Book Discussion: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
SPOILERS FOR SUNRISE ON THE REAPING AHEAD!!!
SPOILERS FOR SUNRISE ON THE REAPING AHEAD!!!
SPOILERS FOR SUNRISE ON THE REAPING AHEAD!!!
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I consumed this book in approximately a day and a half and have no one to discuss it with irl so here I am ranting to the internet void once more. This is a final warning for in depth spoilers for Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. Please close out of this post now if you are trying to avoid those.
This book was frankly diabolical in the best way possible. I was one of many Hunger Games enthusiasts as a child and I directly cite the original Hunger Games trilogy as the books that cemented my interest in reading. I have a lot to thank the original trilogy for and Suzanne Collins as an author. Thus, my lens through which I perceived this book is HEAVILY biased.
This book had me in a chokehold from Chapter 1 all the way through to the Epilogue, dragging me kicking my feet and hollering the entire way through. I knew it was going to be a trip when the novel opened on four quotes centered around perception and propaganda from established figures such as George Orwell, William Blake, and David Hume. Collins was not messing around this time, clocking her audience before Chapter 1 even began as if to say "some of you didn't get my message the first time so let me tell y'all again for the people in the back". The president Snow/Tom Blyth thirst edits following the release of A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes combined with the original trilogy getting pinned to an objectively lop-sided love triangle between Gale, Peeta, and Katniss really took its tole on society at large.
If Lucy Gray Baird in A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was the pinnacle of haunting the narrative then Haymitch Abernathy in Sunrise on the Reaping is the pinnacle of being doomed by the narrative. The absolute whiplash of the Chapter 1 lore drops between Haymitch stating he doesn't drink, the reveal of Burdock Everdeen being one of Haymitch's best friends, Haymitch's love interest being a covey girl named Lenore Dove Baird, and ending off with Haymitch's name NOT being called in the reaping was a lot to handle. Haymitch being illegally reaped after defending his girl from Peacekeepers kicks off the overall theme throughout the novel of propaganda being organized even if you cannot see it in the moment. It forces the reader to look at not only the events within Sunrise on the Reaping but within the original trilogy and media at large. Any story can be spun if the people telling it have enough finesse to make it seamless and enough influence to keep the people involved quiet. The staging of the reaping and later the events of Haymitch's games as a whole drive home the point that was deeply examined in A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: the narrative is whatever the people in power want it to be.
Gonna also give an honorable mention here to chaos of the reaping after the original second male tribute ran and was shot. A moment occurs where everyone is forced to their knees and Otto Mellark freezes upright. Burdock Everdeen is the one to punch Otto Mellark's knee in, forcing him to the ground and thus saving his life. Everdeens saving Mellarks and Mellarks saving Everdeens is an invisible string tying the stories together.
Haymitch being outlined as having the attitude of ending the games at the cost of his life due to to president Snow marking him for death only for Haymitch to win the games anyway... I am so impossibly emo about all of this. Watching the rebellion plotline unfold with the alliance of the non-career districts combined with the help from previous Victor mentors knowing there's no possible way for it to succeed was an exercise in agony. Collins knows exactly what she is doing, setting up the foundation for Haymitch to have an almost motherly relationship with Mags, an intellectual respect for Betee and Wiress, and later watching Katniss pick those exact people as allies in Catching Fire. Haymitch and Katniss are more alike than anyone could have ever guessed. Haymitch, the boy with the striker but not enough fuel, mentoring Katniss, the girl who caught fire, is excellent story telling.
The idea that rebellion had been brewing since almost the very beginning but needing the correct spark to light the whole thing up is so, so important. Rebellions take time. Having the original trilogy exclude Katniss from rebel plans either through her own desire to survive or through omission gives the reader a skewed sense of what was truly going on behind the scenes. Rebellion had always been brewing and Katniss was nowhere near the first attempt. Betee's plot to take down the arena during Sunrise on the Reaping had to fail so it could succeed in Catching Fire.
This is the obligatory mention of Ampert because that storyline was diabolical. Betee's twelve year old son Ampert is reaped as punishment for Betee's acts of defiance. Ampert and Haymitch team up with the other non-career districts but share the same goal of drowning the arena from the inside. When this inevitably fails, Ampert is attacked by mutts from the gamemakers and absolutely nothing could've prepared me for the description of his body being a picked clean skeleton. It was more gruesome of a description than any amount of blood or gore or horrific injury could've impacted. I mistakenly thought that Ampert was meant to be the Rue-esque figure here. The age and innocence was aligned and even their similar relations to the older figure BUT that honor, in my opinion, falls to Maysilee Donner.
Maysilee Donner, the original owner of the Mockingjay pin, is one of the female tributes reaped from District 12. She is feisty and unafraid to clap back verbally or physically. Her and Haymitch start as enemies but as she endears herself by fixing tokens for the other tributes, her and Haymitch come to the conclusion in the arena that one of them must win. After forming a sibling like friendship, the duo encounter a set of career tributes and a set of gamemakers. Maysilee and one of the careers kill the gamemakers and are punished for it by death. Maysilee and Haymitch are separated when she goes back for food. Her screams alert Haymitch but the bird mutts sent after her have done the damage. Her final goodbye to Haymitch is a pinky promise; a promise that he will win the games and not let the capitol control their narrative. It's gut wrenching in a way that the shock of Ampert's death could not properly achieve.
There are many other aspects of this story that I adored but am struggling to mention as I am running out of time and steam to continue. I would be remiss by omitting Wyatt and Louella/Lou Lou entirely. Wyatt being the oddsmaker and Louella the sweetheart as the remaining tributes from District 12. Louella tragically dies in the tribute chariot parade and Haymitch carts her body before president Snow, cementing his "fate" so to speak. She is replaced with a body double they call Lou Lou, a drugged and hijacked child who is determined to be from District 11. Wyatt runs the odds and picks Haymitch as his winner over the careers. He becomes protective of Lou Lou and later dies for her in the arena. Both are tragic in their own right.
Haymitch wins his games by essentially collapsing to dodge an ax thrown by the remaining career. He cheated his fate in the arena but doing so doomed his homecoming to be a Doomcoming (thank you Yellowjackets for that name). He is forever doomed by the narrative to survive while he loves and ever will love will die. The narrative cannot and will not ever allow him happiness. The overall experience reading this novel was a gut wrenching one that left me blankly staring at a wall. I give this book a 5/5 stars.
The chief complaint I have seen about this book (mostly via twitter). Is that it reads like fanfiction/it was too convenient how everything connected. In my opinion, there is a stark difference in reading something that was concocted to capitalize on shock and awe versus something that is emotionally impactful but still plays within the bounds of the established world. Lines that seemed to be throw-aways or one offs from the original trilogy suddenly take on a whole new meaning within the prequels and vice versa. All of the stories within the Hunger Games universe play off of each other through not brute force but by design, making the so called fan service cameos have more substance than style.
I will always be a Suzanne Collins/Hunger Games defender.
