Sunrise on the Reaping is a 2025 dystopian novel by Suzanne Collins, serving as the second prequel to her original Hunger Games trilogy.
Released on March 18, 2025, by Scholastic, the story unfolds 24 years before The Hunger Games, focusing on the 50th Hunger Games, better known as the Second Quarter Quell—the same Games that made Haymitch Abernathy a victor.
Collins dives deeper into the inner mechanics of Capitol propaganda, the manipulation of media, and the psychological burden of living under a dictatorship.
Background & Inspiration
Collins' creative spark for the novel came from the philosophical writings of David Hume, particularly his commentary on how societies can so easily submit to centralized power without protest.
The concept of questioning what’s real or fabricated, especially in the age of performance and state-run media, plays heavily into the themes of the book. That interrogation of perception vs. truth is one of the story's emotional backbones.
Plot Summary
The narrative picks up in District 12, where a 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy lives with his mother and younger brother, Sid. Their life is defined by poverty and silence—until the reaping of the Second Quarter Quell upends everything.
As part of this special iteration of the Games, each district must send twice the number of tributes—two boys, two girls. But when one tribute attempts an escape that ends in death, Capitol officials orchestrate a staged reaping to mask the chaos. Haymitch is chosen, not by fate, but by design.
Joining him from District 12 are Wyatt Callow, Maysilee Donner, and Louella McCoy. But tragedy strikes early—Louella dies during the Tribute Parade in a freak accident involving a horse-drawn chariot.
The Capitol quickly replaces her with a drugged double referred to publicly as “Lou Lou.” With no prior victors from District 12 to mentor them, the Capitol assigns two from other districts: Wiress from District 3, and the elderly yet cunning Mags from District 4.
Despite receiving a weak score during training, Haymitch crafts a reckless, roguish image that turns him into an unlikely favorite among Capitol sponsors. His strategy is chaotic, but calculated. Behind the scenes, former victor Beetee—whose own son Ampert is thrown into the Games as punishment—recruits Haymitch for a radical sabotage plan. The idea? Blow up the arena’s underground water system.
Haymitch’s goodbye call to his girlfriend, Lenore Dove, is bittersweet. He promises her—and perhaps himself—that he’ll survive. When the Games begin, Haymitch breaks away from most of the other districts, choosing instead to carry out the mission with Ampert. Their efforts unleash chaos: genetically engineered creatures known as mutts flood in, and Ampert is killed during the mayhem.
Alone, Haymitch briefly aligns with the Lou Lou double, who succumbs to poisonous pollen. He later joins forces with Maysilee, who saves him using a dart laced with toxins.
Together, they challenge the Games in a different way—by tracking down the perimeter of the arena, searching for its weak point. Along the way, they kill several Gamemakers, an unforgivable offense in Capitol eyes.
Their rebellion catches up with them. Maysilee dies trying to disable a generator, and Haymitch watches one tribute after another fall to mutts and environmental traps. In the final confrontation, Silka from District 1 inadvertently kills herself when her weapon rebounds off a hidden force field. Haymitch is injured while trying to destroy it and blacks out.
When he wakes up, he’s the victor—but barely. The Capitol edits the footage of the Games, erasing all traces of resistance and rebellion. Haymitch returns home only to find his house burned and his family murdered.
President Snow sends him a final, chilling message by poisoning Lenore Dove. She dies in Haymitch’s arms after whispering, “Don’t let it happen again. Don’t let them have another sunrise on the reaping.”
Emotionally broken, Haymitch isolates himself in Victor’s Village. He becomes the man we later meet in The Hunger Games—a survivor haunted by the cost of defiance. In the epilogue, set after Katniss and Peeta’s victory, Haymitch opens up about his past and tends to a nest of goose eggs in memory of Lenore.
Film Adaptation
A film version was greenlit on June 6, 2024, and is set to premiere on November 20, 2026. Francis Lawrence returns to direct, and Billy Ray, who penned the original trilogy’s screenplays, is writing once again.
Joseph Zada has been cast as Haymitch Abernathy, and Whitney Peak plays Lenore Dove Baird. According to Lionsgate, the novel sold over 1.2 million copies in its first week of release. Producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson return, with Cameron MacConomy attached as executive producer.
In classic Hunger Games fashion, casting focused on rising talents. Lionsgate executives stated that Zada and Peak stood out for their emotional range and raw chemistry—traits essential to portraying a love story doomed by revolution.