Chapter 13 sees Haymitch and all his fellow 50th Hunger Games tributes participate in their interviews with Caesar Flickerman for all of Panem to see.

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

What Happens In Chapter 13 of Sunrise on the Reaping?

The chapter picks up with an introduction to Effie who is revealed to be the sister of Proserpina, one of the university students part of Haymitch’s prep team. Effie ‘saves the day’ for the District 12’s interview outfits (and consequently her sister’s grade) by bringing a whole host of chic pieces for each tribute to wear.

The tributes arrive at the venue for their interviews and go to the green room, where they are to wait until it is time for their interview. Haymitch has a brief conversation with Beetee where Beetee explains the specifics of the plan to break the arena.

District 1 is first up for their interviews. Panache makes a fool of himself in front of all of Panem as his focus on his strength and clear lack of brain power, is much to the amusement of Caesar Flickerman and the crowd. As the tributes continue to give their interviews, a clear pattern emerges with the career tributes failing to show any substantive game plan and therefore not showing much promise to sponsors.

On the contrary, the tributes part of ‘The Newcomers’ alliance continually impress with their strategic thinking and consistency in their answers. Beetee’s son, Ampert, explains in detail to the audience the strengths of ‘The Newcomers’ alliance.

The District 12 tributes interviews are initially a success with Wyatt successfully showing his knack for predicting odds and Maysilee charming the audience with her harsh critiques of members of the audience’s fashion choices. Lou Lou’s interview, however, goes off the rails with her continually shouting ‘You’ll murder us’ after being asked what will happen after all the tributes part of the careers alliance are dead until she eventually faints (or is ‘switched off’ as Haymitch suspects).

Finally, Haymitch gives his interview and charms the audience with a close-to-the truth tale which paints him as the naughty but not dangerous rascal Drusilla advised him to be. The chapter closes out with Plutarch prepping the District 12 tributes for a photo shoot. Before taking any photos/footage, he privately leads Haymitch to a phone. Haymitch picks up the phone to hear the voice of Lenore Dove.

Review – Is Chapter 13 of Sunrise on the Reaping Good?

Yes! Effie’s introduction was really fun to read and as always, the interviews prove to be a really great opportunity for us to get to know a little bit more about many of the other tributes.

It was really interesting to see the differences between the two alliances during the interviews as well as how the audience reacted to some of the different behaviours of the tributes.

Lou Lou’s interview was obviously the most intriguing and the way in which she was so quickly ‘shut off’ somehow, confirms that the tributes were right to have their suspicions about the Capitol’s level of control over her.

The plot twist at the end of Lenore Dove being on the phone makes for a particularly effective cliffhanger as her continued mentioning from Haymitch has us desperate to know a bit more about her (well, that and her potential connection to Lucy Gray).

Discussion – Were You Satisfied With The Way The Interviews Went Down In Haymitch’s Hunger Games?

The bar for the pre-Hunger Games interview has been set pretty high in the other books, mostly thanks to Peeta to be honest. 🤰

I think the interviews in this chapter did live up to the usual drama they entail with Lou Lou’s taking most of the credit for this. For the purpose of the story, I thoughts the interviews were very realistic and interesting to read as we see that the alliance is likely going to be a major factor in these games playing out very differently than they normally do.

I liked that Haymitch had a short and sweet interview which felt a little more grounded and the chapter didn’t steer towards an obvious cliffhanger such as some shocking moment during his interview.

What are your thoughts?

That wraps up my thoughts on Chapter 13! Let me know yours in the comments below.