A review by laraisabelle
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

3.0

I am very very torn on this one. I did enjoy reading it and I was very invested but I think my expectations were too high. I would still recommend it to others who desperately waited to see Haymitch‘s story. But I would also tell them to tone down their expectations.

On the one hand this book felt so incredibly lazy. I expected so much more from the plot and from Haymitch‘s story in general. I expected something unique and this book was definitely not that. Almost every single character that was introduced was someone we either know from the prequel or the original trilogy, and while I love a good character cameo and Easter eggs as much as the next person, this was just way too much. Some characters also didn’t feel coherent to their character in the original trilogy in my opinion. I was very very disappointed up until around 50% 

On the other hand, the second half did tug on my heartstrings quite a bit and I was emotional in some parts. The story finally picked up and with the arena setting being different and the tributes not being characters we know from the other books, the plot finally started feeling unique and made me very emotional. The ending was obviously predictable because we know what’s coming, but it was still so heartbreaking and I did shed quite a few tears. That epilogue just about killed me but the last 10%  were about the only part that were what I wanted this book to be and sadly that didn’t make up for the first half that just felt so lazy and unoriginal 

This book did not give me what I wanted it to give and I’m just very disappointed by that. I really wished I loved this as much as other people seem to.