For anyone who grew up reading books, it is likely that you were either suggested to read or did read The Hunger Games series. 

These dystopian books created a future in the United States that is quite bleak, as it is ridden with poverty, destruction, and a people frustrated by their restriction. 

In March of 2025, celebrated author Suzanne Collins released the newest book in this collection: The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. The corresponding movie will be released in 2026.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping serves as another prequel to the original Hunger Games trilogy. It takes place during the 50th Annual Hunger Games, which is the second ‘Quarter Quell,’ where twice as many kids are counted from the reaping to instill fear into the next generation of Panem youth. District 12 resident Haymitch Abernathy is put into the games unfairly after fighting a peacekeeper. 

This year’s Hunger Games has its own spin on it. Haymitch joins an alliance during the preparation for the games. He sets a plan with a mentor to blow up the arena, and attempts to protect allies and loved ones back home, all while facing a personal threat from President Snow and being put in an arena full of poison. In the original Hunger Games series, Haymitch becomes a district 12 mentor to the protagonist.

I have read all of the hunger games books and watched each movie, and this book is easily just as good as the rest. The plot is intriguing, the characters are really well-written and relatable. The symbolism helps connect it to the first three books, as well as the first prequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

There are recurring secondary characters and reading it feels like you’re in another world, yet still in the world of Katniss Everdeen. Collins’ setting Haymitch as the protagonist in this book, and seeing the growth and history within his own life and youth shows another side to the Haymitch that readers know from the trilogy. 

He becomes more multifaceted, and it is very easy to empathize with him. In each book in this series, especially this one, Collins emphasizes the importance of how each of these characters are going through the horrible things that they are going through because of the government system that they live in. 

Suzanne Collins has made Panem set in the geographic United States. Within the first few pages it is stated that reaping day is on the fourth of July, which of course has historical significance for the U.S. now. In my opinion, the book is very good, and I would definitely recommend watching the movie when it comes out. I plan to watch it myself.