A review by jkreads
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I’ve loved the Hunger Games series since it first came out, it’s easily my favourite book series of all time. The way that such confronting topics are explained without sugarcoating but also in an accessible way to fit the YA genre has always blown my mind. I find something new every time I read these books. I’m already itching to reread the original trilogy after reading SOTR.

This was exactly as gripping and devastating as I expected it to be. It was also not at all subtle with its political themes. Honestly even calling them themes feels like understating it, fascism and resistance are the beating heart of this book. Of course the Hunger Games books are famously political in their message, so this one was always going to follow that, but I was struck by just how in your face it was from the very beginning. There is no way anyone could read this book and not pick up on the similarities between the book and the Western political climate and decline into fascism. It felt almost desperate at times, like Suzanne Collins was shoving it in your face screaming “here, do you see this? Do you understand? How can I make you understand?!”. In a way it was reminiscent of my experience of reading Babel, a book which has been criticised by some as hand-holding its readers and leading them to the conclusion that colonial structures are bad. For me, although I was already on board with the message of Babel as well as the very clear message in SOTR, the clear and unrelenting way in which both authors hammered home their respective messages only highlighted the importance and urgency of them. This underlying sense of urgency combined with what Haymitch was experiencing on the page made reading this book a very disorienting experience.

There are many recognisable characters in this book given that it’s a prequel to the original series (but set after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes), characters that have either featured in previous books or characters that have been spoken about but perhaps not in detail or not given a name. Sometimes when an author does this is it can feel like fan service, adding nothing to the plot but giving the reader a little thrill. Some may see it that way here, but for me these all felt like little pieces of a much larger puzzle clicking into place. Every introduction and interaction felt intentional.

Overall this book was nothing groundbreaking, certainly not as much as the original trilogy, however I still think it’s an incredibly important work to come out because of the discussions that will come with it. 

To finish I’ll share one of my favourite quotes:

“You were capable of imagining a different future. And maybe it won't be realized today, maybe not in our lifetime. Maybe it will take generations. We're all part of a continuum. Does that make it pointless?"
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