whole reason for following the story to its bitter, disappointing conclusion. His character was complex, admirable, strong and yet vulnerable. If this series had been written from his point of view instead of Tris's, it could have been all it was meant to be. I think the author must have agreed with that because she followed up the trilogy a year later with a collection of short pieces (a prequel and disjointed other not-quite-a-story offerings, retelling parts of the first book) from Four's viewpoint. Unfortunately, this set of contributions felt too little, too late for me, after the crushing letdown of the last two Divergent books, which, albeit exciting, suspenseful, and very readable, did little but show us Tris shattering beyond repair when Four's love and their efforts leading the rebellion should have been able to heal her. Always, she was stuck in Book 1--in all she'd lost instead of finding any new motivation and purpose in her life. How unfair to Four and all who followed her lead.

A movie adaptation was made with the intention of it being four movies--the final book Allegiant was split into two (just like for Hunger Games' Mockingjay). However, the second part of the film was never completed, for which I've always been grateful. The Allegiant movie ended on such a high note. For the first time, we see Tris in a good place, finding strength and healing with Four, proud of their accomplishments and ready to begin a new life, rebuilding their world, for all. Why would fans have wanted to see the outcome of the second part of the book, where Tris sacrifices herself for absolutely no reason and leaves Four grieving? The end of the book relegates the reader to a sense of such devastation that there seems no reason to go on. I prefer to accept the movie's conclusion as the proper ending that should have been provided by the author.

While researching this review, I found that yet another story was added to the series four years after the last. We Can Be Mended was a short-story epilogue taking place 5 years after the final book in the trilogy. It's Tobias's redemption story--along with another character from the original trilogy, in a romance that I'm not sure I could feel right about accepting. As much as I disliked Tris, the thought of her best friend taking her place in Four's life just seems like a tragedy pile-on. I do intend to read it, but I don't have high hopes for being satisfied by this ending any more than I was with the previous.

Ultimately, I recommend this series, mainly for the first book, for the strong, admirable hero, for Four and Tris's early romance, and for the unique story introduced here.

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/