Book of the Month - August 2025
Sunrise on the Reaping
Suzanne Collins - ISBN: 978-1546171461 - 2025
Author:
Suzanne Collins
Suzanne Collins is the internationally bestselling author of the Hunger Games series, which also includes the novels The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay, and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Together, the books have sold over 100 million copies and were the basis for five popular films. Her other books include the acclaimed Underland Chronicles series, which begins with Gregor the Overlander, and the picture book Year of the Jungle, illustrated by James Proimos. To date, her books have been published in fifty-three languages around the world.
Brief Synopsis:
When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.
Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.
When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.
Insights:
Should I read it or skip it?
Having read the books while my kids were in elementary school, I remember going to the movies with teachers and the principal of the lelementary school. There was this deep sadness as educators watched children kill each other. They wtestled with the idea of could their students find themselves in the middle of a “Hunger Games” type event in the USA. To me, this book’s emotional resonance hits even harder. Suzanne Collins expertly incorporates the familiar stakes and structures we know, all the while giving us compelling new insights into the depths Power (Snow) would go through Haymitch Abernathy’s eyes. This book’s setting during the brutal Second Quarter Quell, 24 years before Katniss’s rebels first challenged the Capitol, develops the dystopian world of the United States post apocalypse.
Yet, this isn’t just a rehash. Think of it as shifting from a sleek, modern-day dystopia to a story set in a smoky, raw, 1970s disco era film. The texture feels decidedly different: the tension is more grounded, the propaganda machinery still rough around the edges, and the characters tethered to simpler, grittier realities of their time. This temporal shift deepens the emotional impact—Haymitch’s younger self, his romance with Lenore Dove, and the alliances he forms all pulse with the same emotional stakes yet feel freshly vivid and urgent.
I love when series will do callbacks or Easter eggs with the original or first seasson’s episodes. Spotting echoes of the later series—Beetee’s early rebellion when forced to watch his son Ampert compete, the haunting foreshadowing of what would shape Katniss’s world, and the roots of the Mockingjay legacy—feels like rediscovering hidden layers in something you really care about and love. These moments aren't just fan service—they’re powerful connective tissue between past and future, grounding the epic saga in intimate human tragedy and resistance. I love the connections with a younger “Mags” and would love to see the aftermath that made Wireess who she became.
In short, Sunrise on the Reaping is more than a nostalgic revisit—it’s a narrative shift to a different cinematic era within Panem, maintaining the emotional core fans know and love while deepening our understanding of the world’s history. It’s a moving, richly layered continuation—and one I loved, having immersed myself in the original trilogy in both book and film.
