Did you anticipate another addition to the world of The Hunger Games? Whether you did or did not, there’s news to be had. On March 18, 2025, we’ll be able to go back to Panem in Suzanne Collins’s fifth entry into the series, Sunrise on the Reaping.
Set 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games–and 40 years after the most recent entry into the series, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes–Sunrise on the Reaping takes place the morning of the 50th Hunger Games. That’s the Second Quarter Quell. It’s inspired by Irish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume and our modern age of rampant misinformation.
“I was inspired by David Hume’s idea of implicit submission and, in his words, ‘the easiness with which the many are governed by the few,’” Collins said in a statement. “The story also lent itself to a deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative. The question ‘Real or not real?’ seems more pressing to me every day.”
Film rights to Sunrise on the Reaping have not yet been announced. The previous four books in the series all went on to become box office hits, including The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which came out last fall. The Hunger Games celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2023 as well. This year saw the publication of an illustrated edition of The Hunger Games.
The Hunger Games series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide and has been translated across the globe. Although Mockingjay was set to be the final book in the series in 2010, Songbirds came in 2020.
Sunrise on the Reaping hits shelves in March which might feel forever away, but is it? As America enters into another long and tiring election season, perhaps there is no better time to revisit the first four volumes in the series before picking up this one.
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