This article contains spoilers for Sunrise on the Reaping.

Sunrise on the Reaping is the newest installment in the Hunger Games series and covers the 50th games, which is the one Haymitch Abernathy wins. Haymitch was first introduced as the alcoholic mentor of Katniss and Peeta in the original series, a broken man with a standoffish attitude. Throughout the series, Haymitch opens up more to them, revealing how the Capitol punished him by killing his family and girlfriend, while never losing his sarcastic persona. The audience also gets a glimpse into Haymitch’s past in Catching Fire when Katniss and Peeta rewatch old games, including his, and watch how he wins by using the arena’s force field to cause a tribute to be struck by her own axe. In this novel, the reader learns the details of Haymitch’s games and time in the Capitol, all embedded with a message about implicit submission and how media can be twisted.

The book starts when Haymitch is sixteen years old and introduces us to Haymitch’s loved ones, his mother and his brother, Sid, as well as his girlfriend, Lenore Dove. When the District 12 reaping occurs (which features four tributes per district instead of two due to it being a Quarter Quell), one of the male tributes attempts to escape and is killed. Lenore Dove goes against Peacekeeper orders following this, helping the dead tribute’s mother attempt to collect his body, and is about to be hit by one of their guns, when Haymitch intervenes. Due to this, Haymitch is chosen to be the dead tribute’s replacement, and the whole shooting scene is edited out of the broadcast and replaced with Haymitch’s faux reaping.

Once the tributes reach the Capitol to prepare for the games, things do not go according to plan. During the chariot parade, which presents the tributes to the public, the District 12 horses get spooked and run into another chariot, causing Louella McCoy, a District 12 tribute, to die. As Haymitch was very close to her, he decides to make a point to Snow and steals another chariot, riding it to the end of the parade route where President Snow awaits. Haymitch lays Louella’s corpse on the ground and applauds Snow, showing that he is the one behind her death as well as the games and the suffering of the districts.

Due to his show of resistance against the Capitol, Haymitch becomes involved in a conspiracy to ruin the game’s arena. The plan is to blow up a giant water tank that is located underneath it. While Haymitch manages to do so once within the games, it only causes the arena to minorly glitch instead of shutting down. Along with this failed plot, Haymitch witnesses the many deaths of his allies, and almost dies multiple times at the hands of other tributes, mutts, and the arena itself. These events further fuel Haymitch’s resentment towards the Capitol, as he experiences their cruelty first-hand.

Near the end of the games, Haymitch finds the end of the arena, where he discovers the force field acts like a boomerang. He lures the last surviving tribute here, after suffering extensive injuries from her, and she launches her axe at him, only for it to hit the forefield and ricochet back at her, striking her head and killing her. Haymitch expects that he will die as well and, in a final act of defiance, throws another explosive, which he obtained from Beetee’s son Ampert, at a generator protected by the force field. He hopes that this action will show his fury at the Capitol and that it will inspire others to fight back against their inhumanity.

Despite his acceptance of death, the Capitol manages to restore him back to health. This foils his plan, as he expected to die and that be his punishment for his rebellious actions. Instead, he lives, putting his loved ones in danger, so he tries really hard not to do or say anything against the Capitol so his family and love won’t face punishment for his actions. Although he succeeds at this, when he arrives back in District 12, he sees that his house is on fire. He learns that his mom and brother are trapped inside, and they die in the blaze, victims of Snow and his cruel retaliatory tactics. He then meets Lenore Dove and feeds her gumdrops, only to realize that they are poisoned by Snow. This causes Haymitch to be Lenore Dove’s killer, a heavy weight that he is forced to carry. These deaths serve as punishment for Haymitch’s rebellious actions in the arena and before. The tragedy hangs over him and makes him the alcoholic, bitter mentor we know in the original series.

As stated before, implicit submission is heavily covered in this book. It’s first addressed when the one male tribute runs away, attempting to escape the reaping. This contradicts readers’ perceived notion in the other books, that people let the reapings happen and accept their fate. Another example is through the character of Maysilee Donner. On the train ride to the Capitol, their escort, Drusilla, is exceptionally cruel, likening the tributes to pigs. Maysilee insults and slaps her, and as punishment, is whipped by Drusilla. Nevertheless, she doesn’t cry, refusing to give her oppressors a sense of control over her. Haymitch also shows a refusal to submit by displaying Louella’s dead body to Snow. When he is brought to Snow’s mansion as punishment, he furthers this rebellion by drinking a pitcher of milk instead of fetching it for the president, as he is supposed to. Finally, even when he was almost dead, his perceived last act was to throw a bomb at the arena’s force field, further showing his vitriol towards the Capitol. The reason that Haymitch works so hard to rebel is that he feels as if he has been implicit for much of his life. Despite being just a regular citizen, he thinks it is everyone’s duty to not let authoritarianism win and to fight back against it, no matter how small.

Propaganda is also an important part of this novel, especially how truth is bent to fit a certain narrative. What’s interesting about the propaganda discussed in this book is that it has effectively worked on the readers through the original series. This novel introduces multiple new events or situations that were previously unknown to readers. Firstly, readers in the original series are under the impression that this is the first rebellion against the Capitol since the Dark Days. However, as we learn in this book, people have been rebelling against the Capitol for much longer. Furthermore, we learn that not only reaped tributes are being put into the games. In cases where a tribute dies before being put into the games, such as Louella, a body double is stolen from a rebel family to replace the dead tribute and to put up the appearance of the games being perfectly planned. This adds complexity to the series, as almost any tribute could have secretly been another person.

Finally, an incredibly impactful scene that deserves to be touched upon occurs shortly after the tributes arrive in the Capitol. They are brought into the Academy’s old gym, and from there, the men and women are separated and taken to the showers where they are forced to strip. This scene alludes to the cruel treatment by the Nazis, when they would force prisoners to strip before they went into the gas chamber. It also adds to the book through paralleling how just like the prisoners were headed to the slaughter, so are the tributes.

Overall, this book is an incredibly relevant one with its messages of implicit submission and the dangers of propaganda. As always, Suzanne Collins manages to make a riveting, somehow realistic, examination of humanity wrapped up in a dystopian setting. As with all her books, she writes when she has something to say, and what she has to say is important.