Chapter 12 sees the District 12 tributes practice for their upcoming interviews after finding out the scores they were given by the Game Makers.

FYI: This review is part of a series where I review one chapter of Sunrise on the Reaping each day as I read along.

Summary

What Happens in Chapter 12 of Sunrise on the Reaping?

The chapter picks up with Haymitch and his fellow District 12 tributes contemplating what his score of 1 (a record low) by the Game Makers means. Their mentors Mags and Wiress take a positive outlook on it as they believe it will at the very least, make him stand out and be memorable amongst the 48 tributes entering the games.

Drusilla visits their apartment and carries out mock interviews with the District 12 tributes to prepare them for their upcoming interviews with Caesar Flickerman which will be televised for all of Panem to see.

Wyatt highlights his impressive ability to predict odds with Wiress recommending that he positions his brains as his strongest asset in order to help him gain sponsors. Maysilee takes a different approach, instead evaluating (a.k.a. Ridiculing) the fashion choices of Drusilla and the citizens of the Capitol. Drusilla deems her a ‘shrew’ and Wiress states that it will at least make her memorable.

Haymitch begins to practice for his but is stopped at almost every sentence as Drusilla notes that he mustn’t reference any acts of rebellion and should instead ‘be naughty, not dangerous’. Haymitch takes this and Drusilla’s note to be mysterious by not specifying what trouble caused his low score from the Game Makers on board and goes to continue practicing his speech before he is interrupted by his prep team bursting through the door.

Haymitch’s prep team is made up of two university students – Proserpina and Vitus – who alert Drusilla that the stylist is throwing up and is not in a good condition which prompts Drusilla to promptly leave to go file a complaint. The prep team are very upset and complain about how this may affect their grades with their total self absorption being much to the annoyance of everyone else in the apartment.

The prep teams for the other District 12 tributes arrive and Drusilla returns annoyed that she can’t file a claim until after the games are over. The chapter closes out with a very familiar chic and stylish character from the original The Hunger Games trilogy making a surprise entrance… Effie.

Review

Is Chapter 12 of Sunrise on the Reaping Good?

This chapter is the first of the book which really is purely all talk and very little action at all with the tributes remaining within the apartment for the whole of the chapter. However, this does not make for any less of an enjoyable read with the chapter actually serving just as great a purpose as the previous few.

It was really interesting to read what the mentors’ takes on the tributes scores and interview response were. I feel like they add a lot of realism to the story as their responses are never cliche but are instead incredibly clever which is typical for The Hunger Games, but nonetheless is still very refreshing from your standard characters of many other stories.

The ‘stressed-out’ university students are also a fun addition to this chapter with their opposing attitudes to the tributes in a scenario with much lesser stakes being very funny but also very revealing to see. Finding out that Maysilee knows something about Lenore Dove which Haymitch doesn’t is also very intriguing and is something which we, the readers, are as desperate to know the answer to as Haymitch.

Discussion – What Do You Think of Effie’s Inclusion in Sunrise on the Reaping?

I was really happy to see at the end of this chapter that Effie will be a part of this story! This book does have a lot of characters which are from the original series and although I could see the argument that it is too much ‘fan service’ which I suspect some will make, I feel like the inclusion of characters from the original series is exactly what we kind of want – as long as it makes sense.

Effie in particular is a character which I was really hoping to see in this story but I did expect to see early on if she were to be included. Instead, the inclusion of Effie comes as a really fun surprise as it is something that you have basically ruled out in your mind by this point of the book.

I am really curious to see how Haymitch and Effie get along in this period as well as how different Effie is to her future self.

What are your thoughts?

That wraps u my thoughts on Chapter 12! Let me know your thoughts about the chapter in the comments below!