It’s the 50th year of the Panem’s Hunger Games: a battle-to-the-death contest designed to teach the masses that treason against the Capital comes at a huge price. And 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy is the tribute who’ll represent District 12.
It’s the 50th year of the Panem’s Hunger Games: a battle-to-the-death contest designed to teach the masses that treason against the Capital comes at a huge price. And 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy is the tribute who’ll represent District 12.
It’s the Quarter Quell, an important time in Panem’s history.
In fact, this particular year marks the second Quarter Quell, or the 50-year mark since Panem’s great war. And that, of course, means that the Capitol will make this year’s “celebration” particularly, uh, poignant for the country’s poor and struggling districts.
To drive home the point that rebellion against the ruling class comes with a terrible price, the Capitol of Panem annually forces each of the nation’s 12 districts to participate in a fierce competition. Young conscripts from all of those areas are pitted against one another in a televised fight to the death. Those death matches are called the Hunger Games.
In honor of the Quarter Quell, there will be four names—two girls and two boys—chosen instead of the normal draw of two from each district. That means 48 children will take up arms, battle, scream and bleed in a vast mechanized arena.
Sixteen-year-old Haymitch Abernathy is one of them.
Ironically, he wasn’t supposed to be among the participants. His name was never called. In fact, another teen by the name of Woodbine Chance was the second boy called during the public reaping ceremony for District 12.
But Woodbine ran. And the Peacekeepers loosed a shot that blew out the back of his head.
Haymitch only got involved because his beloved Lenore Dove ran over to calm Woodbine’s frantic ma. The Peacekeepers were about to pummel Lenore with their rifle stocks and Haymitch ran to stop her from being terribly hurt. And in a blink of an eye, not only is Haymitch beaten down, but it’s decided that he will take Woodbine Chance’s place.
The rest of the televised reaping is a blur.
Haymitch barely got to say goodbye to his sad-eyed mother and weeping kid brother. He only caught a glimpse of Lenore in the crowd mouthing the words, I love you like all-fire. That was the phrase they said to each other when they had a moment alone.
But before he could tell his love of his passion, he’s shuffled out with the three other young tributes. The kids are tugged this way and that and eventually tossed into a railroad car. The sky darkens, a storm breaks. And as hail clatters against the window, the train begins its trek to the Capital.
Haymitch moves to the window, staring at the grimy, coaldust covered images of his passing home. And that’s when he sees Lenore Dove.
She’s up on a ridge, her red dress plastered to her body. As the train passes, she tilts her head back and wails her loss and rage to the wind. And with her, Haymitch’s heart shatters.
As the train rattles on and Lenore fades from sight, Haymitch stumbles back. He can only imagine what his loved ones who depended on him will do now, and what other agonies this celebrated Quarter Quell has in store.
None.
This story examines themes of political manipulation and the public’s struggle against oppression.
At the same time, Sunrise on the Reaping looks at how we live our lives through a series of small choices. And it states that those choices, good and bad, shape us. And even amid Haymitch’s tragic tale, his unexpected friendships and self-sacrifice give him the most rewarding moments.
Most of the adults we meet are either district parents badly scarred by a very hard life or those corrupted by the excess and gluttony of the Capital. The Hunger Games were designed, for instance, as a warning and brutal reproof to the districts that rose against the Capital in the past. But the Capital residents tend to watch them as extreme “entertainment.” The gruesome deaths then become a release from their existential boredom.
Many of the Hunger Games officials and Peacekeepers look at the tributes through a very heartless and dispassionate lens. (Though a few are more compassionate and helpful.) President Snow, however, is a cruel and vindictive individual who, it becomes clear, has tributes murdered in-game when they displease him or make the Capital look bad. He also has family members and loved ones of tributes killed to prove his iron control.
Wyatt is a fellow tribute from District 12. And he comes from a family of gamblers who gather and lay wagers on the lives of the Hunger Games participants.
Haymitch’s mom is a loving mother who labors constantly to care for her two boys. Her husband died years before in a mining accident.
A father from another district, whose son has been drafted into the games as a form of punishment, reaches out to Haymitch. And the three of them work together on a plot to impact the game’s outcome.
People associated with the Capital sometimes smoke and drink. Before the reaping, we see Haymitch working with a woman who uses a still to create the equivalent of moonshine for the locals. She gives him a bottle of it for his birthday that he sells to a shop keeper. When Haymitch participates in the Capital’s parade of tributes, he notes that “the crowd looks drunk to a person.”
After the accidental death of a female tribute, the Capital substitutes in a heavily drugged young girl who looks like her. A man is said to be addicted to licking reptiles that excrete hallucinogenic substances. People drink a tonic and munch charcoal tablets after consuming poison.
Later in the story, a badly injured Haymitch substitutes alcohol for his pain-numbing drugs. We see him quickly become a constantly drinking alcoholic.
Violence against children and teens is at the center of the Hunger Games. The participating tributes are all between the age of 12 to 18. And we’re introduced to many who later die.
There are 48 tributes in total; and as they die, their names are announced at the end of each day. We don’t witness all of them perish, but we do see quite a few killed in bloody ways.
For instance, a young boy is swarmed by a huge scurry of squirrels that rip the flesh from his bones, leaving a skeleton behind. Teens are attacked by bats with razor-sharp claws; dive-bombing birds with long bills; a flood of ladybugs that suck up a victim’s blood and then burst; and butterflies that stun victims with a taser-like zap. People die from consuming poisoned candy, fruit and water.
Youth are scarred and killed by volcanic lava. We also see the debilitating agony of starvation. And there are also deadly battles between the teens themselves.
Someone chops off a young girl’s head and holds the bloody results up. Teens slash at each other with hatchets, knives, tridents and a sword. They’re stabbed in the torso, neck and legs. After one battle someone struggles to keep his intestines held inside. Kids are killed with poison blow darts.
A volcano erupts. And an enormous tank of water explodes and floods an area.
Haymitch and Lenore kiss passionately. And it’s implied that they’ve been far more intimate in the past. A young person’s uncle is said to be gay.
There’s a lot of violence against young people in this book. What did you think about that? Are there ways that stories can use violence to make a social, emotional or ethical point? What points did you think this story was trying to convey?
Sunrise on the Reaping also says a lot about the power of government and what happens when that government crosses an ethical line. What can we do when we think government has crossed a line?
The book also raises questions about finding common ground with others and discovering unexpected friendships. Have you ever become friends with someone you didn’t think you’d like? What was the key to making that happen?
How do we make choices that shape us into better people? What are the guiding principles you use?
This fifth book in the Hunger Games series compellingly bridges the gap between 2020’s The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and the original trilogy. It fills in quite a bit of character history while focusing on the dangers of governmental tyranny.
The story praises bravery and the need for friendship and self-sacrifice in the face of such tyranny.
Parents of younger readers should note, however, that many of this story’s tween and teen characters die in bloody and sometimes agonizing ways. And even in the throes of success, the protagonist is met with a tragic finale.
As with the other Hunger Games stories, this one is trying to make some serious points. But the path to those morals traverses some seriously violent territory.
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Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not necessarily their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
