lenareadsstuff 's review for:

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

3.0

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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As someone who's loved every installment of the Hunger Games series so far, this sadly felt like a mixed bag – interesting themes meet repetitive storytelling and (mostly) uncompelling characters. The messages around implicit submission and the call for a longterm, organized resistance are great but they're not always discussed as gracefully as previously done. In many ways, this felt like Suzanne Collins hitting us over the head with these themes over and over again, so that even the last person who didn't get the political message of this series would catch onto it.

That being said, I also have nice things to say about this book. I loved Maysilee's sassiness and her constant refusal to play along with the Capitol. She's undoubtedly my favorite character of the book (sorry, Haymitch). I also think the book is at its strongest when it's not name-dropping its themes ("implicit submission" literally came up six times), but instead lets the horrifying implications dawn on the reader on their own. This is why the ending of Part II and the scenes after Haymitch's return to district 12 –

two moments where I falsely assumed he would get to breathe for a moment

– hit so damn hard.

His hopelessness when facing the Capitol's exertion of power and its vast cruelty was palpable.