Books Like Sunrise on the Reaping

Why Each Pick

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

The other Hunger Games prequel. At the 10th Games, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is assigned to mentor District 12's tribute, a singer named Lucy Gray Baird. Like Sunrise on the Reaping, it shows how the Games and their spectacle were built and who profits from them. It is told from the Capitol's side by the future villain, slower and more political, at 528 pages.

1984 by George Orwell

For readers who found Sunrise on the Reaping's take on propaganda the most chilling part. In Orwell's totalitarian state, the Party rewrites history, watches everyone and decides what is true. Like Collins, Orwell is fascinated by who controls the story of what happened. It is an adult classic with no arena, bleaker and more claustrophobic, at 328 pages.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

For children turned against each other. After a plane crash, a group of schoolboys stranded on an island try to govern themselves, and the attempt slides into violence. It shares the Games' central horror of young people forced to fight to survive, but no Capitol arranges it: Golding blames human nature instead. It is a short classic at 224 pages. Content note: violent deaths of children.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

For gifted kids trained for war by adults who never tell them the whole truth. Six-year-old Ender Wiggin is sent to an orbiting Battle School, where war games grow more brutal and the adults manipulate everything. Like Haymitch, Ender is a pawn who learns to read the people running the game. It is military science fiction set in space, with no districts or reaping.

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

For a brutal empire that tests its young people to the death. Laia spies inside a military academy to save her brother, and Elias, a soldier there, wants out of the empire he serves. Like Sunrise on the Reaping, it is about cruelty built into a system and the cost of defying it. It is fantasy, with two narrators and a romance. Content note: graphic violence.

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

For a society divided by power, where the ruling class turns everything into a show. Mare, a Red with no rights, discovers she has a power of her own and is forced to pose as a Silver at court. It shares the Hunger Games' rich-versus-poor anger and its rebellion. It is a fantasy with superpowers and palace intrigue, lighter and more romantic than Collins.

Legend by Marie Lu

For a republic that lies to its people and two teenagers who uncover it. Day, the country's most wanted criminal, and June, its star military prodigy, are set against each other in a dark future Los Angeles. Like Sunrise on the Reaping, it is about seeing through official propaganda. It is faster and more action-driven, told in two voices, at 305 pages.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

For teenagers trapped inside a deadly test designed by adults. Thomas wakes in a glade surrounded by a monster-filled maze with no memory of who he is. Like the Games, the maze is a cruel experiment watched by people who never appear. It is a mystery-driven adventure with a mostly male cast, and it reveals its world slowly rather than through politics.