New Hunger Games book is ‘heart-wrenching’ addition to the series, critics say
Sunrise On The Reaping is the fifth book in the Hunger Games series and follows the games that made Haymitch Abernathy the first District 12 victor.
The latest book in The Hunger Games series has been described as a “heart-wrenching” addition to the franchise by critics.
Sunrise On The Reaping, the hotly anticipated fifth book in the series, is a prequel set more than two decades before the original dystopian trilogy, which was made into the popular films starring Jennifer Lawrence.
It is the first published by American author Suzanne Collins since the prequel The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes was put out in 2020.
Haymitch, played by Zombieland actor Woody Harrelson, is first introduced to readers in the original trilogy as the alcoholic mentor to tributes Katniss and Peeta Mellark before they are sent off to fight to the death in a televised arena.
The prequel sees District 12 victor Haymitch drawn to fight in the 50th annual Hunger Games, a violent entertainment set up to control and maintain control in the fictional country of Panem.
Reviewers have applauded the author’s ability to bring the world of Panem back nearly two decades after the first volume was published in 2008.
The Guardian’s Philip Womack said: “Collins is an excellent writer, and there are moments of surprising lyricism, which help to leaven the grimness.
“The books’ success partly lay in Collins’s skilful refashioning of an ancient story, the myth of the Minotaur, which she placed in a futuristic world, giving agency to the weak to overthrow the powerful.”
Jennifer Harlan, from The New York Times, said it “is a propulsive, heart-wrenching addition to The Hunger Games, adding welcome texture to the cruel world of Panem”.
“In expanding Haymitch’s story, Collins paints a shrewd portrait of the machinery of propaganda and how authoritarianism takes root,” she added.
Meanwhile NPR’s Dhanika Pineda praised the author for continuing not to be subtle “with her commentary on propaganda and censorship”, saying the latest book is “no exception”.
The first prequel follows the life of a young President Coriolanus Snow, the antagonist in the series, who was played by Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, who died aged 88 in 2024.
Collins said that it was “a relief” to take on Haymitch’s voice and character after having to write from Coriolanus’s perspective.
“He has a much greater capacity for hope and love and joy. More than Coriolanus – or Katniss, for that matter,” she added.
“Sadly, at the end of the book you see his concentrated effort to strip all that away, so by the time you reach the trilogy, his language has lost the musicality of his youth.
“A combination of his desperation to forget combined with years of Capitol TV erase it. I like to think in his remaining years after the war, he reclaims it. You can hear it coming back in the epilogue.”
Collins had seemingly ended the series after the 2010 publication of Mockingjay, writing in 2015 that it was “time to move on to other lands”, before returning with The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes, set 64 years before the first book.
The sequel was also adapted to the big screen and starred English actor Tom Blyth as Snow alongside Snow White actress Rachel Zegler as a tribute from District 12.
It was announced in the summer that Sunrise On The Reaping will be adapted into a film, with a release set for November 2026.
