Brooke's Pick: Sunrise On the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

It's the 50th annual Hunger Games and as the games begin, District 12 tribute Haymitch Abernathy realizes he's been set up to fail, but something in him wants to fight, in the fifth book in the Hunger Games series.

The Hunger Games has come full circle with Suzanne Collins' new novel, Sunrise on the Reaping. Following Katniss Everdeen's mentor Haymitch Abernathy from the day of his own reaping to his subsequent stint in the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, this explosive prequel propels us into the past and shares what caused Haymitch, the drunk and broken man from the original Hunger Games, to eventually became a shadow of his former self.

It's the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, which means that it is time for yet another Quarter Quell, and this year in a wicked effort to further punish the Districts, the Capitol declares that they must each offer up twice the number of tributes to this year's games - four children per District.

Haymitch Abernathy, whose birthday just happens to fall on Reaping Day, is desperately in love with a Covey girl - Lenore Dove - and it is his greatest wish to make it through the reaping so he and Lenore can have more time together, even if it is just for a fleeting moment. But when the reaping goes terribly wrong, Haymitch finds himself thrust into the center of the Games. As much as he would love to rewind time, there's no going back to the life he once knew, so he looks forward to his future, determined to make a statement in the Arena that will spread far beyond the walls and reach of the Capitol.

After a not so stellar prequel in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Suzanne Collins is back with a vengeance, crafting an utterly compelling, yet terribly haunting novel of what it means to have loved and have lost. Haymitch is a fascinating protagonist, daring to defy the Capitol with all the verve of a young man sick of seeing his family and friends squelched by an oppressive government. Everything he does is for them, yet he battles with finding himself painted as a caricature of who he really is. The complexity and nuance of his character development over the course of this novel is revelatory and mind-shattering, laying down the pieces for the original Hunger Games trilogy. And that's not to mention the Games themselves, which were shocking and surprising in all of the best ways. Haymitch's arena is something to behold, and the terrors that await him and his fellow tributes were both humanizing and heartbreaking. The ending to the novel is sad, and at the same time, satisfying, shining light on all that is to come ...

Sunrise on the Reaping is a more than worthy prequel to the Hunger Games series! Sure to be enjoyed by any fan of the Games. - Brooke, Public Relations Librarian