When I first read it, I was in a hunger games fever dream, just reading all the books one by one, and I cried a lot and I liked it. I still like it but now that some time has passed I feel like there are so many odd things about Sunrise on the Reaping.
It feels different from the Ballad prequel because even though being a prequel that one was also trying to establish some lore with explanations to and allusions to things in the main books, it also had a lot of substance on it's own. Snow being a psychopath, the aftermath of the war, etc, there was a lot there in its own right while SotR seems to just exist as a prequel to the rest of the books with some connections feeling, to be honest, a little forced.
Instead of being focused on itself and its present time, the primary focus of the book seems to be the main books and the ballad, to the point where it's a little excessive.
Do you agree?
It does have its moments, and the overall story is good,
The way the story, especially where it tries to get emotional, is written really throws it off.
Even aside from the writing
there are these little things, the friendship between Burdock and Haymitch for one, it's just so odd that they were such close friends and then Haymitch had all this money later that he could have used to help his best friend's family after his death, I know they do have a falling out in the end because of Haymitch's depression and then later he is struggling with alcoholism,
but I think it would have just been better if they didn't try to establish too much connection with everyone in the story, it starts to feel disingenuous because of how it doesn't fit with the rest.
That's just my opinion, maybe I will have more examples that I can not remember at the moment, after a re-read.
Curious to know what you think about this if you have read the book.
by taanukichi