8 wild new Sunrise on the Reaping theories post-book launch
Hello to my fellow emotionally devastated Sunrise on the Reaping readers.
How are we all holding up since finishing Haymitch’s Hunger Games book? Hydrating? Remembering to blink? Or are we still staring at the last page in stunned silence? I’m still messed up from it, to be perfectly honest.
And if you haven’t read it yet, first of all, why are you here? Secondly, consider this your spoiler warning. I’ll be talking about all the new Sunrise on the Reaping theories that have been floating around since the book’s release. If you're looking for SOTR Easter eggs or to discover who died in Sunrise on the Reaping, I've got that covered too here. But in this specific blog article, we're talking the biggest new mysteries and mind-melting theories that hit differently after finishing the book.
Of course, we all know by now that Lenore Dove is Covey. It’s not even a theory anymore, it’s cold, hard canon. But there are still plenty of unanswered questions, and let’s be real, Suzanne Collins will probably never confirm most of them. So yes, we might be willingly tormenting ourselves with speculation for the foreseeable future but we won’t let them use our tears for their entertainment. Let’s get into it.
This article will be full of spoilers for Sunrise on the Reaping, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and possibly The Hunger Games. Save this article for later, if you haven’t read the books yet, or otherwise feel free to spoil yourself silly if that’s your jam.
1. Theory: Blair, Burdock and Haymitch’s friend, is Gale Hawthorne’s father.
This one has been messing with my head because it makes sense. Blair is introduced as a close friend of both Burdock Everdeen and Haymitch Abernathy, but we never get a last name. We know that Gale’s dad died in a mine explosion, in the same one that killed Burdock Everdeen. Was it Blair?
If Blair was Gale’s father, that adds a whole new layer of tragic irony to The Hunger Games series. But then again, it’s canon that dozens of miners were killed in the same accident.
So perhaps, Blair had another last name. Plus, if Suzanne Collins wanted us to know Blair’s last name was Hawthorne, wouldn’t she have made that clear? So yeah, I’m firmly on the fence with this one. Could be real, could be a wild goose chase. All we can do is speculate and overanalyze every detail like true Panem conspiracy theorists. 🤷♀️
2. Theory: Primrose Everdeen was intentionally reaped to punish Haymitch.
I know, I know. This Sunrise on the Reaping theory is vile and unhinged. But isn’t that the epitome of Coriolanus Snow?
We all remember how deeply personal Snow made his revenge. The man was petty on a cosmic scale. He made Finnick’s life a living hell. He psychologically tormented Johanna. He forced victors to sell their bodies to the highest bidder. He was a master manipulator and sociopath who never got over Lucy Gray and didn’t know the meaning of ‘move on’.
So, if Haymitch humiliated Snow during the 50th Hunger Games, by outwitting the arena, exposing its flaws, showing up the Gamemakers, does anyone really think Snow moved on?
Years later, after Haymitch has lost everyone he has loved, including his bestie, Burdock in the mining accident (more on that on the next point), his best friend’s daughter was chosen in a supposedly “random” draw. Sure, maybe it was just awful luck, given she only had one entry. The odds should have been in Prim’s favor. Or, now, people are speculating that Snow rigged the Reaping as the ultimate power move, reminding Haymitch that no matter how clever he thought he was, he would always lose to the Capitol in the end.
And frankly, this wouldn’t surprise me if it turns out to be canon in a future book, somehow.
3. Theory: Burdock Everdeen’s death wasn’t an accident. It was intentional.
So, this one ties back to theory #2, but it stands on its own, too.
We know from Sunrise on the Reaping that Burdock Everdeen had ties to the Covey, and to Haymitch. And if there’s one thing the Snow never allowed, it was loose ends, not after the mystery of Lucy Gray.
A sudden “accident” that conveniently takes out Burdock starts looking less like a workplace tragedy and more like an execution disguised as misfortune to continue torturing Haymitch in any way he could, as well as to hurt anyone who had any connection to the Covey or was known to sing Lucy Gray songs.
4. Barb Azure. Where is she?
We get confirmation in Sunrise on the Reaping that there’s no headstone for Barb Azure in the secret graveyard. That raises so many questions.
Was Barb Azure Burdock Everdeen’s mother or grandmother? Her sexuality is not specifically stated, she could like both men and women, and possibly have had a child.
Did she run away from District 12? If so, where did she go, and how did she pull it off?
Was she Maysilee Donner’s grandmother? This theory intrigues me because it would connect so many dots and on why Maysilee told Haymitch her grandmother always said to her “nothing you can take was ever worth keeping.”
Or, my personal favorite: Was she Maysilee’s grandmother’s partner? I love the idea that Barb Azure was part of an unseen sapphic love story. Give some of the Covey some happiness and happy endings, please!
5. Plutarch had a secret contact in District 12. But who?
Okay, this one feels important, but I can’t figure out the answer.
We know from Catching Fire that Plutarch was working with the rebellion for a long time before he made his move. So who was his original connection in District 12 that helped set up the call between Haymitch and Lenore Dove, before Haymitch was thrown into the arena for the 50th Hunger Games and Quarter Quell?
Some people are speculating it was just simply a Peacekeeper. Some people are saying to just let it go, we can’t have met every person in The Hunger Games universe, Plutarch probably had a lot of contacts. They’re probably right. But if Suzanne Collins ever decides to drop another prequel, I’d bet good money that this mystery gets a name.
6. Theory: Beetee’s second child was deliberately reaped.
We know Beetee had children. But we only get to know Ampert Latier in Sunrise on the Reaping, and the immense tragedy of Beetee, as a victor of a past Hunger Games, having to mentor his own child right through to his grisly, heartbreaking death in the 50th Hunger Games.
I can only imagine that Snow would continue to torment Beetee throughout his whole life and hurt everyone he loves, in the most sadistic way possible.
It’s possible we’ll find out if there is a 6th Hunger Games book.
7. Very likely theory-truth: The mutts in the 50th Quarter Quell could track tributes by scent likely because Snow reverse-engineered the idea from Lucy Gray’s 10th Hunger Games.
This one makes me feel sick because it means Snow had been workshopping horrors for decades.
In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, we saw how Snow manipulated the situation so that Dr. Gaul’s snake mutts would recognize Lucy Gray’s scent and they wouldn’t attack her. But I actually think it’s plausible that years later, he reverse engineered it to create scent-tracking mutts to specifically attack tributes by sensory means, by the time it was the 50th Hunger Games.
If that’s true and I feel 99% sure it is, then Haymitch wasn’t just a victim of the Capitol’s cruelty. Him, Maysilee, Ampert, Maritte and many other I’m sure were directly impacted by the aftermath of Snow’s obsession with Lucy Gray. Which means the ghosts of the 10th Hunger Games were still shaping the horrors of the 50th Quarter Quell.
8. Theory: The 75th Quarter Quell was rigged.
The more I think about it, the more it feels like the 75th Quarter Quell was less of a "randomly drawn twist" and more of a meticulously rigged purge.
If the Capitol had the power to rig it so that Ampert Latier, Beetee’s son, would be chosen as a tribute, then who's to say they didn't stack the entire 75th Quarter Quell with rebels and liabilities? Katniss, Finnick, Johanna, Wiress, Beetee… all of them were either troublemakers, walking secrets, or both. Snow was cleaning house and asserting his power. The more I sit with it, the more I believe that the 75th Games in Catching Fire weren't about spectacle. They were about control.
And those new Sunrise on the Reaping theories, my friends, is how I’ve been losing sleep at night.
So, what do you think? Which of these theories makes the most sense? Have any wild ones of your own? Drop me a line if you have any more mind melters.
Will Suzanne ever confirm or deny any of this? Doubtful. So let’s just stew in the theories, paranoia and conspiracies together while we pray that there will be a 6th Hunger Games books. Finnick’s maybe?
