OMG, You Can Read Part Of The New 'Hunger Games' Prequel Right Now
Chloe Williams serves as B+C’s Entertainment Editor and resident Taylor Swift expert. Whether she’s writing a movie review or interviewing the stars of the latest hit show, Chloe loves exploring why stories inspire us. You can see her work published in BuzzFeed, Coastal Review, and North Beach Sun. When she’s not writing, Chloe’s probably watching a Marvel movie with a cherry coke or texting her sister about the latest celebrity news. Say hi at @thechloewilliams on Insta and @popculturechlo on Twitter!
We're headed back into the world of Panem with Suzanne Collins' fifth Hunger Games book, Sunrise on the Reaping. The new 2025 novel comes out March 18 (along with a new movie that's already scheduled for November 2026!) and it follows the one Hunger Games everyone's been dying to hear about since Catching Fire was published: the 50th Games, AKA the games Haymitch won.
We already know that the novel takes place 24 years before Katniss' first games and that as a Quarter Quell, there's a twist: Haymitch is up against twice as many tributes as normal. People was given an exclusive excerpt from the new book, and it makes me even more excited than I already was.
Here's what happens in the first excerpt from Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
'Hunger Games' fans will love the first 'Sunrise on the Reaping' excerpt from chapter 1.
The Sunrise on the Reaping excerpt opens the morning of reaping day — which is also Haymitch's 16th birthday. (Which could explain his behavior during the day Prim's reaped and Katniss volunteers. What a horrible birthday!). Haymitch hopes to spend the free parts of his day lounging around with his girlfriend Lenore Dove, if his mother and the Gamemakers don't get in his way.
The excerpt continues with a really beautiful depiction of District 12's Seam, which is modern day Appalachia. It's a tight-knit (albeit struggling) community covered in a "protective" mist as the sun rises. Haymitch knows that this reaping will take twice as many children and fights to stay calm.
"No way to control the outcome of the reaping or what follows it," he thinks. "So don’t feed the nightmares. Don’t let yourself panic. Don’t give the Capitol that. They’ve taken enough already."
And 'Sunrise on the Reaping' proves Haymitch and Katniss' similarities.
We also learn more about Haymitch's family. All we know from the original trilogy is that President Snow killed them after he won, but this prequel actually introduces us to them. Haymitch's mother was widowed after a coal mine killed his father. He also has a 10-year-old brother named Sid who I can already tell is very energetic and very loud.
This really proves that Haymitch and Katniss are two sides of the same coin, and that they're able to understand each other more than any of the other characters. Not only are they both from the Seam, but they also lost their fathers by the age of 16.
And the most important detail to me is the fact they both have younger siblings they'd do anything for — they were simply destined to be a father-daughter duo. Sacrificial love is the beating heart of the Hunger Games series, and I can't wait to see all the complexity and nuance Sunrise on the Reaping brings to the franchise.
Stay tuned for more Sunrise on the Reaping news, and check out the 10 Most-Anticipated Book-To-Film Adaptations We Can't Wait To See In 2025 for more movie updates.
Chloe Williams serves as B+C’s Entertainment Editor and resident Taylor Swift expert. Whether she’s writing a movie review or interviewing the stars of the latest hit show, Chloe loves exploring why stories inspire us. You can see her work published in BuzzFeed, Coastal Review, and North Beach Sun. When she’s not writing, Chloe’s probably watching a Marvel movie with a cherry coke or texting her sister about the latest celebrity news. Say hi at @thechloewilliams on Insta and @popculturechlo on Twitter!
