The Hunger Games took the world by storm when the first novel in the series was released in 2008. Its release sparked Gen Z’s love for dystopian novels and paved the way for the young adult dystopian genre in the 2010’s. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins follows the story of teen Katniss Everdeen living in a dystopian world where children are forced into a fight to the death in an arena filmed for the entire country of Panem to watch. We follow Katniss as she defies her role as a quiet follower and fights for her family and her nation against the evil traditions of President Snow’s rule. However, just because Katniss’s story ended, it does not mean that the Hunger Games are over. There are many stories to tell and many more revolutionaries to meet.
What We Know About Sunrise on the Reaping
After the prequel release that followed President Snow’s rise to power as a student and games mentee in 2020, Hunger Games fans were excited to receive news of a new prequel novel planned to be released in 2024. The fifth novel in the Hunger Games Series, Sunrise on the Reaping, comes out on March 18th, 2025, and is being sold in all major bookstores and many local bookstores. This new prequel novel follows the story of Haymitch Abernathy, who you may recognize as Katniss Everdeen’s mentor during her games and the fiftieth annual Hunger Games.
This new novel takes us back to District 12, where Haymitch is selected to participate in the Second Quarter Quell. He is torn from his family and his love and shuttled to the Capital with three other District 12 tributes. This year is unlike any other, as the game makers have many tricks up their sleeves for the tributes to fight against.
In this year’s annual Hunger Games, there will be double the amount of tributes, totaling 48 tributes. Not only are there more tributes, but the arena is one of the most deadly arenas in all Hunger Games history. The arena for the 50th Hunger Games arena has a golden Cornucopia, surrounded by a luscious forest, a snowcapped mountain, and a fiery volcano. Within this arena, everything in this arena is poisonous. Tributes must not sniff the flowers, eat the plants, or drink the water unless they want to meet a deadly fate. Along with these poisonous traps, the tributes had company waiting for them. The game makers made sure to include animal mutations that capture your imagination.
We will follow Haymitch before he meets Katniss and helps the revolution against Snow, instead seeing his fight in the arena that changed him forever. Sunrise on the Reaping will explore Haymitch’s origin story and show us who this beloved character was before his future was stolen from him. Haymitch Abernathy is one of the Hunger Games series’s most complex characters. Personally, I have been waiting for this novel to be released since ten years ago and I am so excited to get my hands on this novel. The novel will explore the sacrifices that survival demands, the courage to rebel, and the love that binds us together. Don’t miss the latest installment of the new Hunger Games Novel: Sunrise on the Reaping.