Are you a fan of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series? Currently immersed in Sunrise on the Reaping, Lyndon Riggall shares some thoughts on what makes a series such as this so popular and long lasting.
This week marks the publication of Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, a book that Goodreads defines as book ‘0.5’ in the Hunger Games series, while the other most recent entry, 2020’s The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, has officially been designated ‘Book 0’ in a numbering system that seems to be becoming increasingly outrageous. If anyone needs me over the next few days, chances are you’ll find me accompanied by it everywhere I go, as I take the audio version with me alongside runs, household chores, and on the car rides to football games and a wedding. I’m excited. While the peacekeeping section of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes lost me a little in both its book and film iterations, I couldn’t help but feel that Collins was continuing to grow in the confidence, beauty, tragedy and lyricism of her writing—particularly true in a novel so tied to music as an artform. I loved it, and if the public opinion of the first few days of reading are anything to go by, Sunrise on the Reaping may well surpass it.
In general, the ongoing success of the Hunger Games series may be the last great ‘event’ of children’s publishing that I can recall. For adults, perhaps, the dazzling popularity of Rebecca Yaros’ Fourth Wing novels and the ravenous mob who clamour for each instalment might indicate that there is still hope for such phenomena in publishing. Nevertheless, children’s books are coming and going with very little fanfare, and even authors who sell millions of copies don’t seem to justify the midnight release, the costume contests and the internet blackouts they once did. Somehow, however, The Hunger Games is still fighting. I saw this week a suggested series of stickers, profile pictures and stories for social media declaring, DO NOT DISTURB: I’m Reading Sunrise on the Reaping, while the first novel in the series (number 1, not 0 or 0.5,) is set to be presented on stage in October this year at the Canary Wharf Theatre in London. In a world in which even the most popular children’s authors, such J.K. Rowling, have become divisive with their public presence and views, Collins appears by all accounts to be playing things slowly, steadily and carefully, continuing to elegantly manage the enormous legacy of a story that has captivated old and young alike for decades now, and trying to make very sure that she doesn’t put a foot wrong along the way.
How very Katniss of her.
Philip Womack of the Guardian describes the Sunrise on the Reaping as not an easy read. ‘The stench of death is everywhere,’ he writes, ‘and the tone of the whole is tragic rather than triumphant.’ The blunt way in which Collins writes about death, and particularly the deaths of children, is something that I think about a lot at the moment. Recently I’ve been re-reading John Marsden’s Tomorrow series, which offers a similar level of sophistication of theme and a brutal, unflinching honesty about the worst of what may happen to young people. These are books that are not afraid of dealing with death and don’t shy away from the reality of it. Even as a young man reading the first book in the Hunger Games series, I remember being as shocked as I was compelled by the simple, savage nature of the way that many of the tributes lost their lives. I think that is part of what has always made the series so powerful: in a world designed so much around the idea that children must be kept safe, it dares to allow them—it forces them—to face danger and fear with nothing to protect them. It is as liberating as it is confronting, and the way the novels and films explore politics, performance, poverty and the power of the media is similarly incisive and insightful. Like so many stories that are designed to serve as warnings for where the world might end up if it continues on its current path, it is both potent and devastating that The Hunger Games seems to become more and more relevant with each passing day.
It is tempting in the modern world to think that Dystopian fiction has had its time and place, and that it might best serve us to let it go and to focus instead on what might uplift us. Surely, many argue, the world is dark enough without us insisting on exploring it further in fiction. But The Hunger Games still resonates in my mind for two reasons: one, because it allows us to explore the worst of what we might become, and, hopefully, to avoid it. The second reason it is still so resonant is that there is light in the darkness of these stories. Even in a Dystopia we have hope. Even in the worst of all possible worlds, there are heroes. That is why we still hunger for The Hunger Games.
This week brings us Sunrise on the Reaping. If the ravenous appetite for the latest installment is anything to go by, I wouldn’t expect a sunset any time soon.
Lyndon Riggall is a writer, teacher, and co-president of the Tamar Valley Writers Festival. He is author of the picture books Becoming Ellie and Tamar the Thief. You can find out more about him at www.lyndonriggall.com or on social media @lyndonriggall.
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