- Title:
- Sunrise on the Reaping
- Author:
- Suzanne Collins
- Release:
- March 18, 2025
- Format:
- Audiobook
- Narrartor
- Jefferson White
- Series:
- The Hunger Games #0.5
If you say you dislike popular thing, a bunch of halfwits will say “You a contrarian!11!! You a contrarian!111 WAHHHHHH!!!” You explain why it’s shit “It for a yunger audience tho!!!11!!” That doesn’t make it good! And that’s not an excuse for shitty writing. “It for a yunger audience” isn’t a refutation of why it’s bad, and good fucking god, is this shit BAD!
First off is the garbage PoV. Haymitch is narrating every single fucking thing, but who is he supposed to be narrating it to!? It has shitty lines such as “You Wanted to cheer for her.” – No, I didn’t. I didn’t watch her games, ’cause that’s not what this novel is about. Why the fuck is this character in this book trying to tell me what I feel, about a fictional event I didn’t watch or read?! Or additional lines such as “Skies so blue, it hurts your eyes.” Again, who the fuck is he telling this to!? I thought maybe he was explaining it to somebody else in the novel, after the fact, but after his loved ones are all killed off, the Capital covered up their deaths, so that’s not it.
One of the things I hate most about these god-awful popular authors is how they create these elaborate fantasy worlds, and then center the orbit of the fucking universe around the same 15~ people. It’s supposed to be a nation, so where the fuck is everybody!? Maggs shows up, as did Beadie and Wiress, I believe. Every scene felt like “REMEMBER THIS FROM BEFORE? You remember, right?! Do you remember!?”
Isn’t it just fucking crazy that 3 of the big names from the third Quarter Quell re-appear in this prequel, one of which only appeared in #3 because she volunteered to save a younger woman? No, it’s not crazy. it’s shitty writing. We’re supposed to believe that there’s 49~ years worth of possible victors to choose from, and all 3 of the district 12 mentors happen to be the characters from the original books. Plutarch re-appears, the TV host re-appears, President Snow re-appears, Effit Trinket re-appears; I think you get the point. It’s not “easter eggs”, as I’ve heard one person refer to it as. The author beats you over the fucking skull with these references, and the fact that somebody thought those were “easter eggs” shows what a bunch of dullards the audience who find this writing compelling are.
Haymitch never felt like he was ever in any real danger, ’cause we know he survives. Instead of putting him through the meat grinder, and making a compelling story, everything-fucking-thing simply goes his way. People send him gifts and he just miraculously figures out/interprets their secret/hidden meaning or intentions, which is the laziest shit I’ve ever read.
None of the kids he allies with have any semblance of humanity, we barely get to know them, and therefore their deaths are meaningless. Most of them die off-page anyway, making them even less impactful. One kid is a numbers nerd, and prattles off stats about everybody’s chances, and then randomly mentions Haymich’s name and says he has good odds, based on fucking nothing. But the plot knows he wins, so whatever. More lazy as fuck writing. Plutarch risks life and limb, and trusts him with sensitive info, despite knowing he’ll be a major target. Again, the plot knows he’s the guaranteed victor, and therefore safe. But these characters have absolutely no real reason to trust him the way they do.
The narrator for this audiobook is some kind of shit. Every single fucking line is read in the same lifeless, monotone, emotionless tone of voice. All singing lines are simply spoken, and his idea of emoting is to speak louder/quieter, faster or slower. There was one instance of repeated dialogue, and his idiotic pronunciation of the word “envelope”. I’ve said this many times before, you don’t “onter” a room. When a light switch is turned off, a room isn’t “on-veloped” in darkness. But that was a minor gripe, ’cause it was honestly a struggle to stay awake listening to his boring-as-shit, sorry ass narration.
If anybody is wondering, yes, I’m using the Audible cover art, and yes, I did in-fact remove his name from the cover. His narration is a disgrace, and he doesn’t deserve to be featured on the cover of any book.