Starvation Video games collection writer Suzanne Collins says she’ll most likely by no means write a sequel to her bestselling unique trilogy, which kickstarted the YA dystopian pattern of the 2010s. However she continues to write down prequels that dive into the internal machinations of the world of Panem and the bloody competitors that gave them their collective title. 2020’s The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes place 64 years earlier than the principle trilogy and focuses on despotic President Snow as a younger man. The brand new ebook Dawn on the Reaping takes place nearer in time to the unique Starvation Video games trilogy, leaving room for loads of acquainted characters to seem — together with one legacy character from the primary trilogy who will get a very heartbreaking previous, making their eventual battle in opposition to the Capitol much more highly effective.
Haymitch Abernathy, Katniss and Peeta’s mentor from the primary trilogy, narrates the occasions of Dawn on the Reaping, which begins when he’s 16 years previous. However Collins additionally offers different gamers extra fleshed-out backstories, including new perception about their characters.
[Ed. note: This post contains minor spoilers for Sunrise on the Reaping, as well as spoilers for the other Hunger Games books.]
Picture: Lionsgate
Dawn on the Reaping follows Haymitch’s Starvation Video games, the annual Battle Royale-style competitors the place two kids from every of Panem’s 12 impoverished Districts are pressured to compete to the demise for the amusement of the prosperous Capitol. Annually, a brand new group of 24 children are taken from their properties and paraded across the Capitol (fairly actually, within the opening ceremony), given makeovers, and educated in fight and survival earlier than being thrown into an enviornment, the place the video games don’t finish till all the rivals are useless besides the victor. Haymitch is conscripted for the fiftieth Starvation Video games, the second “Quarter Quell,” the place as a substitute, 4 rivals are “reaped” from every District.
Whereas within the coaching session, Haymitch meets Ampert, a 12-year-old from District 3 who hopes to kind an alliance with the tributes from much less affluent Districts, who traditionally have decrease probabilities of successful. At one level, Ampert mentions that his father is within the coaching room, which supplies Haymitch pause. Sometimes, the one folks allowed within the coaching room are Capitol instructors, the Starvation Video games workers, and the Capitol’s enforcers, the Peacekeepers.
However Haymitch quickly learns that Ampert’s father is none apart from former District 3 victor Beetee, a technological genius who gained his Starvation Video games by electrocuting the remainder of his competitors.
In the principle trilogy, Katniss meets Beetee through the Third Quarter Quell and decides to ally with him. He turns into instrumental in her insurrection in opposition to the Capitol, particularly in relation to weapons manufacturing. He makes Katniss the customized bow that she makes use of all through all of Mockingjay, the ultimate ebook within the trilogy. He’s additionally accountable for hacking into the Capitol broadcast system with a purpose to run insurgent propaganda.
Because it seems, Beetee’s rebellious previous goes again additional than his actions in Mockingjay. In Dawn on the Reaping, he’s receiving a particular kind of sadistic punishment after plotting to sabotage the Capitol’s communication system.
He’s too helpful to kill outright. As with most Starvation Video games victors, the Capitol residents have probably latched onto him as a kind of microcelebrity and image. And his technological work in District 3 is essential for the Capitol’s extravagant lifestyle. As a substitute, he’s being pressured to observe his son enter the Starvation Video games, the place he’s nearly definitely going to die a ugly demise.
On the similar time, President Snow is forcing Beetee to help Ampert as a mentor, coaching him for the video games. That activity sometimes falls to previous winners from a given District, as new victims from their District are known as to compete. As Beetee tells Haymitch, he’s even given the particular “privilege” of getting a sales space on the coaching grounds, so he’s stationed among the many trainees, the place he gained’t miss a second of Ampert’s ultimate moments.
Many earlier victors we meet in the principle Starvation Video games books skilled tragedy and trauma, particularly those who find yourself being a part of the insurrection. It’s a twofold loop: They probably rebelled due to tragedies they skilled, they usually probably ended up with extra trauma due to the results of any rebellious attitudes or actions. Take Johanna Mason from District 7, who resisted President Snow’s makes an attempt to sex-traffic her after her Starvation Video games victory, so her whole household was finally tortured and killed. And even earlier than the small print we study in Dawn on the Reaping, we knew Haymitch misplaced his household and his girlfriend to the Capitol.
At one level in the principle trilogy, protagonist Katniss Everdeen says that if she and her fellow District 12 Starvation Video games conscript Peeta are pressured to get married, she’ll by no means wish to have kids, as a result of she’s nearly sure that the kids of two victors shall be pressured to take part within the Video games — particularly the star-crossed lovers of District 12, who defied the Capitol. Fortunately, it by no means involves that, however Ampert and Beetee’s destiny on this ebook is proof that Katniss’s concern was nicely based. When the worst doable factor occurred, although, Beetee stored on rebelling and preventing in opposition to the Capitol.
On the finish of Mockingjay, the few residing victors within the insurrection vote on whether or not they need to host one ultimate Starvation Video games, the place the kids of the Capitol are pressured to kill each other. Beetee, who had no downside arising with significantly controversial weapons to make use of in opposition to the Capitol, votes no. And that could possibly be as a result of years in the past, he needed to watch his personal youngster enter within the Video games. He will get his justice within the unique trilogy by taking the Capitol down, however Dawn on the Reaping offers us much more context for his vote, and for his perspective on simply how horrific the Video games have been. Within the unique collection, Beetee decides to not stoop to the Capitol’s stage. The brand new ebook makes that call appear all of the extra poignant. Even with all of the trauma and tragedy he’s endured, Beetee nonetheless retains his coronary heart.
