pnk_nghtmr 's review for:

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

3.0

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I came into this book expecting to finally feel for Haymitch, but instead I felt distant and detached. I didn’t connect to him or Lenore at all, and

I never really believed his obsession with destroying the arena. It felt forced and illogical, like a passive character suddenly doing something extreme without any convincing reason or inner conflict. Knowing the Capitol, it was obvious they’d twist the narrative and punish his family, and yet he never seemed to think through those consequences in a way that made sense to me.

Because of that, all the tragedy that followed just felt unsatisfying, not powerful.

The only moments that hit me were

the little girl’s death, the Capitol bringing in a fake version of her, and Beetee’s son.

I also liked the bits of lore that tied into the original trilogy, the pin, Katniss foreshadowing, familiar names, but those were small sparks in an otherwise flat story. Overall, I was underwhelmed and often forced myself to keep reading.