Starvation Video games collection writer Suzanne Collins says she’ll in all probability by no means write a sequel to her bestselling unique trilogy, which kickstarted the YA dystopian pattern of the 2010s. However she continues to jot down prequels that dive into the interior 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 primary trilogy and focuses on despotic President Snow as a younger man. The brand new e-book Dawn on the Reaping takes place nearer in time to the unique Starvation Video games trilogy, leaving room for loads of acquainted characters to look — together with one legacy character from the primary trilogy who will get a very heartbreaking previous, making their eventual battle towards 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Peeta’s mentor from the primary trilogy, narrates the occasions of Dawn on the Reaping, which begins when he’s 16 years outdated. However Collins additionally provides 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 compelled 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 skilled in fight and survival earlier than being thrown into an enviornment, the place the video games don’t finish till the entire opponents are lifeless besides the victor. Haymitch is conscripted for the fiftieth Starvation Video games, the second “Quarter Quell,” the place as a substitute, 4 opponents are “reaped” from every District.
Whereas within the coaching session, Haymitch meets Ampert, a 12-year-old from District 3 who hopes to type an alliance with the tributes from much less affluent Districts, who traditionally have decrease probabilities of profitable. At one level, Ampert mentions that his father is within the coaching room, which supplies Haymitch pause. Usually, the one individuals allowed within the coaching room are Capitol instructors, the Starvation Video games employees, 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 received his Starvation Video games by electrocuting the remainder of his competitors.
In the primary trilogy, Katniss meets Beetee through the Third Quarter Quell and decides to ally with him. He turns into instrumental in her riot towards the Capitol, particularly on the subject of weapons manufacturing. He makes Katniss the customized bow that she makes use of all through all of Mockingjay, the ultimate e-book within the trilogy. He’s additionally answerable for hacking into the Capitol broadcast system with a view 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 form of sadistic punishment after plotting to sabotage the Capitol’s communication system.
He’s too precious to kill outright. As with most Starvation Video games victors, the Capitol residents have seemingly latched onto him as a form 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 compelled to look at his son enter the Starvation Video games, the place he’s nearly definitely going to die a grotesque demise.
On the identical time, President Snow is forcing Beetee to help Ampert as a mentor, coaching him for the video games. That activity usually 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 received’t miss a second of Ampert’s remaining moments.
Many earlier victors we meet in the primary Starvation Video games books skilled tragedy and trauma, particularly those who find yourself being a part of the riot. It’s a twofold loop: They seemingly rebelled due to tragedies they skilled, they usually seemingly 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 primary trilogy, protagonist Katniss Everdeen says that if she and her fellow District 12 Starvation Video games conscript Peeta are compelled to get married, she’ll by no means wish to have kids, as a result of she’s nearly sure that the youngsters of two victors might be compelled 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 e-book is proof that Katniss’s concern was properly based. When the worst doable factor occurred, although, Beetee saved on rebelling and preventing towards the Capitol.
On the finish of Mockingjay, the few dwelling victors within the riot vote on whether or not they need to host one remaining Starvation Video games, the place the youngsters of the Capitol are compelled to kill each other. Beetee, who had no downside arising with notably controversial weapons to make use of towards the Capitol, votes no. And that could possibly be as a result of years in the past, he needed to watch his personal little one enter within the Video games. He will get his justice within the unique trilogy by taking the Capitol down, however Dawn on the Reaping provides 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 degree. The brand new e-book 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.
