13+

My copy of Sunrise on the Reaping just arrived and I realised that I haven’t done any reviews for the original trilogy or Ballard so today I am going to remedy that before I start reading it.

Hunger Games is famous for a reason – the stunning dystopian world, so harsh and merciless yet portrayed in a way that expertly and subtly satirises our own world. It is just everything and honestly this book belongs on the best YA books for a reason.

We get introduced to Katniss on the most terrifying day of the year – the Reaping day. Instantly the world is painted for us in bright colour, the harshness and divide between the districts and capital as well as the injustice within the drawing of the slips from the Reaping ball. Essentially gambling your life on the fact that your slip wont be drawn so you can get a meager amount of grain to bring home is so dystopian yet we don’t doubt for a second that the whole of district 12 has done this at some point – and the slips are cumulative. The poorer you are the more chance you have of death by starvation which means you put more slips in which means you have more chance of dying on live tv.

I could talk about the stunning dystopian world forever – but I suspect everyone knows the basics of this series so let me continue to the star ratings!

World – 100000/5 –  so so much within it. Every little detail has so much more linked to it – we are in a world that Suzanne Collins has so much more going on than we ever know! With little snippets into other games, and the fact that everyone thinks that this is normal – it is a truly dystopian world unlike any other.

Romance – Sweet – 5/5 – the romance and the emerging love triangle and the fact that Katniss and Peeta’s relationship is based entirely on survival and what will get them sponsors – right?

Characters – 5/5 – from the Tributes who have been raised to think that dying for the Capitals amusement will get them honour and that they should volunteer to Rue to Prim, Katniss’s motivation for survival and to the over the top Caesar Flickerman who seems so jovial but is literally making childrens deaths into a sport they are all so real I feel like I could hold conversations with them! Katniss herself is a heroine who is truly strong, she has the skills that despite her disadvantage and the fate of 12 tributes before her she will do her best to come home!

Plot  – 5/5 –  yes. Just yes. From reveals to plot twists to fights and interviews we have a plot which is almost completely contrived by Gamemakers who want to make the games as entertaining as possible. But as always humans are not controllable and especially when it comes to survival!

Romance Rating: Sweet: Kissing, cuddling, clothes on, mild innuendo.

Violence Rating: Level 5

Content Warnings: obviously death, on page and off page, grief, survival, starvation, dehydration, manipulation.