Sunrise On The Reaping by Suzanne Collins

I remember looking upon The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes with skepticism. Any Hunger Games prequel novels are bound to be disappointments. Not just because we know the ending, and the characters' fates are fixed. But since they all need to end BEFORE Katniss Everdeen takes down the Capitol, it's always gonna be an unsatisfying bummer ending.

She made it work with Songbirds And Snakes, as that was an origin story for President Snow, and his unhappy ending there satisfied the reader very much.

But detailing Haymitch Abernathy's victory in the second Quarter Quell and how he became the broken person he was? This wouldn't end well.

I was half-right. We'll get to those 2 pages soon. Honest.

I think it's interesting the book is told in the first person by Haymitch. Why? I've noticed this about a LOT of authors who use first person, and whether it's Judy Blume or Stephen King, the technique usually makes the narrator in question a full-on surrogate for the writer. Most of Blume and King's first person protagonists seem to speak with Blume and King's voice, and regardless of gender are usually variations on their own perspectives. Say what you will about this book, Haymitch's voice is entirely different that Katniss Everdeen's. And the differences are both stark and interesting.

To start off with the contrast between his normalcy at the beginning of the story and Katniss' weirdly defensive and insane behavior during the first 3 books says, yeah, Katniss wasn't operating under some sort of supernatural wisdom. She truly was that damaged the entire time. The events of this book damage Haymitch just as badly, but he starts off the book as a normal kid with a decent life (all things considered).

And some of the turns the book takes make Catching Fire and Mockingjay all the more rewarding in hindsight. Like Haymitch was on the ground floor of this rebellion from the start, even before Katniss was sent to the Games. He makes all sort of connections here, including with Beetee, Wiress, and Mags, and yes, Plutarch Heavensbee. Not sure if Plutarch can be entirely trusted at this stage of the game, but he's in it for the long haul, you know? I trust him more than Haymitch does.

I like that Haymitch likes Effie Trinket until she says the games are for the Greater Good. Yes, as much empathy as this character often reveals, she has always been this tactless and clueless.

But as the book goes on it throws ridiculous tragedy upon tragedy to Haymitch, and it all starts feeling a bit ridiculous, and at some point even unintentionally comical, especially with the later chapters leaning so heavily into Poe's The Raven. Each time the prose is interrupted for that poem I keep wishing Collins would focus on her own damn story. Ultimately, it seemed the inherent curse of doing a Hunger Games prequel was finally gonna backfire on Collins.

And then there is the 2 page Epilogue detailing events decades later, suggesting Haymitch HAS finally found a family in Katniss and Peeta Mellark, and they DID in fact stop the reaping after all. Is this a desperate move on Collins' end for satisfying closure in a premise where none is possible? I would think probably. Does it still work and make me forgive almost everything else? Yup.

If those last two pages didn't exist the book's grade would limp along to either 2 and half or 3 stars. I feel like I can give it 3 and half now. But the truth is it doesn't entirely work anyways. 3 1/2 stars.