Suzanne Collins has done it once again with the fifth installment to the “Hunger Games” series. If you believed that you knew everything there was to know about this dystopian universe, you were sorely mistaken.  

The Hunger Games world is dissected piece by piece and shown in a completely different light. This book the puzzle piece you didn’t even know was missing.  

“Sunrise on the Reaping” is exactly what I wanted and more—a devastating, heart-wrenching deep dive into Haymitch Abernathy’s past. It is not only a book about survival, but also a book about love, hope, grief and war.  

Collins immerses us in political tension and the dark void that is Panem. It will leave you questioning everything. 

When we first meet Haymitch in the original book, he is portrayed to be the town alcoholic who happens also to be the only known and alive District 12 victor, leaving him to be Katniss’ and Peeta’s mentor, as well as previously mentoring all the tributes that came before them.  

However, SOTR opens a whole new world to the hopeful 16-year-old boy he once was, before his whole world was turned upside down from one day to the next.  

With this being Collins’s second prequel, she set herself up for a major challenge, as the first prequel, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” tells an amazingly compelling story of the early years of none other than Panem’s president, Coriolanus Snow.  

Collins had us sympathizing with Snow in the first prequel, but with SOTR she showed us that we should have never sympathized with him in the first place. 

While that story itself was built from basically scratch, Collins had to build up a story for SOTR around the information we already knew about Haymitch.  

In expanding his story, Collins gives us all the gut-wrenching details from his point of view. She paints the story to show how easy it was for the people of Panem to fall for the propaganda, and even we as the readers fell for it too.  

The book begins 50 years after the failed rebellion against the Capitol, on reaping day in District 12, just like the original story. However, this day also happens to be Haymitch’s 16th birthday.  

Haymitch is a hard-working, hopeful and loving boy who wants nothing more than to protect his ma and little brother, Sid. He also dreams of building the best life with his love, Lenore Dove.  

He hopes to avoid this year’s reaping, as do all the kids in District 12, but it just so happens that this year is the second Quarter Quell.  

Twice as many tributes will be sent into the arena to fight to their deaths. It is just his luck that he is one of the tributes that might be destined to die at the hands of the Capitol.  

Leaving behind everything and everyone he knows, the story follows his journey of arriving at the Capitol and getting prepared mentally and physically to fight for his life, once he is thrown into the arena with 47 other tributes.  

Throughout the book, we are reintroduced to some familiar faces, but this time, Collins gives more backstory to each character. We even get references to the other books, and it feels like something we were missing the whole time, each piece falling into place to paint out an even bigger story.  

Collins does not spare us any details; she gives us everything we could have wanted and more. She gave every gruesome detail possible that will have your heart racing.  

While this book will most likely have you in tears, we can not help but also appreciate the lightheartedness of some of the characters we are introduced to.  

Haymitch’s own District 12 partners—Louella McCoy, Maysilee Donner, and Wyatt Callow—are difficult not to love even after knowing what their fate will be. 

There is nothing more I could write that would do it justice, but “Sunrise on the Reaping” is, in my opinion, Collins’s best work yet. 

 The poetry, the songs, the storyline, the characters—there is nothing not to like about this novel.