{"id":14929,"date":"2025-10-22T01:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T01:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/14929\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T01:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T01:27:10","slug":"sunrise-on-the-reaping-is-great-but-cannot-overcome-feeling-like-fanfiction-the-crows-nest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/14929\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Sunrise on the Reaping\u2019 is great, but cannot overcome feeling like fanfiction\u00a0 \u2013 The Crow’s Nest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo courtesy of IMDb<\/p>\n

By Rebecca Poltorak<\/p>\n

Normally, there would be a spoiler warning on a book review; however, since \u201cSunrise on the Reaping,\u201d written by Suzanne Collins, is a prequel to the \u201cHunger Games\u201d series, the reader already vaguely knows what will happen. The real enjoyment is learning exactly how the plot unfolds, and how it differs from what readers may expect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSunrise on the Reaping\u201d tells the story of Haymitch Abernathy, the only living District 12 Hunger Games victor, who plays a large role in the first \u201cHunger Games\u201d book. This prequel recounts how Haymitch Abernathy survived the 50th Hunger Games, the Second Quarter Quell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The prequel fleshes out the events described in \u201cCatching Fire,\u201d which briefly mentions Haymitch\u2019s story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSunrise on the Reaping\u201d is certainly very emotional. It contains a lot of curveballs and unexpected twists. On top of this the book is very sad, which fits any \u201cHunger Games\u201d story where children are killing each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dramatic irony is a literary device when the reader knows what is going to happen before the characters. \u201cSunrise on the Reaping,\u201d being a prequel, uses dramatic irony well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a prequel to the Hunger Games saga, \u201cSunrise on the Reaping\u201d employs the use of dramatic irony effectively by letting the reader know what is going to happen before the characters.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reader becomes attached to characters like Maysilee Donner and Ampert, despite knowing they will die.There can be only one Hunger Games victor, and the reader already knows that it\u2019s Haymitch, making the inevitable deaths in this novel even sadder .\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a dystopian novel, \u201cSunrise on the Reaping\u201d has many political elements. A dominant theme is the propaganda element of the Hunger Games, which ties into the dramatic irony and plot twists in \u201cSunrise on the Reaping.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

To Reflecting the nation\u2019s current leader, President Snow is revealed to act silly in private, instead of being as menacing as he was in the original trilogy. This change effectively shows that Panem is so bad that the dystopian country can let a buffoon into power.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The politics are unsubtle, which is perfect for a young adult novel. What feels less subtle, sadly, are all the original trilogy characters forced into the story, like previous victors\u00a0 Beetee, Mags, Wiress, and mostly Effie Trinket, to make \u201cSunrise on the Reaping\u201d feel as \u201cHunger Games\u201d-like as possible instead of letting the novel develop its own identity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Effie Trinket shows up, \u201cSunrise on the Reaping\u201d begins to feel like fanfiction. The novel succumbs to prequel syndrome, trying to offer as many explanations about the original trilogy as possible while not introducing much that is new.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSunrise on the Reaping\u201d fleshes out Katniss\u2019s parents, depicting them as teenagers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the names of Katniss\u2019s parents are well-chosen, them being Haymitch\u2019s friends, especially Katniss\u2019s father, only makes sense when considering that District 12 is small.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In \u201cCatching Fire,\u201d Haymitch\u2019s girl is mentioned, and in \u201cSunrise on the Reaping,\u201d she is given the name Lenore Dove.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lenore Dove is a rebellious Covey girl, which makes her seem too similar to Lucy Gray Baird from the first \u201cHunger Games\u201d prequel, \u201cA Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.\u201d\u00a0 This similarity makes it seem as if Lenore Dove was created by an author other than Suzanne Collins, who usually makes unique characters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some people thought telling Haymitch\u2019s story, which readers have already read about in \u201cCatching Fire,\u201d was redundant. To those readers, \u201cSunrise on the Reaping\u201d feeling like a fanfiction is inevitable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regardless of the flaws of \u201cSunrise on the Reaping,\u201d Suzanne Collins puts heartbreaking emotion and relevant political commentary into the new \u201cHunger Games\u201d book, making it a pleasure to read.\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t Post Views: 19 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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Written by: Rebecca Poltorak<\/a> on October 21, 2025.
Last revised by: Alisha Durosier<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy of IMDb By Rebecca Poltorak Normally, there would be a spoiler warning on a book review;…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-14929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}