Everything We Know About Sunrise on the Reaping

Hey!! I am beyond excited for the new Hunger Games novel to come out, and in honor of it being released NEXT WEEK (on March 18!), I thought I'd do a little post on everything we know about it so far. Obviously, plot points of Sunrise on the Reaping will be revealed in this post, but all of these things were already mentioned in previous books. If you haven't read the Hunger Games in a hot minute and want to be surprised by the new book, proceed with caution :)

First things first, the synopsis! It doesn't really give us any new information on the details of the book, seeing as how we already know that Haymitch competed in the Quarter Quell. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Quarter Quell happens every 25 years and requires twice the number of tributes to further punish the Districts and remind them of their wrongdoing. The synopsis does however, give us some idea of the three other District 12 tributes, stating that they are "a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town." One of these tributes we know by name and have background knowledge of, but I'll get into that later.

As for just some basic background knowledge for the beginning of the book, we know that Sunrise on the Reaping is set 24 years before the events of the Hunger Games trilogy, but after the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, when Snow is about 58 years old (so sadly no Tom Blyth in the next film). The book follows the 50th Hunger Games, which as I mentioned, is a Quarter Quell (the second one in history at this point in time). Haymitch's birthday is on Reaping Day, so he is freshly 16 when entering the Games. We know that Haymitch was taken from his family, consisting of his mother, who raises Haymitch and his little 10-year-old brother Sid, alone, as well as his seemingly pretty serious girlfriend, who I read in an article that her name is Lenore Dove.

One of Haymitch's fellow tributes is Maysilee Donner, Madge Undersee's aunt. In the Hunger Games trilogy, Madge is the Mayor's daughter, and Maysilee is her mom's twin who died in the Games. In Catching Fire when Katniss and Peeta watch tapes of Haymitch's games, Katniss recognizes Maysilee. We also know from Katniss and Madge's interaction in the first book when Madge gives Katniss the mockingjay pin as a tribute token, that it originally belonged to Maysilee. In the tape, Katniss also saw her mother standing with Maysilee after she was reaped, suggesting a friendship and the possibility that we could see a young Mrs. Everdeen in this book.

The arena for Haymitch's games is deceptively beautiful, with a meadow with blue skies and towering mountains, but everything, from the plants and flowers to the water, is poisonous. We know that muttations including carnivorous squirrels, stinging butterflies, and pink deadly birds are present. As for the events of the game, Haymitch forms an alliance with Maysilee after she supposedly saves his life. After travelling through the arena, Haymitch becomes convinced that it must end somewhere. He travels to the end of a cliff, where he realizes that there is a force field around the arena by throwing a pebble off the edge, only for it to bounce back. Maysilee and Haymitch decide to end their alliance towards the end of the game with only five tributes left since only one can survive, but soon after Maysilee leaves, she is attacked by the muttation birds and dies, which Haymitch witnesses. In the final showdown between the two remaining tributes, Haymitch is in a battle with a Career and draws her to the force field. When she throws an axe at him, he dodges it and the axe bounces off the field, killing the Career. His way of winning made the Capitol look stupid since he outwitted them and used their invention as a weapon, so they killed his family and his girlfriend, bringing this story to a very happy ending.

On that depressing note, happy reading! May the odds be ever in your favor.