The new Hunger Games prequel just dropped, and BookTokers are convinced that author Suzanne Collins is getting back at them for all the thirst edits they made about the franchise’s dictator, Coriolanus Snow.
Last month, Scholastic released Sunrise on the Reaping, the newest addition to the Hunger Games saga, and the book is way darker and more brutal than fans expected. This time, we follow a young Haymitch Abernathy, long before he became the cynical, booze-soaked mentor fans know and love from the franchise’s original entries. The book delves deep into the brutal Hunger Games Haymitch was forced to endure—one of the deadliest in history—revealing how he was broken by the violence and trauma of it all.
With its body horror and political messaging, Sunrise is Collins’ grimmest book yet, but that hasn’t stopped it from flying off the shelves. It sold over 1.5 million copies in its first week alone, and is still sitting at the top of most best sellers lists. But to readers’ shock, it’s not just the usual fans of dystopian novels snatching it up. It’s also blowing up on BookTok.
For the uninitiated, BookTok is the bookish corner of TikTok, where readers go wild over books with hot men—think Sarah J. Mass’ hugely popular faerie smut series, Colleen Hoover’s bad boy romance books, and Leigh Rivers’ “dark romance” novels.
It’s a horny place filled with even hornier books, so it came as a shock that a grim story like Sunrise was pulling numbers on the app, garnering thousands of reaction videos from users.
“I finished the book. I love reading. I’m so happy,” one TikToker said while weeping.
“This is so f****** cruel,” another user proclaimed, as tears stream down their face.
Watching people crash out on TikTok because of this book has been incredibly entertaining (no judgment—I cried too). But what’s even more enjoyable are the videos and comments claiming that Collins wrote this book as sweet, sweet revenge on BookTok for all the thirst toks about Coriolanus Snow.
In 2023, the film adaptation of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes hit theaters, telling the story of young Snow’s (Tom Blyth) rise to power. After its release, BookTok went feral, creating thirst edits of Snow by the thousands, not at all caring that Collins probably didn’t want people romanticizing Snow considering he is meant to be emblematic of capitalistic and authoritarian systems she seeks to criticize in her novels.
The Hot Snow edits were such a huge phenomenon that even Lionsgate, the production company behind the film franchise, even made one. This is why BookTok thinks Collins saw those posts, hated them, and now wants to get revenge on the people who created them (it’s worth pointing out that Snow is downright vile in the new book).
“They will suffer for their perversion,” a TikToker pretending to be Suzanne Collins declared. “Every time they refer to Snow as Daddy… take a child.”
“She kept tally of every edit she saw and said y’all need to get it together,” another user said, also blaming the app’s thirsting craze for what happens in the new book.
Some TikTokers even began begging and pleading with Collins to cease her revenge.
“Suzanne stop punishing us 😭😭.”
And when that didn’t work, they blamed each other in the comments of thirst toks.
“Y’all are the reason Haymitch suffered in the new book💀.”
Did Collins really make Sunrise on the Reaping her most devastating book yet as a way of getting back at BookTok? Probably not, but the app’s current self-chastising about their sex-crazed ways has been a good reminder for everyone. Maybe don’t thirst after fictional dictators, because if you do, there’s a good chance the author will make you suffer for it with their next book.
