Sunrise on the Reaping

This article is about the book. For its film adaptation, see The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.

Sunrise on the Reaping

Author	Suzanne Collins
Cover artist	Tim O'Brien
Language	English
Series	The Hunger Games
Genre	Science fiction, Dystopian
Publisher	Scholastic
Publication date	March 18, 2025
Publication place	United States
Pages	400
ISBN	9781546171461
Preceded by	The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Followed by	The Hunger Games

Sunrise on the Reaping is a 2025 dystopian novel written by American author Suzanne Collins and the second prequel novel to the original The Hunger Games trilogy, following The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020). Set 24 years before the events of the first novel, the narrative delves into themes of political manipulation, the power of propaganda, and the complexities of societal control under a totalitarian regime and centers on the 50th Hunger Games (a special Games also referred to as the Second Quarter Quell), in which Haymitch Abernathy competed. It was released on March 18, 2025, and published by Scholastic.

A film adaptation was announced to be in production on June 6, 2024, and is set to be released by Lionsgate on November 20, 2026.

Background

Development

Collins' inspiration was a book by Scottish philosopher David Hume, specifically his ideas of implicit submission and "the easiness with which the many are governed by the few". Questions surrounding the use of propaganda and the power of media narratives also inspired Collins to explore the concept of what is ‘Real or not real?’ in the novel.

Collins chose the title of Sunrise on the Reaping to express Hume's philosophy of the distinction between inductive and deductive reasoning. As conveyed through Haymitch and Lenore Dove's disagreement in the first chapter, Haymitch believed with certainty that the reaping will always be around and resigned himself to it, showing implicit submission, but Lenore Dove argued there can be a future without them as the Hunger Games have only been around for fifty years.

In the novel, Lenore Dove sings sections of "The Goose and the Common", an 18th-century poem about the injustices of land enclosure in England, in reference to the Capitol.

Cover art

The cover art for Sunrise on the Reaping was designed by Tim O'Brien. Regarding the cover art, VP publisher and editorial director for Scholastic David Levithan stated that “The spiky sun rises on a symbol that will come to mean a lot to Haymitch Abernathy, as well as countless readers. Artist Tim O’Brien has created yet another iconic Hunger Games cover – this one symbolically exploring one of the central themes of the series: how conflicting forces can be connected by their common nature, the songbird and the snake springing from the same source.”

Plot

Haymitch Abernathy lives in Panem's District 12 with his impoverished, widowed mother and younger brother, Sid. Haymitch illegally distills moonshine (for Hattie Meeney) to support his family. He regularly sneaks into the woods to meet his girlfriend, Lenore Dove Baird, a member of the Covey, a nomadic musical group forced to settle in District 12.

The 50th Annual Hunger Games reaping is held on Haymitch's sixteenth birthday. To celebrate the Second Quarter Quell, all districts must provide twice as many tributes. At the District 12 reaping, a male tribute attempts to escape but is killed. In the ensuing chaos, Haymitch protects Lenore Dove from the Peacekeepers. District 12's cruel tribute escort Drusilla Sickle and Plutarch Heavensbee, a cameraman who appears sympathetic to the tributes, then appoint Haymitch as the substitute tribute, re‐staging the reaping. His fellow District 12 tributes include betting oddsmaker Wyatt Callow, neighbor and close friend Louella McCoy, and the rich and callous Maysilee Donner.

Arriving in the Capitol, the District 12 tributes are dismissed as "long shots." During the Tribute Parade, a horse-drawn chariot accident kills Louella. Haymitch defiantly carries her body down the parade route and lays her before President Snow, then mockingly applauds him. Haymitch is taken to Heavensbee Hall where President Snow threatens Haymitch that Gamemakers will inflict a painful death if he continues being defiant. To cover up the parade fiasco, Snow has a drugged body double replace Louella, whom the District 12 tributes nickname "Lou Lou." From her behaviour, they believe she is from District 11.

With no reachable District 12 victors, the tributes are randomly assigned mentors from previous Games, Wiress of District 3 and Mags of District 4. Competing alliances quickly form between the Career tributes and the other district tributes, who nickname themselves the "Newcomers." During training, Beetee, a former victor cruelly forced to mentor his own son, Ampert (who was reaped to punish Beetee's rebellious behavior), recruits Haymitch for a covert plan to sabotage the arena. Plutarch gives Haymitch information about the sabotage and, to gain his trust, arranges a bittersweet farewell call with Lenore Dove. Haymitch agrees to detonate explosives planted in the arena's underground water tank to flood the arena's computer systems. After the Gamemakers give Haymitch a punitive low score for his parade behavior, he adopts a defiant "rascal" persona in the tribute interviews to attract sponsors.

The Games commence in a stunningly beautiful but deadly arena rife with poisonous hazards. Haymitch abandons the Newcomers' alliance to carry out his sabotage plan. Wyatt is killed the first day after he protects Lou Lou. Briefly accompanied by Lou Lou, who soon dies from toxic pollen, Haymitch and Ampert reunite to enter an access channel designed to release genetically mutated creatures ("mutts") and trigger an explosion to destroy the arena's subterranean water tank. However, the ensuing flood fails to fully disable the arena, and the squirrel mutts kill Ampert. Later, encountering some Careers (tributes from districts who specifically train for the Hunger Games), Maysilee saves Haymitch with a poisonous blow dart gun, renewing their partnership.

Determined to find another way to destroy the arena, Haymitch convinces Maysilee to explore its perimeter. They encounter the Careers, and during the ensuing fight, the tributes stumble upon a surprised trio of Gamemakers performing maintenance, whom Maysilee and a Career kill before fleeing. Haymitch and Maysilee find a power generator at the arena's edge. A protective force field repels objects thrown at it. After splitting up with Haymitch, Maysilee is killed by mutts specifically sent to punish her for killing the Gamemakers. With three tributes remaining, Haymitch seeks out the last remaining Newcomer, Wellie. He finds her up a tree, starving. After leaving to search for firewood, Haymitch returns to find Wellie killed by the final District 1 tribute, Silka. In a final confrontation at the arena's edge, Silka is inadvertently killed by her axe bouncing off the force field. A grievously injured Haymitch attempts to detonate a final explosive against the force field. He is rendered unconscious by the blast, failing yet again to destroy the arena.

Haymitch awakens in the Capitol and is then forced to attend public events. He realizes that the televised Games have been heavily edited to erase signs of rebellion and to make him look self-serving. President Snow privately tells Haymitch: "Enjoy your homecoming." Upon returning to District 12, Haymitch discovers his home burned down and his mother and brother dead. A reunion with Lenore Dove in a quiet meadow turns tragic when Haymitch unknowingly feeds her a poisoned gumdrop, an act orchestrated by President Snow. Lenore Dove dies in his arms after urging him to prevent another "sunrise on the reaping." Haunted by his losses, Haymitch retreats into isolation and heavy alcoholism in the Victors' Village, distancing himself from former friends to keep them safe. However, during the Victory Tour, Plutarch's encouragement spurs him to keep fighting.

In the epilogue, set after the original series, Haymitch tells Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark about his past, finding solace in caring for goose eggs from Katniss in memory of Lenore Dove.

Characters

Main article: List of The Hunger Games characters

Tributes

• Haymitch Abernathy – A male tribute from District 12. He is outspoken, short-tempered, and trying his best to return to his family and girlfriend in District 12.
• Maysilee Donner – A female tribute from District 12. She is the original owner of the Mockingjay pin, which is given to Katniss in The Hunger Games. She has a twin sister named Merrilee Donner.
• Wyatt Callow – A male tribute from District 12. He is an oddsmaker with a family history of gambling on the tributes.
• Louella McCoy – A female tribute from District 12. She is killed in an accident during the Tribute Parade and replaced with a body double, Lou Lou, by the Capitol.
• Lou Lou – A girl from District 11 who is abducted and drugged by the Capitol to replace Louella.
• Ampert – a male tribute from District 3. He is Beetee's son and part of the Newcomers alliance.
• Wellie – A female tribute from District 6. She is part of the Newcomers Alliance.
• Silka Sharp – A female tribute from District 1 who was part of the Career pack. She was killed by her axe, which rebounded off the forcefield whilst fighting Haymitch.
• Panache Barker – A male tribute from District 1 who was part of the Career pack. He was killed by one of Maysilee's poisonous darts.
• Woodbine Chance – A male tribute from District 12. He attempts to escape when his name is called and is shot dead. Haymitch is chosen to replace him.

Capitol Residents

• Plutarch Heavensbee – Capitol cameraman assigned to District 12 tributes.
• Drusilla Sickle – Capitol escort for the District 12 tributes. Magno's estranged wife.
• Coriolanus Snow – President of Panem.
• Effie Trinket – Emergency escort and stylist for the District 12 tributes.
• Proserpina Trinket and Vitus – Prep team for Haymitch during the Second Quarter Quell.
• Caesar Flickerman – Host of the interviews for the Hunger Games.
• Magno Stift – Stylist for the District 12 tributes. Drusilla's estranged husband.

Mentors

• Mags – Victor of the 11th Hunger Games. Mentor for the District 12 tributes during the Second Quarter Quell.
• Wiress – Victor of the 49th Hunger Games. Mentor for the District 12 tributes during the Second Quarter Quell.
• Beetee – Victor of the 34th Hunger Games. Mentor for the District 3 tributes during the Second Quarter Quell.

District 12 Residents

• Lenore Dove Baird – Haymitch's girlfriend. A member of the Covey.
• Sid Abernathy – Haymitch's ten-year-old brother.
• Willamae Abernathy – Haymitch's mother.
• Burdock Everdeen – Haymitch's best friend and eventual father of Katniss and Prim. He is Lenore Dove's distant cousin.

Release

On October 16, 2024, the book's cover and synopsis were revealed on NBC's The Today Show. On January 15, 2025, an excerpt from Chapter 1 was released in an article in People magazine. It revealed details such as the names of Haymitch's brother, Sid Abernathy, and girlfriend, Lenore Dove Baird, and that his birthday is reaping day. On March 13, 2025, a clip of Suzanne Collins reading from Sunrise on the Reaping was posted on Scholastic's YouTube page. The scene featured focused on the character of Haymitch's girlfriend, Lenore Dove.

Sunrise on the Reaping had a hardcover release date of March 18, 2025. The audiobook had the same release date. It is narrated by actor Jefferson White.

Sunrise on the Reaping sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide in its first week, marking the biggest debut for any title in Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games series. In the U.S. alone, the book sold 1.2 million copies, more than twice the opening sales of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and over three times that of Mockingjay. By July 2025, Publishers Weekly reported that it had sold almost 1.7 million copies, making it the second-highest selling book of the year. By January 2026, it had sold 4.4 million English World copies, with 3.3 million in the U.S. alone.

Critical reception

Upon release, Sunrise on the Reaping received highly positive reviews. Dhanika Pineda of NPR gave it a positive review, writing that the social and political issues portrayed in it were relevant to the ones facing modern society. Julie Huang of The California Aggie wrote "Sunrise begins to recontextualize everything that was seemingly well-established in the original series and never once misses an opportunity to make readers question everything they thought they knew." Blog OneReadingNurse.com gave it 5/5 stars, praising the characters and brutality of the games.

Helen Burke of The Daily Collegian criticized the use of songs and poems but praised "the emotional depth of Haymitch’s relationships and the underlying themes of survival, loss and rebellion." Kirkus Reviews gave it a starred review, writing "Collins combines many of the best qualities of the series into one book, balancing layers of personal insights, worldbuilding, and danger to form an inescapable whirlwind of suspense and conflict." Annika Good of The Uproar called it "an emotional rollercoaster...[that] deepens readers’ understanding of Haymitch and expands the world Collins created in unexpected and provocative ways." Lizz Schumer of People wrote "Collins is awfully good at what she does — the sharp descriptions, the heart-pounding battles, the creative punishments and machinations in the Arena...It’s a life-giving book...Because it reminds us that unity is worth something. In some cases, it’s worth everything."

Hannah E. Gadway of The Harvard Crimson praised the pacing but wrote "its biggest flaw lies in its relationship to the other novels in the series...Sunrise on the Reaping does not exist in a vacuum and fails to cover new thematic ground, leaving it reliant on the other novels in the series." Kaylee Nguyen of The Johns Hopkins News-Letter criticized it for being "safer, more predictable and ultimately less thought-provoking" than previous installments. Frank Remski of The Eastern Echo scored it an 8.5/10, praising the flow and darkness but feeling it didn't bring anything new in terms of worldbuilding.

Film adaptation

Main article: The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

The upcoming film adaptation will be directed by Francis Lawrence and written by Billy Ray. It began filming in July 2025. Joseph Zada was cast as Haymitch, Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, and Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove.

External links

• The U.S. Scholastic Website