The Short Version
Sunrise on the Reaping, Suzanne Collins’s 2025 prequel, follows sixteen-year-old Haymitch Abernathy into the fiftieth Hunger Games, the second Quarter Quell, twenty-four years before Katniss. Because every district sends twice as many tributes, forty-eight kids enter one arena. It is a strong club pick because it is about propaganda: how the Capitol edits reality, and what telling your own story can do against that.
Below are twenty questions: ten you can use before everyone has finished the book, and ten that spoil the ending. A short section on the film adaptation gives your group something to look forward to. Our review scores it four and a half out of five, but it leans on references to the original trilogy, so your group should have read The Hunger Games first.
Before You Start: Content Notes For Your Group
This is the darkest book in the series. It includes graphic violence against children, torture, grief and the death of family members. Check that your group is comfortable with that before you pick it.
Spoiler-Free Questions
- Haymitch lives in District Twelve with his mother, his little brother Sid and his girlfriend Lenore Dove. How does the book make you care about them before the Games begin?
- The reaping falls on Haymitch’s sixteenth birthday, and his name is not the one drawn. Did the scene in the town square surprise you as much as it did our reviewer?
- Haymitch is a cocky, loving, funny teenager here, not the cynical drunk of the trilogy. Did that change how you see the older man?
- Lenore Dove is a fierce, funny girl who sings and belongs to the Covey. What does she give the story that the Games cannot take over?
- District Twelve sends Louella, a spunky thirteen-year-old, Maysilee Donner, a proud girl from a merchant family, and Wyatt. Which tribute did you worry about most?
- Because of the Quarter Quell, forty-eight tributes enter the arena. How does a larger field change the stakes compared with the original Games?
- Some adults around Haymitch plan to hit back at the Capitol and think he can help. Is it fair to ask a sixteen-year-old to carry that?
- Collins is preoccupied with how the Capitol edits reality. Where did you notice the gap between what happens and what is shown?
- Our review says the book leans hard on references to the other books and that the middle drags through planning and training. Did either bother you?
- Did you read the trilogy first? How much did the references add or distract?
Spoiler Questions (Finish The Book First)
- Woodbine Chance, the boy actually drawn, ran and was shot in the square, and the escort Drusilla picked Haymitch as the replacement. On television none of it happened. Why does the rigged reaping matter to the book’s argument?
- Maysilee dies when pink birds with sword-like beaks are sent after her, holding Haymitch’s pinkie as a promise to bring the Capitol down. How did you take her death?
- Haymitch finds Wellie, the tiny girl from District Six, starving in a tree, and is sure the pitcher of milk came from Snow. How does the book use Wellie and Silka to show what the Games do?
- Silka’s ax bounces off the force field and kills her, so Haymitch did not kill her; the arena did. Why does Collins build the victory that way?
- Bleeding out, Haymitch builds a last bomb from Maysilee’s necklace and a token and throws it into the canyon. Is that courage, rage, or both?
- In the Capitol’s recap, the rebellion is erased and Haymitch looks like a selfish rascal who got lucky. How does that fit the theme of propaganda?
- Snow burns Haymitch’s house with his mother and Sid inside, then kills Lenore Dove with blood red gumdrops she thought came from him. Did you see the gumdrops coming, and was it too cruel?
- Lenore Dove asks him to promise not to let the sun rise on the reaping. What does that promise mean for the older Haymitch we meet in the trilogy?
- Plutarch tells him he has nothing to live for, so he has nothing to lose. Is that an offer, a cruelty, or both?
- In the epilogue the girl at the Hob, the daughter of Haymitch’s friend Burdock, is named Katniss. Did the epilogue move you, or lean too hard on callbacks?
The Movie
The film adaptation, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, is set for theaters on November 20, 2026, directed by Francis Lawrence. Joseph Zada plays Haymitch, Whitney Peak plays Lenore Dove Baird and Mckenna Grace plays Maysilee Donner. Ralph Fiennes plays President Snow and Glenn Close plays Drusilla Sickle. Ask your group which scene they most want to see on screen, and which one the film will struggle with.
What To Read Next
Our review gives the spoiler-free verdict, and the ending explained page covers the rigged reaping, the force field and the gumdrops after your group has finished. Our connections page lists the links to the original trilogy, and the books-like-it list is worth a look if your group wants more, starting with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
