Sunrise On The Reaping - Tumblr Posts

Maybe we’ll meet Katniss’ father in this new book?

what's next? will the hunger games become an annual event now? like actually...

I've been waiting a long time to make this post but it was difficult to put it in words. that's why I couldn't post it when the hype was at it's peak.

I kinda have mixed feelings about the upcoming haymitch book. like, yes I know its going to be great and I'll probably buy it and read it and gush over how brilliant it is as soon as it comes out but i also feel like i could've done without it. like the hunger games is supposed to make a point against capitalism and dictatorship. we're supposed to be disgusted by how the capitol consumes so much resources only for pleasure and entertainment while the rest of the world burns. It's a commentary about how the world goes blind when children are dying. In fact the reason why these stories are so beloved is because it draws parallels to our real world and it's about bringing a change in a world of dictatorship to a world of democracy.

So now, with these more and more books and movies coming out and us consuming it, hollywood makes even more money and the us government keeps funding israel with their taxes. they keep killing children just like they do in the books. what kind of paradox am I living in?

I am being sold a story about how wrong doing all of this is, yet the story itself is being used to do that very thing. The reason why fiction is so beloved is because it is a way of growing wisdom and critiquing reality because its's a shadow of it. But it doesn't feel like that anymore. The wall between fiction and reality has been broken.

we too, the hunger games fandom are being led to capitalism.

I can’t believe this is how I found out about this but either way I’m hyped. I’ve been wanting this exact book since I was 14.

A NEW Hunger Games novel by Suzanne Collins coming March 18, 2025! Sunrise on the Reaping will revisit the world of Panem twenty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Fiftieth Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.

I’m seated. The theater employees are scared and asking me to leave because the book is not even out yet much less the movie but I’m simply too seated

So, the main opinions that I've been seeing about sunrise on the reaping are that it will either be narrated by Haymitch, a different tribute, or a capitol citizen, but I think that if it centers around propaganda, there's a chance it could actually be about a gamemaker.

Hear me out: by showing us a gamemaker, we would get the perspective of someone new, we would be able to see the duality between the arena and the capitol, and, since it centres around propaganda, we would see how the capitol changed the narrative of the game and showed it to the capitol

So I’ve been thinking about Sunrise on the Reaping, how it’s gonna play out. You know what would be really depressing?

Haymitch Abernathy, “first” victor from District 12. Winner of the fiftieth Hunger Games and the second Quarter Quell. A poor boy from the Seam who defeated twice the number of tributes. The unlikely champion.

He’d used the Capitol’s arena against itself. He endured extreme pain and injury. He had to witness his beloved Maysilee die right before his eyes. Watched as an ax cut through a girl’s head. Remember the countless young lives he took. The horrors that could have driven him to insanity.

After being announced as the victor and being taken from the arena, he received medical attention before having to sit through countless interviews being watched by everyone in Panem. Haymitch put on a smile, saying exactly what the Capitol wanted him to. The entire time he hid his emotions, not letting anyone see through him.

All Haymitch wanted was to go home. To see his family. He caught a glimpse of them waving and cheering as he stood before the District, but the Peacekeepers wouldn’t let him go to them. His mother, who he could always confide in. His father, who never expected him to say anything but would always listen. His siblings, who he could open up to and show his weaknesses to without being judged. His pet, because he found that being around animals was healing.

He was finally allowed to return to his little home on the edge of the Seam, facing the woods. This was where he grew up. He knew the house to be noisy and warm with fire from the coals harvested by his own father. Haymitch was impatient to step through the door and be greeted by his family, surely proud of him.

But something was different.

Silence. The house was cold, empty, and dark. There was no sign of struggle; all the furniture was standing up, but nothing seemed to be in its normal place. An uncut loaf of bread rested on the kitchen countertop. Everything was clean and perfect. Perfect, except for the lingering smell of blood. Haymitch immediately dropped his things, his victor’s crown clattering to the floor. He felt tears streaming down his face. He took a step forward.

Lying on the dining room table was an ax, and a glass vase holding a singular white rose.

Yeah I write sometimes. Haymitch is my favorite character so obviously I’m going to dump more trauma than necessary on him. It’s how I show affection 🫶

I am not exaggerating when I tell you I screamed and immediately started working on fanart when I heard Sunrise on the Reaping was coming out, I’ve been waiting for this for idfk 4 years?? Which isn’t very long but I’m quite impatient

The drawings above were made by me :D there’s the full picture, then a close up of the rose + ax and another of Haymitch. Woody did an amazing job as Haymitch but my heart belongs to the book accurate POC version of him ☺️ I suggest clicking on the images to see them better

Sorry if everything looks weird :/ I’m not used to drawing stuff like this

*throws book accurate Haymitch at you* whoops

lol

The only thing I know about sunrise on the reaping is that someone is out there getting pregnant with the zygote that will become Finnick Odair and personally I think that's beautiful

the hunger games: sunrise on the reaping fancast → tom glynn carney as movie! young haymitch abernathy

“We'd live longer with two of us.”

“Guess you just proved that,” says Haymitch, rubbing his neck.

“Allies?” Maysilee nods.

And there they are, instantly drawn into one of those pacts you'd be hard-pressed to break if you ever expect to go home and face your district. / Catching Fire, chapter 14

Suzanne Collins was really pissed when she saw all those edits of Snow as ‘daddy’ and whatever other bullshit after the TBOSAS movie, sat down at her laptop again and started typing “let’s see if you get the message now when HE KILLS 47 CHILDREN”

..... babe, wake up.. new book just got announced. *pokes with stick* w a k e u p y o u d e a d f u c k s we're getting a Haymitch prequel

today's vibe

the way i missed the sunrise on the reaping announcement purely because i was writing fanfiction about haymitch is so…

I’ve already seen a couple people say that we already know Haymitch’s games from CF.

I disagree. We know the Capitol version of Haymitch’s games.

I know we don’t 100% know who’s POV this book is going to be from yet but a dive into our ‘Mitch’s head? His thoughts and feelings and the /real/ version of his games. The aftermath of his mama, brother and girl being killed? I just. Haymitch guys. Haymitch.

I’m also really excited to see where Suzanne goes with the social commentary on this one because she’s an incredible author and I love her.

i always imagined it would involve a lot of district infighting, and turning the masses against each other.

at first, districts 1 and 2 just so happened to win more often as they were better-off; however, this was when not many people actually watched the games.

by the time most people did watch, the career districts had already established an advantage. there was the invention of victors' village (with actual inhabitants for 1 and 2), and training programmes (created by the districts, not the capitol!)

for this reason, the fear-factor would have dissipated for many in 1 & 2 and their desensitisation could give way to brain-washing.

especially if they were unaware of life in the lower districts, i imagine there was maybe some kind of propagandised rhetoric of "if districts 5-12 want to win more, they should develop better training programmes! that's what we did and dictator president snow rewards us! see, the meritocracy does exist!"

this would also make suzanne collins' commentary on capitalism AND haymitch's "remember who the real enemy is" even more poignant, imo

currently thinking about what what kind of brainwashing the Capitol must've done in order to turn the most rebellious districts (1 and 2) like we've seen in tbosas, into the capitol's lapdogs we see in the original trilogy.

The new Hunger Games novel is called “Sunrise on the Reaping”

And Peeta’s favorite color is “orange like the sunset.”

Haymitch is the beginning of the end. The dawning of change. Without him going first Katniss (and Peeta) wouldn’t have made it out.

Lucy Gray was forgotten, like a dream.

Peeta and Katniss are the sunset of the Games. And afterwards they are safe and can close their eyes. And when again they open, their children will grow up in a safe and warm world.

Haymitch is in the middle. I’ve connected the dots.

if suzanne was inspired by humes... and propaganda's effect on the masses...

do you think we could get a perspective of a career districts??? the people who propaganda has impacted the most???

because. i. would. eat. that. up.

every new prequel that describes the horrors of the games that so many endured and lost their lives over it just makes katniss and peeta’s happy ending so much more meaningful like what they went through was awful but the fact that they made it out together and that haymitch finally managed not to save one but two tributes that he gets to see grow and make a family and bond after all the they have been through is just really special to me

I know I won’t get it- but I want Sunrise on the Reaping to be about Effie Trinket- it would be such a good book!!! All we really know is that the book starts on the 50th reaping and that it’s a look at propaganda. We also know our girl Suzanne only writes when she has something to say- and what better time to make the Effie Trinket Point than now?

Don’t get me wrong- I love to read the fanfics of Effie being disenfranchised from the top of the first book and helping the rebels every step of the way- I live for it- but I also don’t think it’s reality for the canon. Effie Trinket is a character with grey morality at best in the first book. No she’s not organising the games, or planning them, she’s not the iron fist that forces the children to comply nor is she the driving force behind the tradition- hell if she didn’t do it someone else would, right? But she picks the names. She chooses to be close to it. She isn’t as horrified as she should be

SHE. IS. COMPLICIT.

But if you asked her- if you sat her down and said heart of hearts, do you care about these children? She would say yes. She has a complete mental disconnect between the harm she is causing and the compassion she feels for the people being harmed. This is a direct comparison to the modern approach to harm. Just look at Palestine.

I also don’t believe Effie saw anything wrong with the games until one very specific moment. She looked at the glass ball at the 75th reaping and saw a single piece of paper, and she thought ‘this isn’t chance. This isn’t a game. This is a choice and I don’t want to pick up that slip of paper’. I whole heartedly believe it took an emotional closeness to the person being harmed to make her realise all those people were just the same as her- EXACTLY LIKE WE DO IN THE WEST.

Further details under the cut. TW for death, implied SA and pregnancy loss.

So the book starts with the 50th reaping- Effie is between 6 and 16 depending on how old you think she is. I personally think she’s about 8-10. I also think this is the first games where she’s really gotten involved in and is interested in the whole thing from start to finish. She watches the reapings and is absolutely enraptured with Haymitch from the moment he gets on stage- full on little girl crush mode. She follows the whole game and is so happy when he wins. This is the summer she decides she wants to work in the games. She follows the games every summer, gets a glamorous games job in the Capitol when she graduates (I think she went to uni tbh our girl is smart) and then became an escort.

When she’s offered 12 she’s annoyed- after all she’s the darling of the games circuit and she’s put her time in- but 12 is the only job going and if she wants the promotion she needs to take it. She thinks fondly of Haymitch’s games though. She no longer has her little girl crush on him, but she assumes the drunkenness must be an act for the Capitol, some kind of play. When she gets to 12 she realises it’s not. She sees how broken he is. She sees that this destroyed him and she just… doesn’t get it. She develops a fondness for him, still completely believing in the games, and they work together happily enough as far as she’s concerned. She starts dragging him out of bed and shoving him into nice clothes to make the district look good at first, but then she does it because she thinks it might be the only time he has anyone making sure he looks after himself. She is genuinely sad when their tributes die every year. She cries in her room at night after they go, and Haymitch can hear her through the wall when he’s sober enough.

Then the 74th happen. She loves Katniss and Peeta- I fully believe that. She likes them from the beginning, she agrees they have a chance, and when she’s not trying for sponsors, her and Haymitch sit in silence in the penthouse, watching and watching and watching. She grips his hand tightly for hours at a time, eyes almost unblinking and fixed on the screen, knees drawn up to her chest. It’s the first time he sees her as human, and she almost breaks his knuckles during the finale with the mutts. The moment they win, she lets out a breath she didn’t realise she was holding and went to celebrate her first victors. She deliberately turned her face away from the horror because it was easier to not feel the breadth of it. She does exactly what we did to Ukraine. What we continue to do to Palestine.

To be completely clear- she still thinks the games are right through all of this. When she comes back for the victory tour she still thinks this is all fantastic. That mental disconnect is still there. But then eleven happens. If I’m remembering right she gets blood on her and is freaking out about her dress but I would like to see that from her side. I want to see that an innocent man was shot through the head so close to her, his blood and brains splattered across her dress and her skin. I want to see her freak out and everyone assume it’s about the dress but it’s actually about the fact she saw the light leave his eyes. This is the night she goes to Haymitch. She asks him for a drink and she asks him if he thought the man felt it. He isn’t kind to her. He asks her if she ever wondered if the kids felt it? If he felt it? This is the first time they sleep together. She doesn’t spend the night in his cabin. Their physical relationship continues but nothing else changes.

Then the quarter quell- she’s upset when Snow announces the rules. She feels hard done by but also scared for Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch. She understands that she’s avoiding the issue in her mind but she clings to the idea that the games are good so she doesn’t have to face up to the horror she helped meter out. It’s that glass reaping ball that does it. That glass ball with a single slip of paper in that breaks the back of her indoctrination. It all falls on top of her all at once. Her sobs after the bloodbath, alone in her room, the desperation she felt, not just for Katniss and Peeta to live, but for her to not have to watch them die, the man in eleven, the quarter quell, Hatmitch’s sharp words, the drink she craved after she saw it, the smile she plastered on, Haymitch’s hand gripped tightly in hers, the most genuine connection she’s felt in years and oh god are you supposed to be this fucking tired when you’re only 35? She looks at that paper and she is almost incandescent with rage. She loves Katniss and she doesn’t want to be the one who says her name. She doesn’t want to do this anymore. She doesn’t want this life. She doesn’t want the games to happen at all. She’s done.

But now she’s afraid. She’s seen avoxes, she knows what happens to rebels and she’s not quite brave enough to say anything to Haymitch other than veiled comments. She’s not sure he agrees with her and he’s not sure it wasn’t an accidental turn of phrase. The moment the arena blows out she’s dragged away in handcuffs. The prison is harrowing. What little hair she has is shaved off and she spends hours having questions thrown at her that she doesn’t have the answers to. She’s beaten, electrocuted and starved. Her bones are broken, they pull a few of her teeth out and some of the things they do are so awful she can’t even bring herself to think about it inside her own head. She doesn’t feel brave. She doesn’t have the answers to give them and she’s not sure she wouldn’t tell them if she did. She’s too Capitol for the rebels and too district for the Capitol. She’s not rescued, she’s released at the end of the war. Well, ‘released’ is a strong word. The guards unlock all the doors and tell them they have been pardoned and then walk out. She drags herself outside, clutching the walls and collapses in the courtyard as a humanitarian aid worker rushes over.

She spends the first tumultuous month sedated in a hospital bed, blissfully unaware of Coin’s assassination and the last games. When she comes to, Haymitch is sat at her bedside, looking haggard and tired. She looks better than she did on the floor of the courtyard, but not by much. When he sees her open her eyes he smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. He apologises for not managing to get her out. She knows she should be cross with him, but she can’t find the energy to blame him. They’ve both wasted so much time already. She pushes herself up shakily and wraps her atrophied arms around his neck, telling him that it doesn’t matter, that he’s here now. When he lowers her back down, she asks immediately after Katniss and Peeta. He tells her what happened in as painless terms as he can find, and when he’s done, she can barely keep her eyes open, tears tracking silently down her hollowed cheeks. He gently kisses her on the forehead and says he’ll be back tomorrow. It takes her a long, long time to recover.

She finds out the rest of what happened while she was imprisoned and hospitalised in dribs and drabs. Some from him, some from news, some from conversations she overhears. It takes months and months before she tells him, in halting sentences, when happened in the prison. She doesn’t tell him everything. Some things are too awful to know. They’ve not resumed their physical relationship, but they feel inexplicably drawn to one another, and in a fit of impulsivity, he invites her to come to 12 when he leaves and she does. He doesn’t ask a lot of questions, but she does tell him, eventually, all the things that led to her renouncing the games just before the rebellion. He admits to her the doctor told him she was pregnant when they found her, but miscarried while she was asleep. She can’t get out of bed for days afterwards and he brings her food and water until she’s ready to get up again. She’s glad he knows in a way. She’s glad she never had to tell him.

The next summer rolls around, and Effie is finally well enough to walk up to the woods outside the district and spends all day picking wildflowers. She ties them into attractive arrangements just like her mother taught her, using brown string instead of satin ribbons. Haymitch is in the newly built square when she arrives with her flowers. She lays them all gently on the ground, one for each child she reaped, including Prim. Haymitch walks over to her as she bows her head, slipping her hand into his. She says she’s sorry, he says ‘I know sweetheart’ and the book ends there

I know we aren’t going to get this, it’s not even a possibility but a girl can dream.