What Will Your Poster Be?: A Look into Haymitch Abernathy in Sunrise on the Reaping

Fans of the original Hunger Games trilogy already know Haymitch as the brash, alcoholic mentor meant to teach Katniss and Peeta how to survive for as long as possible in the 74th Hunger Games. At the beginning, Haymitch seems unhelpful, resentful, and reckless but later proves to be of value when he helps both Katniss and Peeta play out a storyline that ends with them both surviving the Games, which was unheard of. In Sunrise on the Reaping, we gain a much better understanding of Haymitch through his experiences before, during and after the 75th Hunger Games.

Image from People.Com

Spoiler Warning

This review delves into the novel and contains spoilers for Sunrise on the Reaping. Some details have been omitted, but it is impossible to make a well-rounded review without mentioning important parts of the story. Consider yourself warned.

Haymitch is 16 years old for the 50th Hunger Games or the Second Quarter Quell, in which twice the number of Tributes will be Reaped. The first surprise is that Haymitch’s name doesn’t get called. What ends up happening is that he gets plucked for insubordination. Not that the Capitol nor the other Districts would ever know, thanks to some quick thinking on the part of representatives Drusilla Sickle and Plutarch Heavensbee. 

From there, we follow Haymitch’s journey from being Reaped, to going through the preparations, doing the interviews, and finally making it into the Arena. We learn that Haymitch is mentored by Mags and Wiress and that one of the Tributes is Beetee’s son Ampert. We also find out that another District 12 Tribute, Louella, is killed during the chariot ride and none of the citizens of Panem know.

Propaganda and media manipulation has always been a theme across The Hunger Games, but in Sunrise on the Reaping, those themes are put centerstage. When the book was initially announced, many had wondered if there was more to Haymitch’s story. After all, it had all seemed so straightforward: Haymitch won the Quarter Quell and he’s the only District 12 Victor prior to Katniss and Peeta. He became an alcoholic to cope with having to mentor Tributes who would surely not survive the Games. Now, not only do we know that Haymitch was one of the first people to try to destroy the Arena in an attempt to stop the Hunger Games, but also that he isn’t the first Victor from District 12.

Sunrise on the Reaping completely changes the way we look at Haymitch and fundamentally alters the way we read The Hunger Games, from his nickname for Katniss to his insistence that she and Peeta play out a love story in order to appeal to the Capitol. Now we know that Haymitch has always been instrumental for the revolution to happen and, had things not gone south, he might as well have been the one to liberate the Districts from the Games. Unfortunately, that’s where the tragedy of Haymitch’s story lies: that he was the right person at the wrong time. While Haymitch’s story was full of tragedy, Collins’s decision to end the book with an epilogue was a bittersweet way to close the book, providing a sliver of hope. 

All in all, Sunrise on the Reaping is not a book for the faint of heart. Despite this being her fourth book to involve a Games, Collins still manages to write a captivating and unpredictable arc that makes it impossible to put the book down. 

In the book, the characters talk a lot about “posters,” using it as a euphemism for acts of revolution. The Hunger Games are Collins’s posters. In an increasingly censored media landscape, she expresses her desire for a more hopeful future through stories that reflect what it could become, taking into consideration what the current state of the world is. She asks all of us the same question: “What will your poster be?”

The film adaptation for Sunrise on the Reaping is set for release on November 20, 2026.

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