A review by dani794
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

3.0

 “Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. Incompetence. You can’t ignore it or it spreads.” 

As a fan of the original series, I felt myself slightly let down by this.

The narrative of the strength that propaganda has, is important and very relevant within both the Hunger Games Universe and ours. My favourite scenes are Haymitch's direct interactions with President Snow – showcasing his fearful charm that he is well known for.

Snow: Do you know much about doves, Haymitch?
Haymitch: They’re peaceful
Snow: If they are, they're outliers. All the birds I’ve encountered are vicious.”

Other than those interactions, I felt like a lot of the other characterisations left a lot to be desired. A lot of the relationships felt shallow when I know I was meant to feel more. Wyatt, Maysilee and Louella have a "found family" type of relationship which I didn't believe in. Haymitch's interactions with characters like Plutarch and Beetee just feel strange.

Haymitch's character to me, does not feel like Haymitch. I am aware I was not going to get the same character we have seen in the other books, as we see how he becomes so snarky and cynical in Sunrise on the Reaping. However, he felt way too bland to me. I didn't understand his thought process a lot of the time. Does he want to get back to Lenore Dove or does he want to spark a revolution? His focus would alternate and it didn't click well for me, and a lot of his decisions felt like he made them for the sake of the plot. (ie separating himself from
LouLou, Wellie and Maysilee.
) I just wish he was more interesting.

The games were extremely underwhelming to me. This is an arena with 48 kids in it, yet it feels the most empty. Most of the games Haymitch is alone,
with an ally coming to find him and then dying
. The main events at the start of the games
that killed like 18 people, including Wyatt, was something we didn't witness because Haymitch ran off alone, unscathed. The threat of double the tributes is instantly amounting to nothing. That lack of threat continues, as he only sees any of the Careers towards the end, where he kills two Careers, and the main antagonistic Career is killed without any real issue.


That might link back to the Newcomers, which is described as this incredible alliance that has never been done before. It is basically all the tributes, except the Careers (1,2, and 4). Haymitch narratively says how its a really smart alliance, but to me it's more of an agreement not the target each other. They didn't really have a plan for the arena, and they never collect in groups either. 

“The Careers have been edited to appear smarter, the Newcomers less unified.”

In regards to the quote above, I mean, was it really that difficult to make them appear smarter? They would move in packs, while the Newcomers seemed to split off a lot. The point of the quote is to show how propaganda can change a "whole narrative",
but I just wasn't convinced by the genius nature of the alliance which never really did anything – especially since Haymitch decides to go alone to protect others, but it just read to me as trying to match up with the other books.

The plot to
destroy the arena is stagnant since we know it fails? The whole grand plan from Beetee was just so weird too. I guess it was trying to show sparks of revolution and build up to Katniss and the events of Catching FIre, but it played out so weird anyway. Why did Beetee randomly choose just Haymitch to do it with anyway?


So many characters are placed just to make references. Mags and Wireness being mentors was weird, did there need to be two of them? Effie's inclusion, although I love her, felt awkward.

I know I have complained, but I don't think I can rate it lower than a 3. I do appreciate what it went for, the ending was interesting, the Magno and the University stylists were entertaining and informative, and several things did shock me –
like Louella and the LouLou storyline.
Hey, maybe this series is just too YA for me now, but I do still have a space in my heart for it.

“Nothing you can take from me was ever worth keeping, and she is the most precious thing I’ve ever known.” 
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