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** spoiler alert ** I am a HUGE fan of the original Hunger Games trilogy and the powerful and effective way it covered themes of propaganda, war, totalitarianism, etc. When The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was announced years after Mockingjay, I was on the fence as to whether another book within the same universe was really needed, but Suzanne Collins proved me wrong; the arc of a young Coriolanus Snow turned out to be compelling and offered something fresh and new to the world and the history of Panem, as well as adding more layers to the dynamic between Katniss and Snow in the original series. And so, while I was surprised when this fifth book in the series was announced and was said to be about Haymitch's Games (about which we already know quite a bit from the scene in Catching Fire where Katniss and Peeta watched them), I was fully convinced that its existence would be justified and that Collins would never publish anything in the series that didn't add something new, clever and unexpected. Unfortunately, after having read Sunrise On The Reaping, I am now somewhat reconsidering that last statement.

While this isn't a bad book by any means, I spent much of it feeling kind of underwhelmed and skimming through some fairly sluggish portions. The pacing is a bit all over the place, with some parts feeling far too long while others feel a little rushed. That said, the ending and epilogue both definitely got under my skin emotionally and redeemed proceedings somewhat; I actually bumped up my original rating of 3 stars to 3.5 or so purely on account of those final portions of the book. Overall, though, I'm still struggling to find a reason why this book was really needed. Its main purpose seems to be to show the power of propaganda to influence and subjugate, but that theme was already explored in great depth and to great effect in the original trilogy. While it's interesting to learn how much the version of the second Quarter Quell that Katniss and Peeta watched on the train in Catching Fire was doctored to conceal certain uncomfortable truths that the Capitol didn't want coming out, that fact isn't particularly surprising: we already know that that's how the Capitol operate, and there are countless examples of it in the original series. Much as I like Haymitch and the world of Panem, there's nothing in here that we haven't already seen and understood in the previous novels, and in my opinion, there isn't enough to set Haymitch as a character apart from Katniss to justify/merit a whole book from his perspective.

It doesn't help that the symbolism in this book is probably the least powerful I've seen in a Hunger Games novel. The use of symbolism in the original trilogy and in Ballad felt masterful and multilayered. Here, it's often too on the nose to be truly impactful. E.g. when Haymitch is watching his own Games back, the arena is revealed to look like an all-seeing eye from above, a symbol that the Capitol is always watching. Yeah, we already know they're always watching... what's new? Also, all the dove-coloured items, animals etc. failed to really make an impression on me because, well... I just wasn't that bothered about the character of Lenore Dove. She came across like a poor man's Lucy Gray, but more "manic pixie dream girl" and without the good sense to keep herself out of trouble. The paragraphs upon paragraphs Haymitch dedicated to his love for her somehow didn't really move me to care about her. Perhaps part of that was knowing from the start that she was going to die and just waiting to discover the how. Same with Haymitch's mother and brother... their deaths didn't really sucker-punch me as much as they should have, because I expected them right from the start.

Also, perhaps I'm just old and jaded, but the amount of fan service in this book feels slightly ludicrous. Here's a whole list of things that made me roll my eyes/raise my eyebrows:

1) I had expected Katniss' parents to appear in the background of scenes in District 12, since they were of similar age to Haymitch... but for Katniss' dad to have been Haymitch's one-time best friend without that fact ever having come up a single time in the original trilogy seems a bridge too far.

2) Did Haymitch's girlfriend have to be Covey, and Lucy Gray's niece (I think) to boot? She couldn't have just been some random girl?

3) The mentor situation. Haymitch tells us through his inner monologue that because 12 has no Victors of their own, they're always mentored by former Victors from other Districts who never truly care about them because they're not from their home. Based on that, I was expecting some uncaring Career Victors to show up and be generally snarky and unhelpful (and was actually excited for some new characters to be introduced). Instead, we got Wiress and Mags, who felt like they were included entirely for the purpose of making fans squeal in delight. Also, despite them being nothing but supportive and helpful of the District 12 tributes the whole way through (to their own detriment, even!) and seeming to dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to helping them over and above tributes from their own home Districts who they likely knew personally, we don't get a single thought from Haymitch correcting his earlier assumption that his mentors would be uncaring, or appreciating their support despite them not being from 12. It seemed odd to introduce the idea that the mentors would be unhelpful due to being from rival Districts, have their behaviour refute that, and then not have the protagonist address that.

4) Did Haymitch have to see Lucy Gray in reruns of the Games on TV, somehow piece together her connection to both the Covey and Snow while in a fragile state of mind, and start speculating over what may have happened to her? Weren't all recordings of her Games supposed to have been destroyed except for one copy that Gaul kept for her own entertainment? Did Snow deliberately have those Games shown to Haymitch to signal to him that he knew about the Covey... and if so, why? He'd already made it clear to Haymitch in conversation before the Games that he knew about the Covey. That scene was jarring and didn't really make sense, and seemed to be there solely so that Haymitch could be somewhat 'in the know' about Lucy Gray's fate, even though him having any sort of knowledge about Lucy Gray changes absolutely nothing about anything.

5) Effie Trinket stepping in as stylist felt pretty unnecessary. There was no need to include the plotline of 12's stylist being a useless idiot just so she could make an appearance and get a foothold in the industry. If the stylist needed to be a known character (which in itself wasn't necessary), it would have been far more interesting to use Tigris instead... perhaps she could have sympathised with the rebellion and ended up being fired as a result (not killed or tortured, on account of her being Snow's cousin, but disgraced and ridiculed, with the excuse being that she had had too many surgeries, and forced out of the role to prevent her from interacting with any further tributes).

One cameo that I do think worked (and would have been a lot more impactful if it hadn't been one of so many) was that of Beetee. The subplot of him being forced to mentor his own son and send him into the arena to suffer an appallingly violent death that he had to watch happen live was a gut punch that actually led to me having to put the book down for a while.

The characters that landed the most effectively for me were the ones we weren't already acquainted with from previous books. The other tributes from 12 were all thoroughly likeable: Louella, spunky and loyal and the original "sweetheart", her drugged and tortured replacement Lou Lou, Wyatt, the kind oddsmaker who died protecting a girl he barely knew, and Maysilee Donner, resourceful fashion diva and queen of acerbic barbs. However, knowing the inevitability of their deaths (and in Maysilee's case, even the how and the when) made it harder for me to really connect with them. I also really liked Ampert, whose death hit me hardest largely because of how utterly horrific it was. I do wish we'd seen more of some of the other tributes beyond the pre-Games sections; while Haymitch's decision to go through the Games largely on his own was an understandable one, I would have liked to have seen more of e.g. Ringina (who felt like a promising but underdeveloped character).

Overall, despite the ending being well-written, I haven't come away from this book feeling as deeply impacted as I have by previous Hunger Games books, which is a real shame. Will I read any more books Suzanne Collins puts out about Panem? Most probably, because I love the world and the characters. Do I think any more books are actually necessary at this point? No.

(Rating: 3.5 stars)