Summary
A look at the new Hunger Games book.
!!!SPOILERS INCLUDED!!!
At last the new Hunger Games book is out! In mid-March of this year, author Suzanne Collins released Sunrise on the Reaping. Shortly after that, she announced that a new movie would come soon directed by Francis Lawrence and written by Billy Ray.
In the previous novels there was a love triangle that split Hunger Games fans into two different sides, a tall, dark, handsome, chiseled hunter slash loser Gale, versus the proper fan choice, short but mighty, smart, physically attractive, lovable and sincere Peeta. This incredibly biased love triangle was one of the main points of the original trilogy. In Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, there was what one would call a problem. Coriolanus is torn between his love for the Capitol and his love for the perfectly special Lucy Gray. In the end, he sadly chose his power-hungry side instead of staying with the side that could have started a family. Many fans wish that this was not the case, but this new book will make fans even more depressed and happy at the same time.
The romance between Haymitch and Lenore Dove is criminally incredible. In the beginning, Haymitch loves her to the ends of Panem and beyond. You see this continuously throughout the story and you can see how much he just wants to be with her constantly.
The story is set on the morning of the 50th annual Hunger Games Reaping. Haymitch wakes up on his 16th birthday, ready to go to work for a bootlegger, Hattie Meeney, and receives a bottle of liquor as a birthday gift, though he does not drink and intends to trade it. Haymitch meets his girlfriend, Lenore Dove, at the meadow where she keeps geese. She is a “Covey,” a nomadic group known for their music who were confined to the districts after the Dark Days. Hunger Games fans will remember this group in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Lucy Gray Baird would be Lenore Dove’s aunt.
According to Google, “The selection of tributes for the 50th Hunger Games results in double the usual number of tributes, with two boys and two girls from each district, making 48 tributes in total. Near the end of the Games, Haymitch finds himself in a hedge maze, where he is ambushed by Panache, Barba, and Angler. He kills Barba and Angler, but Panache disarms him. He is then saved by Maysilee Donner, who uses a blow dart to kill Panache.” Despite her moment of heroism, Maysilee is described as a very stuck up rich girl. How the actress for Maysilee will portray this character will certainly be interesting.
The wait is finally over! The cast list of The Sunrise on the Reaping was spread out over the summer! Joseph Zada has been cast as young, handsome, and skilled Haymitch Abernathy, the beautiful Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove, Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Molly McCann as Louella McCoy, Iona Bell as Lou Lou, Ben Wang as Wyatt Callow, Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket, Maya Hawke as Wiress, Lilli Taylor as Mags, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee Latier, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman, and Ralph Fiennes as President Snow.
Other than Ralph Fiennes who was in four out of eight Harry Potter movies, this is probably the biggest role some actors have had. Most of the other actors such as Joseph Zada and Whitney Peak, have only had a few minor parts in movies and shows that are not as popular as most other things.
Here’s the order of release that most readers recommend: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay, Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Sunrise on the Reaping. This is the preferred way to read them because reading them in chronological order (Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Sunrise on the Reaping, Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay) takes away the satisfactory feeling of seeing something in the original book, then seeing it in a prequel.
For example, in Mockingjay, Katniss Everdeen sings The Hanging Tree, a song her father taught her. In Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, you see Lucy Gray making the song after witnessing the hanging of a man who was said to have murdered three people. You also see some of the lyrics in that scene, “…where a dead man called out for his love to flee…” You can also see Lucy Gray telling Coriolanus to meet her at midnight by the hanging tree “…so we’d both be free.”