NEW YORK – It’s a Monday night in New York City and young adults are lining up by district to await their fate onstage.
No, this isn’t “The Hunger Games,” but the fans at Barnes & Noble Union Square probably would have volunteered as tribute regardless. Dressed in cosplay and hair braided down the side like it’s 2008, they answered jeopardy questions so niche it had Scholastic editor and publisher David Levithan consulting his notes.
In other words, it’s the midnight release party of “Sunrise on the Reaping.”
“The Hunger Games” raised an entire generation of readers, many of whom will revisit Panem with “Sunrise” now as adults. It’s been five years since Suzanne Collins released prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” after a 10-year hiatus from the series. Perhaps every generation has its version of “Hunger Games,” but because social media was in its infancy when Collins’ 2008 series debuted, it became much more than a popular book – it was early fandom culture, fodder for cosplay, the games middle schoolers played in the woods and a gateway into dystopian literature.
“The dream in children’s and teen literature is to have those books that people come up to you 15 to 20 years later and say ‘I read this book when I was 15 and I’m still reading your books,’” Levithan says. “I think we permeated the culture because it means something, not just because it’s mere entertainment.”
Christina Agosta, 30, and Aliza Kessler, 29, met through a mutual love of the series a decade ago. Now at the “Sunrise” release party, they remember going to the midnight releases of the movies – Kessler even went when she was studying abroad, even though she didn’t understand the language and no one else dressed up.
“This is my thing,” Kessler says. “It doesn’t matter where in the world I am – this is home.”
Raising generations of critical thinkers and dystopian readers
When Levithan first read Collins’ manuscript of “The Hunger Games,” he was left with only two words – “Holy sh–.”
Months before the first book came out, a Publishers Weekly article called “The Hunger Games” a “dark horse” breakout. Another Newsweek article in the same month remarked on the new trend of “Apocalypse Lit for Kids.” The series’ astronomical success ushered in an era of teen dystopian literature followed by similar bestsellers like “Divergent” and “The Maze Runner.” It only helped that online fandom culture was on the rise across Tumblr, Facebook and the newly minted Instagram.
What was striking to Levithan, working in publishing, was the rise of plots and characters that interrogated structures of power. Riley Vaske, 28, tells USA TODAY “The Hunger Games” was the first book series that trusted her to understand such big concepts.
“When you’re a young person, I feel like it really bolsters your confidence a little bit when someone is writing something that they’re like ‘You can handle this,’” Vaske says. “It just laid the foundation for me understanding how to critique these wider social structures.”
That lens for critical thinking is precisely why Tom Paradis teaches a course on “The Hunger Games” to freshman students at Butler University in Indianapolis. Paradis has written two books on Collins’ worldbuilding, one about Appalachian geography in the books and the other about ballads and tribute music. His “Unpacking the Hunger Games” course uses the series as a “life-long learning” tool to teach students how to research and critique text. They get to choose their area of focus – communication students often examine the Games as reality TV, political science students look at the Capitol, pharmaceutical students study Mrs. Everdeen’s apothecary and psychology students examine symptoms of PTSD in Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch.
The genius of Collins is how many subtle themes she packs into the series, says Paradis. Many of his students have only watched the movies. After they read the books in class, they walk away with a new appreciation.
“With today’s students you’ve really got to connect their own lives, their own society, with what they’re learning in their classes,” Paradis says. “Otherwise, they’re not going to be very engaged with your material.”
Collins’ writing is “so much fun to try to decode and interpret,” he says.
Young readers continue to look up to Katniss Everdeen
Katniss herself is a large draw for many readers (not to mention the Halloween costumes). In a sea of young male hero protagonists, “The Hunger Games” offered a wholly complex female main character. For some readers, it was the first time they’d encountered that.
And everyone was reading it. For Kitty Shortt, 24, who read “Harry Potter” at a time when her classmates considered it “nerdy,” the mainstream support for a dystopian novel with a female protagonist was formative.
“Adults in our life were saying that it was a good book … boys in our class would also read it and think that it was a good book,” says Shortt. “The most powerful fandom is a fandom of young girls, and I stand by that.”
Damia McKeithan, 21, says she appreciated the way Collins showcased a “different type of strength and femininity” as readers grew up alongside Katniss.
“These women are often against all odds and they’re faced with all these setbacks and they literally never let it stop them. They keep going. They do whatever the hell they want. They’re not swayed by anybody – that, I love,” McKeithan tells USA TODAY at the midnight release party in New York.
I got radicalized at ‘The Hunger Games’
Few modern books enter the mainstream vernacular – and stay there – the way “The Hunger Games” has. “The Capitol” has become social shorthand for out-of-touch billionaires. Last year, the Met Gala drew comparisons from social media users as celebrities strutted in fantastical fashions while wars raged in Gaza and Ukraine. Hold up three fingers in the series’ famous salute and it’s understood as a sign of solidarity in the face of adversity.
From the beginning, Levithan was pleasantly surprised with how young people engaged with the story.
“They love the characters, the love triangle, all of that was there, but they really wanted to talk about ‘What does this say about authority? What does this say about war? What does this say about how society treats people on the margins?’” Levithan says. “People often condescend to young adult literature and think that it’s beginner’s literature but it’s not – it grapples with serious, great themes. And that’s exactly what Suzanne did and readers replied with the same maturity.”
Many readers told USA TODAY they’ve seen the series’ themes bleed into Gen Z activism.
“Suzanne Collins writes about politics in a way that I feel is accessible to children, at least to a degree. The way it teaches you to question authority and wonder how you can improve the systems around you,” says Kellie Veltri, a cohost of the “Rereading the Revolution” podcast. “She does change lives.”
‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ is an excuse to revisit the revolution
Former coworkers Veltri and Daphne LaPlante started “Rereading the Revolution” a year ago as they revisited teen dystopian favorites like “The Hunger Games.” As a teen, LaPlante found a refuge online connecting with other readers who loved the series after her family moved across the country. Veltri was part of a “Battle of the Books” club in middle school, where she was the team’s resident “Hunger Games” expert.
“I’ve read these books so many times for the past 15 years and every time I read them, I get something new from them,” LaPlante says. “Especially being at a different place in my life and being more aware of the political climate and what Suzanne Collins is saying.”
“When I first read this, I was 11 years old – I was not old enough to be reaped in The Hunger Games. And now I’m 10 years older than Katniss,” says Veltri. “It is so much more salient reading it as an adult … I think that emphasizes the political themes even harder, the things that you wouldn’t have necessarily picked up – the fascism allegories, the allegories about real-life government.”
Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you’re reading at [email protected].
