When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.
Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.
When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.
I absolutely loved this book; it was very dark, but it gave us so much information about the series as a whole. Sunrise on the Reaping shows us how the 50th Hunger Games was orchestrated, and all of the things going on in the background that were covered up by the Capitol. Although there is a scene in the novel Catching Fire where Katniss and Peeta watch the tape of the 50th games, it doesn’t go into detail about the events at all. On top of this, the Capitol heavily altered the recap of the games, erasing any trace of rebellion and making Haymitch out to be just a vain 16-year-old trying to win the games.
Something I really liked about this book is how they tied together aspects from all of the other books in the series. There are countless references to her previous novels, which adds to the complex worldbuilding of Panem. Sunrise on the Reaping references the Covey, the Chance family, the Academy, and many other details from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes to further the plot, which is very rewarding for fans of the series. They also include characters from the main trilogy, like Beete, Wiress, and Mags. This helps to show how interconnected the story is, and adds a layer of depth to the first 3 installments that wasn’t there before.
They also included many characters from the first installment of The Hunger Games. Katniss’ dad, Burdock Everdeen, is Haymitch’s best friend in this novel, which is really interesting, especially when you remember how all Katniss knew about Haymitch in the beginning of the first book was that he was a huge drunk. It was also revealed that Burdock is a relative of the Covey on his mom’s side, which ties Katniss to Lucy Gray and Lenore Dove genetically, along with their involvement with the Capitol and Snow.
As soon as the book starts, we are told that Haymitch’s birthday is on reaping day, which also happens to be the 4th of July. I’m not going to completely go into the significance of this date, but you all know that it’s America’s Independence Day. It’s ironic how the day all about “freedom” has changed into this event of hurt and fear for people in the districts. Haymitch’s birthday being on reaping day is also very significant, as that is the day he is “reaped”, and has to go on mentoring children bound for death for the next 25 years. He never mentions this in the original trilogy, which makes sense as he doesn’t want to put more attention on himself when people are dying, and doesn’t want people to pity him.
In the beginning of the book, we also see him go into the woods. At first, I thought this book was going to make Haymitch out to be a carbon copy of Katniss, but it goes a different way. Haymitch is revealed to be distilling liquor with Hattie, an old woman from the seam, to earn money for his family. This is ironic foreshadowing to how Haymitch becomes an alcoholic in the original trilogy, and with him declining drinks during this novel and saying he “doesn’t drink.” The dramatic irony really hits the readers, showing how much the games have changed Haymitch, both physically and mentally.
Lenore Dove is also a great addition to this book. She is Haymitch’s girlfriend, and a descendant of the Covey. Unlike Lucy Gray, Lenore Dove is intentionally rebellious, having gotten in trouble with the law multiple times for actions like graffiti, rebellious singing, and even interfering with executions. Haymitch doesn’t exactly share her strive for defiance initially, but he, too, acknowledges the inequality and corruption of Panem. After being sent to the Capitol, however, Haymitch’s mindset changes because of the fact that he will probably die soon, and he is more confident in his beliefs, defying the Capitol multiple times before even entering the arena, and even attempting to sabotage the arena by blowing it up.
Louella McCoy is one of the female tributes reaped for the 50th Hunger Games. Louella is described as a 13-year-old girl from the Seam, living a few doors down from Haymitch. They had known each other since they were young, with him giving her the nickname sweetheart. Louella and Haymitch form an alliance on the train to the Capitol, but she never actually makes it to the games; she dies in a carriage accident during the tribute parade. The tribute parade was a very chaotic aspect of this book, highlighting the disorder of the Capitol and how they don’t have as tight a grip on things as they’d like you to believe. A Capitol citizen fires a firework at the District 12 chariot, making their horse lose control and throw Haymitch and Louella to the ground, killing Louella. Haymitch then carries her body to the end of the parade, where Snow is watching, and applauds him mockingly. The cameras don’t broadcast this, but thousands of Capitol citizens watched the stunt.
On the way back to the tribute center, Haymitch is called to Plutarch’s mansion, where Snow is waiting. He’s stumbling and disoriented, with Haymitch learning that he is feeling the effects of poison he consumed while poisoning somebody else. I’m not sure if Snow decided to have Haymitch visit while he himself was sick and weak as a sort of power play, or if it was just a coincidence, but either way it unnerved Haymitch. He watches as Snow demands milk and bread, and when Plutarch asks Haymitch to grab the milk, he drinks it all instead of giving it to Snow. It’s an ironically funny scene in this tense setting, which heavily contrasts with the reveal that comes next: Snow has drugged a young girl who looks like Louella to replace her in the games in an attempt to cover up their mistake. This is incredibly disturbing for both Haymitch and the reader, and really shows how far the Capitol will go to prevent looking weak. After introducing the fake Louella to Maysille and Wyatt, they decide to call her Lou Lou to distinguish between the real Louella and the body double.
Speaking of Maysille Donner, she’s one of my favorite characters from this book. She’s the original owner of the mockingjay pin, with her sister Merilee passing it down to her daughter Madge after Maysille’s death in the 50th Hunger Games, who eventually gifts it to Katniss before entering the 74th games. In this book, Maysille is initially described as a stuck-up rich girl, wearing excessive jewelry and being rude to others at school. Haymitch has a grudge against her since she was rude to him as a kid, calling him names and making fun of him. Their childish feud heavily contrasts with the serious situation of the Hunger Games, with them eventually making up and becoming allies in the arena.
Maysille, although at first appearing just like a stuck-up girl from the merchant class of District 12, is shown to be a lot more than that. She goes against Drusilla, the cruel escort for D12, by sticking up for her fellow tributes and even hitting back when Drusilla slaps her, and is overall nice and compassionate to the other tributes, whether they are from 12 or not. In the arena, she talks about how, even though she had enough money and a stable life back in 12, she always wanted to be more than just a candy shop owner. She says how she uses jewelry to express herself since her mother always dresses her up just like her twin sister, and it gives Haymitch a deeper look into Maysille as a person, resulting in a heavy bond between them both. They even start referring to each other as “brother” and “sister”, which was very sweet, and made it hit even harder when Maysille inevitably dies.
Wyatt Callow, the other male tribute from D12, is an interesting character. Initially, Haymitch doesn’t like him because his father makes bets on children entering the Hunger Games. Eventually, however, he warms up to Wyatt and separates him from the actions of his father. He doesn’t fully befriend Wyatt before entering the arena, but mourns him when he dies and acknowledges that his family is just working around the system that they did not cause. The main enemy is the Capitol, not the children fighting for them.
One thing I really appreciated about this book was Haymitch’s awareness of many of the minor details of the games and the Capitol. In Sunrise on the Reaping, Haymitch describes his district, the Capitol, and the arena of the 50th Games with a lot of detail, giving readers a wealth of information about Panem. With Katniss’ narration in the first 3 books, however, we are only told about what Katniss directly knows and believes. She only starts thinking about the bigger picture after the first book ends, and her internal monologue remains heavily biased afterward. The change in narration is significant, and it’s very helpful to be able to picture the events of the book clearly.
The whole scheme to hijack the arena in this novel was very significant to the plot of The Hunger Games as a whole. Haymitch is initially introduced to the idea with Plutarch, with him asking why people let the Capitol treat them so horribly when they outnumber them by far. This plants a “seed” of some sort into Haymitch’s head, which just grows with time in the Capitol. He talks with Beete about sabotaging the arena while training, and has an encounter with him after the power goes out in the tribute centre due to foul play, where they discuss the more serious details of the plan. They somehow find a way to sneak in unassembled bombs into the arena via tribute’s tokens, and Haymitch sets 2 of them off at different times; one in the water tank under the arena in an attempt to kill the computer’s brain, and one off the cliff of the arena right before he passes out from blood loss.
After he is taken from the arena by the Capitol, he is put in a medical ward where he is strapped to his bed and isolated for weeks on end. He is eventually taken back to his room in the tribute center, but the memory of the dead tributes who used to occupy the room still haunts him. He is fed only bread and milk, which he assumes is some type of psychological torment by Snow due to the milk stunt he pulled. Over the course of this chapter, Haymitch is dealing with heavy trauma from the events of the arena, and it just gets worse when paired with the isolation. Eventually, after what could have been weeks had gone by, his prep team arrives and tries to prepare him for interviews and events in the Capitol to celebrate his victory, where he is paraded around, even flaunted in some type of bird cage, for Capitol citizens to see.
After a few weeks of Capitol parties, he is eventually brought back to D12, where the caskets for the other 3 tributes are shipped with him. When he arrives back to District 12, he walks to his house in the Seam, just to find it on fire, with many people trying to put it out. He rushes to his home, but can’t get in. After the fire is put out, he finds his mother and brother dead, their bodies wrapped around each other. This devastates Haymitch, who knows that the fire wasn’t just an accident; it was deliberately planned by Snow to happen as soon as he arrives home. This emphasizes the control Snow has over the people of the Districts, and how he can easily ruin anyone’s life.
They bury Haymitch’s mom and brother together, along with the 3 other tributes from the games. Their funeral ceremony is sweet, with Burdock Everdeen singing, “The old therebefore”, a song written by Lucy Gray in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. At one point during the funeral, Haymitch sees Merille Donner, and, mistaking her for Maysille, calls out her dead sister’s name. This shows how affected Haymitch was by all of the events that had happened, with him not thinking straight and unintentionally hurting people he cares for.
It was revealed a few days before entering the arena that Lenore Dove was arrested in District 12 for performing rebellious songs, like “The Hanging Tree,” after Haymitch was unfairly reaped for the 50th Games. This concerned Haymitch, but it’s revealed that she had been released a few days after Haymitch returned to D12. He goes to see her one morning in the Meadow, where Lenore Dove finds a bag of gumdrops on the ground. They reunite in a very emotional scene, and Haymitch feeds her some of the gumdrops. He asks her why she didn’t eat them before, as Haymitch had gifted her a bag of gumdrops on the day of the reaping, but she says how they’re in her room, and these are different ones. He looks at the packaging, noting that instead of the assorted colors he gifted her, these were just a deep red. Immediately, he yells at her to spit them out, but it’s too late; the poison had already made it to her stomach. It’s revealed that the bag of gumdrops he was holding was deliberately poisoned by an affiliate of the Capitol or even Snow himself, it’s not clear, so that Lenore Dove would eat them and die. Haymitch holds Lenore Dove as she passes away, with her telling him, “Don’t let the sun rise on the reaping.”
Don’t let the sun rise on the reaping. This phrase is initially used in the first couple of chapters in the novel, when Haymitch is having a conversation with Lenore Dove about the Hunger Games themselves. Haymitch tells her how the reaping is inevitable, and it’s going to happen, sure as the sun will rise tomorrow. Lenore Dove disagrees with this sentiment, saying that just because there has been a reaping every year for the past 50 years, it doesn’t mean that there will always be one. Haymitch dismisses her, and they change subjects, but at the end of the novel, when Lenore Dove is dying from the poisoned gumdrops, she tells him not to let the sun rise on the reaping. Haymitch promises her that he will someday, which actually does end up happening in Mockingjay.
In the epilogue of Sunrise on the Reaping, Haymitch talks about life in District 12 after the events of Mockingjay, when President Snow is dead and the districts can finally live in peace. He also describes watching Katniss grow up from afar, and we find out that the “sweetheart” nickname he has for her originated from the resemblance between her and Louella. He talks about how Katniss is very similar to how he was when he was her age, but just luckier. Although Katniss’ life was not one of comfort and stability, she still was extremely lucky to be successful in her defiance of the Capitol, and this is especially apparent after reading this book.
- Collins, Suzanne. “The Hunger Games #3: Mockingjay.” Scholastic, Scholastic Inc., 2010, scholastic.com. Accessed 8 June 2026.
