I Read the New Hunger Games Book and I Didn't Like It Very Much

This post contains spoilers.

Boooooo

Sunrise on the Reaping, for those who aren't aware, is the latest installment in The Hunger Games series. It is set before THG but after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

Sunrise (or SotR) has been well received by readers, with a 4.8 rating on Amazon and a 4.62 rating on Goodreads. It has been poorly received by me (I gave it 2 stars). Here's why:

Sunrise on the Reaping is Nothing More Than Fan Service

Rather than take the opportunity to tell a new story with new characters, Suzanne Collins retells an old story with the same old fan favorites. I expected one or two familiar faces to pop up, of course. But the sheer number of characters who return is laughable. In the span of a week, Haymitch meets the following people:

• Plutarch

• Mags

• Beetee

• Wiress

• Effie

• Other people I'm forgetting because I stopped keeping track

It turns out that every one of them (except Effie) is involved in rebelling against the Capital from the start.

In fact, you know how you got to read about part of Haymitch's Games in Mockingjay? Yeah, well, throw all that shit out the window because none of it matters and none of it was real. No, Haymitch and, like, half the other contestants were part of an alliance, and Haymitch became embroiled in a super secret plot to stop the Games. (Sound familiar?) But, in true reality TV fashion, the Capital edits the footage to make it appear that Haymitch was an aloof, cocky lone wolf. Cooooooool.

Ugh, god, this book even ruins the use of "sweetheart." You know, the sarcastic pet name Haymitch gives Katniss? Yeah, it turns out that it was never really sarcastic. She always reminded him of a dear friend whom he considered a sister.

GAG.

We see this happening in other franchises. We saw in it Harry Potter when the second Fantastic Beasts film shoved McGonagall into the background of a scene she had no right to be in. We saw it in Star Wars when Solo felt the need to overexplain everything, from Han's preferred gun to his last name. And I hate it every time.

There's a lesson to be learned in this, and it's that I hope never to sacrifice storytelling for the sake of fan service.

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