taylor_bb 's review for:

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
4.25
dark sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
“Like in one of your songs, my ghost will hunt down your ghost and never give it a moment's rest.”

“Promise?” Ouch. Ouchie ouchie ouch. 

Yeah, this was great and I have many thoughts. I really enjoyed this torture and pain gauntlet that Suzanne Collins wrote. Haymitch made me sad, I loved Maysilee, the arena was everything I wanted it to be and more (the eye reveal at the end had me in a chokehold), the quotes from the Raven made my literary heart happy, and the propoganda motiff was *chefs kiss.* Haymitch’s manipulation of the game is a precursor to Catching Fire’s manipulation??? LOVE!! President Snow is an evil bastard and I absolutely loved how this book showed how demented he is. The milk during and after the games?? The hacked TV playing Lucy Gray’s interview song???? Never allowing Haymitch to feel a moment of happiness ever again????? Thanks, Suzanne! Also, the epilogue was what really brought this review up from a lower score, because oh my gosh the feelings I felt seeing Katniss and Peeta help Haymitch heal with his own Geese because they’re his only family left and stop it stop stop stop. Ugh. The line about him being the first thing that they see when they hatch had me rocking back-and-forth in pain. Like I said, this was a great and totally happy time.

There were some issues with the book that I was a little suprised by. I didn’t feel that connected to Lenore Dove, which suprised me because I loved Lucy Gray, who she was definitely modeled after. The main issue I had with it overall was that it felt kind of… fanfiction-y? Listen I have no qualms with fanfiction, and I’ve dabbled in that sphere myself, but some things just felt like it was added in for fan service. I hate to say it, but the addition of Mags and Wiress seemed like a way for readers to go “I know them!!” Plutarch and Beetee had actual depth to their roles in this story, making their connection to the original series stronger, but I just felt like Mags and Wiress were just kind of… there. I did like how this book gave backstory to why Wiress has the issues we see in Catching Fire, though. Also, speaking of Plutarch, I was hoping we would get some more backstory to his pro-revolutionary tendincies. Now, it has been over 10 years since I read Catching FIre/Mockingjay, so maybe his backstory is told in that and I am just forgetting, but I was a little disapointted that he was already pro-revolution from the start. That may just be me misremembering the original series though. 

So yeah, I had some issues with it, as seen above, but it was overall a great backstory for one of my favorite characters from the original series. Like yeah, if I tried everything in my power to end the Hunger Games, failed, and then was punished for it by having everyone I loved die in horrible ways because of my failure, I too would become an alcoholic and hate everyone. Out of the entire series, in my opinion, this book showed the brutality of Snow and the Capitol the best, specifically how they would do anything to stay in power: by having eyes everywhere and by diminishing all feelings of hope. Some of the deaths in this book genuinely shook me up, and at some points I even felt helpless with Haymitch. I’ll leave my review by quoting Plutarch and Haymitch’s final conversation, which encapsulates the entire point of this story and just felt pertinent in general:

 “And maybe it won’t be realized today, maybe not in our lifetime. Maybe it’ll take generations. We’re all a part of a continuum. Does that make it pointless?”
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