Diving right into chapter 1, happy birthday Haymitch! We immediately meet Haymitch, the main character of the novel, and his ten-year-old younger brother, Sid. Their dynamic in their household immediately reminded me of Katniss and Prim. Sid is so adorable, and seeing their happy relationship genuinely made me smile. It was so weird seeing the difference between Haymitch’s personality between the Hunger Games and the Sunrise on the Reaping. He’s more kind, empathetic, and fiercely loyal to the ones he loves. While he shares those qualities in the original trilogy, they’re more suppressed and he becomes more apathetic due to how much he lost throughout his journey.

During the reaping ceremony at District 12, it was expected that Haymitch would have been one of the boys picked to participate, so when Woodbine Chance was the boy tribute following Wyatt Callow, I was surprised and curious to see how Collins was going to have Haymitch become a tribute. Haymitch and his girlfriend, Lenore Dove, were safe from the Games. There was no way that he was going to volunteer himself when his family and his girlfriend were waiting for him at home.

Another shock was that Wiress and Mags were the mentors for the Quarter Quell. I knew that District 12 had no prior mentors because Haymitch was Peeta and Katniss’ only mentor, but seeing two iconic characters pleasantly surprised me. It was great to see that Haymitch had a glimpse of knowledge from Lucy Gray’s Games (the 10th Hunger Games), since it meant that although Snow did his best to get rid of any traces of her, she still lingered throughout District 12.

Louella, Wyatt, Haymitch, and Maysilee are the District 12 tributes for the 50th Hunger Games:

Haymitch Abernathy is the victor of the 50th Hunger Games, and he was known for receiving a training score of 1 before the Games started because he called the Gamemakers out for being murderers due to the end of Louella’s life. 

Louella McCoy was a close friend of Haymitch, they got along very well and she was a few years younger than him. Haymitch always called her ‘sweetheart’ and seeing where that nickname for Katniss came from broke my heart. She unfortunately died during the chariot ceremony of the Games and was replaced by a body double, Lou Lou, to keep the number four for the Hunger Games.

Lou Lou was Louella’s body double who was a tortured District 11 girl from the Capitol. She looked exactly the same to Louella, to the point where it was uncanny. The rest of District 12’s tributes didn’t want to call her Louella as it felt unnatural. But since no one else knew her old name, she was dubbed ‘Lou Lou’ to prevent any confusion between the two. 

Wyatt Callow was the other boy tribute from District 12, and he was known for being the oddsmaker of the group. The oddsmaker was the person determined to figure out the odds of any event people were betting on. He died in the bloodbath of the Games while he was trying to shield Lou Lou, and although he was the oddsmaker of the tributes, he had the worst odds of anyone in the Games.

Maysilee Donner is the other female District 12 tribute, and she’s really feisty. She has a funny relationship with Drusilla, where they continue to make remarks at each other. Maysilee’s thing is her blowgun with darts, and she was one of the tributes who lasted the longest alongside Haymitch. 

So many past victors were present throughout Sunrise on the Reaping, and it was such a delight. Seeing so many references from the past books genuinely put a smile on my face and I couldn’t put down the book! I rate this book a 9/10 and I think everyone who’s a huge Hunger Games lover should go read Sunrise on the Reaping. Haymitch’s Games are unlike anyone else’s I’ve seen before and Suzanne Collins did a fantastic job at writing it.