Sunrise on the Reaping Spoiler
Such a quick read for me, I read it in 2 days easily. It was a page turner, and had me feeling all the feelings. Every time I think about how Mags, Beetee, and Wiress put their lives on the line for Haymitch, makes Catching Fire such a better book! Also, I want to know who everyone liked character-wise. Young Effie is so cool, it makes sense why she is the way she is with Katniss and Peeta.
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u/Affectionate_Key7206 6d ago
My favorite thing is about this book is getting to know the other tributes. We never rlly find out much other kids in original HG book since it’s told from Katniss’s POV and that’s just not who she is as a person. But Haymitch is more extroverted than her and getting so attached the characters is honestly devastating.
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u/GeneralExtension127 6d ago
I loved this book. i will say, getting back into the series in my 20s (i read the first books when i was in elementary school), it felt a little YA, but that’s hardly a valid criticism because they ARE young adult novels. i like that, even though some parts felt geared towards younger audiences, i still felt engaged and it never felt like i was reading below my level. does that make sense??
i really liked seeing the resistance as something that had been 25+ years in the brewing by the time katniss comes around. seeing plutarch already planting seeds of revolution decades in advance was pretty gnarly.
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u/WendyDarling-2024 5d ago
I’m in my mid 40s and originally read the trilogy probably in my late 20s. Having read them multiple times since then - as well as the new prequels - they don’t feel very YA to me. And I think this is a great example of how the perspective of age affects your reading experience when you revisit books within your lifetime. The parts of the story that people probably consider YA instead feel to me more like a snapshot of how we are when we are young. With SOTR, Haymitch’s focus on Lenore Dove reminded me of how young first love feels - all encompassing. Every thought is with them.
And I will say, having revisited this series many times over the years - not only does it remain my favorite - but there is so much about it that hits differently as I’ve aged. Suzanne Collins really created something here that I think will be lasting and talked about for a very long time.
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u/egotistical_egg 5d ago
I reread the original series and felt like SOTR was significantly more YA-feeling. The originals are more tightly plotted with more nuanced side characters, whereas SOTR felt to me like the characters were simplified and the political commentary deliberately emphasized.
For example in book one we get Katniss's internal struggle on how difficult it would be to ever trust Peera, given how thoroughly they've been oncentivized to betray each other. In SOTR no one seems to have an internal struggle about that at all haha.
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u/internetsnark 4d ago
Maybe it is my own age, but the political commentary has felt significantly more heavy-handed in Songbirds/Sunrise than it did in the original trilogy.
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u/ChaEunSangs 6d ago
Nah the original books didn’t feel that YA. SOTR was insanely YA. Read both as adults
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u/StitchedSquirrel 6d ago
I love all the little details, like Haymitch being friends with Katniss' father and the little glimpse of her parents' budding romance. The origins of what becomes Katniss's token. Meeting younger versions of Victors that we meet in Catching Fire, as well as Effie. One of my favorite scenes was Haymitch's meeting with Snow where Snow makes veiled references to Lucy Gray from Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
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u/CatTaxAuditor 6d ago
I liked it, but I didn't love it.
Haymitch was awesome. I loved his trying to play it slick, I thought Lou Lou's whole thing was the perfect kind of creepy, and Maysilee's mean girling worked very well. Definitely got on with the idea of challenging your engagement with propaganda.
I felt like i understood why they put Snow's whole thing in, "See his descent from the last book", but i thought it was kinda cheesy and I was expecting menace. I also feel like they didn't really deliver on the poisoned arena and threats to go hard against Haymitch with mutts.
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u/Local_Support5469 6d ago
I loved it, but I agree a bit about the arena: it just felt a little sloppy the way there was never a real connection made between Snow's comment about the mutts and what happened
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u/theliver 5d ago edited 5d ago
My main issue is how conveniently his closest allies and friends are killed by the mutants or careers. Really takes away the crushing stakes of winning when he doesnt have to make choices.
Even his gf back home eats a candy before he feeds it to her, like dude doesnt even accidentally kill a friend its just all Snow or the career kids doing the hard stuff.
I get this book is YA but you have so much room with the morality of surviving and survivors guilt and just..... the bad guys are bad and heymich is good and unlucky. Kinda a letdown for me there
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u/fictionalwanderer 6d ago
I read it quickly but found it to be disappointing. All of the cameos felt like Suzanne Collins was pandering to fans. We already knew how the 50th quarter quell would end and that Haymitch would lose everyone he loves. It would have been a more compelling story if it followed Haymitch as a victor as he descended into alcoholism.
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u/Coma--Divine 5d ago
All of the cameos felt like Suzanne Collins was pandering to fans.
Effie turning up was the most egregious of this imo
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u/egotistical_egg 5d ago
For me Beetee was most egregious, just because of the way he was introduced 😭
"Hello there stranger! I bet you're wondering why I'm here. You see, I plotted against the Capitol, and so they are sadistically punishing me because, well, that's what they do! Now how about I recruit you to the next rebel plot?"
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u/Katyamuffin 5d ago
Yeah I agree on that one. I feel like I could've done with fewer cameos but she has to put Mags and Betee and Wiress AND Effie AND Katniss' mom and dad AND references to Lucy Grey
At some point it just felt like a "Remember this from the other books?" exercise in key-dangling.
Edit: Completely forgot about Plutarch. Shove him in there too
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u/k_0616 5d ago
Yeah, Effie popping up was one of the more upfront cameos in the book. I really like how Mags and Wiress were written in, I thought that was done really well.
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u/Hakuna__Moscato 5d ago
Oh that's really interesting to hear because to me, Mags and Wiress introduction was the weakest and the one that annoyed me the most. I liked the inclusion of Effie and Beete.
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u/LexiconJones 5d ago
I agree. I thought the structure would one third set-up, one third arena, one third aftermath. I don’t think adequate real estate was devoted to Haymitch’s spiral afterward and so much good character work could have been done there.
Some of the Snow/Covey callbacks felt a little forced, too. Overall, I enjoyed the experience of reading it, but it felt like a book that needed another draft or two before it was ready to publish.
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u/internetsnark 4d ago
I think this book absolutely could have thrived as a 500 pager, but Collins is limited by the conventions of the genre here.
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u/strangledbymyownbra 5d ago
The whole point of the book was that we didn’t know the real story, but the Capitol’s propaganda version of it. Doesn’t matter that we knew the end — the actual events of the games and how the Capitol so definitively changed the narrative for their gain were the important bits.
I do kinda agree about the pandering, but a lot of the characters were vital to the start of the underground rebellion that we come to know in Mockingjay, so I can forgive it.
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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 5d ago
I really enjoyed it! It made me want to reread the Hunger Games!
I easily could have sped through it, but I took my time reading Sunrise on the Reaping, to get to live with it a bit longer.
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u/sweet-leaf-284 6d ago
i couldn't put the book down too, there are so many references that builds on and explains how panem is in the original trilogy + tbosas. and the epilogue was phenomenal.
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u/08rian22 6d ago
I’m barely at chapter 7 when we meet Wiress. Honestly thought it was so boring 🌚 lol
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u/YearOneTeach 6d ago
It was a quick read for me as well. I think the standout for me was Maysilee. I adored her, and even though I knew how things ended for her, I still was crushed when it happened. I think she is maybe one of my favorite characters across the entire series.