It Must Be Karma: Second Hunger Games Prequel Announced.

 Every once and a while, remarkable coincidences happen that just make you pause and take wonder.  I loved the Hunger Games series, and wrote both my first YA blog posts and my first published book chapter about that series, with a particular emphasis on psychology and trauma and the roles of both Pavlovian conditioning and PTSD in the series. 

I read the prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, when it was published in 2020, and thought it was pretty good, but lacked the magic of the original trilogy. I think the idea of a protagonist whose morals are steadily degrading throughout the novel, as opposed to the growth we saw in Katniss and Peeta, made the story too depressing for me to fully enjoy. Though I had every intention of seeing the movie when it came out in November 2023, somehow I never found the time. 

Therefore, when I found the movie showing on my airplane flight to Puerto Rico last week, I put aside the audiobooks I had brought, and watched that film instead.  I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would, and it made me want to revisit the book.  I also had a thought that, given that it has been four years since the first prequel was published, that Ms. Collins was probably not planning any others. 

Thus. I was as surprised and delighted as anyone today when a second prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping, was announced today, for publication in 2025. There will apparently be a 40-year time jump since The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, placing this story at the time of the second Quarter Quell.  Perhaps this novel might be more correctly called a prequell? It is certainly an interesting choice, given that we already know the outcome of these particular Games.  But it will certainly be interesting to see young Haymitch, and meet Maysilee and family. and perhaps even  Katniss's parents. 

We might even get an answer to the question of whether Lucy Gray Baird survived Snow's attack.  After seeing the movie, where she seemed to be in the midst of composing the iconic "Hanging Tree" song shortly before the catastrophic events of the end, I am thinking this is a more likely possibility.  Unless she left a written version of the tune and lyrics behind, it is hard to understand how the song survived to become an anthem of the Rebellion, if Lucy Gray didn't.  

I am going to refer you to Professor Elizabeth Baird-Hardy (no relation!), who has examined the Hunger Games franchise on a much more in-depth level than I ever could.  She has already posted a terrific blog on the subject, with some great ideas about what we can expect.  I particularly love the idea of Donald Sutherland's son Kiefer playing the middle-aged Cornelius Snow. And pay close attention to the possible significance of the dates of both the announcement and the publication!