The perfect order to learn The Starvation Video games novels in earlier than Dawn on the Reaping comes out

Earlier this week, Hunger Games followers around the globe have been starstruck by the official trailer for the newest installment within the Starvation Video games franchise: Dawn on the Reaping. The prequel follows a 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy as he is thrust into the Capitol’s second Quarter Quell, the place twice as many teenage tributes than normal are whisked away to the Starvation Video games to battle to the dying.

We lastly get a glimpse of the particular person Haymitch was earlier than the fiftieth Starvation Video games, how he grew to become the person we grew to know in The Starvation Video games trilogy, and the cracks within the basis of what we thought was a rock-solid entrance the Capitol introduced. Lengthy earlier than Katniss Everdeen, there have been different sparks making an attempt to catch fireplace at midnight.

Stacked with stars like Elle Fanning, Ralph Fiennes, Mckenna Grace, Joseph Zada, and extra, the Dawn on the Reaping film brings characters new and outdated again to life on the massive display screen. However e book readers know that there is much more element between the pages than on the silver display screen, so to get the absolute best expertise, you will need to learn each single Starvation Video games e book earlier than the film comes out on November 20, 2026.

However there are prequels, sequels, and plenty of debate on find out how to learn them. I imagine there’s just one order if you’d like each little trace and element to make your jaw drop — listed below are all of the Starvation Video games books and the most effective order to learn them in.

What number of Starvation Video games books are there?

5 completely different books, 100 completely different heartbreaks

There are at the moment 5 Starvation Video games novels: The Starvation Video games (e book 1), Catching Hearth (e book 2), Mockingjay (e book 3), A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (prequel 1), and Dawn on the Reaping (prequel 2). The primary e book, The Starvation Video games, was launched in late 2008, and was adopted by Catching Hearth in 2009 and Mockingjay in 2010. Suzanne made certain to have a fast turnout, and followers could not get sufficient.

Ten years after Mockingjay (and 4 live-action motion pictures that introduced Panem to life on-screen), Suzanne Collins bestowed a brand-new story on Starvation Video games followers: A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a prequel detailing the early days of the Starvation Video games custom and following a younger Coriolanus Snow, who would develop into one of the vital attention-grabbing (and acquainted) villains in trendy literature. Not solely does it additionally element his difficult relationship with Lucy Grey, a tribute from District 12 chosen to compete within the tenth Starvation Video games, nevertheless it additionally gives a more in-depth take a look at the construction of the early video games and Capitol life from the within. A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was shortly tailored right into a film solely three years later.

And the dystopian writer wasn’t completed but. In summer time 2024, each a brand new prequel and its film adaptation have been introduced on the identical day. It was referred to as Dawn on the Reaping, and it might inform the story of Haymitch Abernathy, the District 12 victor of the fiftieth Starvation Video games, and Katniss’s future mentor. Followers have been ecstatic (myself included) to study the whole lot in regards to the second Quarter Quell. The e book got here out in March 2025, and was extra detailed, devastating, and tragic than anybody may have predicted. Now, the film’s official trailer is out, and readers are on the sting of their seats to see the characters delivered to life by such a gifted and book-accurate solid.

The perfect order to learn all of the Starvation Video games novels

Two choices, however just one is correct if you happen to’re studying for the primary time

As a result of the occasions of A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Dawn on the Reaping happen earlier than the unique Starvation Video games trilogy, you may assume that it is a good suggestion to learn the books in chronological order (beginning with the prequels). If it is your first time studying, I can not warn you towards doing this sufficient. Initially, the tip of Dawn on the Reaping accommodates spoilers for Katniss’s story — in truth, whenever you attain the tip of the novel, you notice that it was the older model of Haymitch’s memoir.

A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, whereas it particulars the earliest Starvation Video games that we all know of (the tenth), is not essentially a e book in regards to the video games in any respect — it serves as extra of an perception into who President Snow was and the way he got here to be the villain we all know. The protagonist, Lucy Grey, additionally helps set main themes and particulars that can develop into essential in each Katniss and Haymitch’s tales and in District 12 as an entire.

Despite the fact that the unique trilogy comes after, the prequels aren’t in any respect required to know Suzanne Collins’s world-building. Actually, Collins is understood for her consideration to element, unreliable narrators, and particularly warnings about propaganda — if you happen to knew about any of the occasions earlier than Katniss’s story, it might damage the emotional impression that floored tens of millions of readers around the globe again and again.

Even if you happen to’ve already seen the films, studying the books for the primary time on this order will nonetheless ship these jaw-dropping moments:

1. The Hunger Games
2. Catching Fire
3. Mockingjay
4. A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
5. Sunrise on the Reaping

That is the order of publication, and the absolute best studying order for first-time readers or anybody new to the Starvation Video games novels. Nonetheless, if you happen to’re a seasoned fan trying to do a reread to memorize each little element earlier than the Dawn on the Reaping film comes out in November, may I recommend the chronological studying order:

1. A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
2. Dawn on the Reaping
3. The Starvation Video games
4. Catching Hearth
5. Mockingjay

For those who’ve already learn the books, studying the collection in chronological order won’t solely assist you to keep on high of the timeline, but in addition put every character’s arc into true linear perspective. As a seasoned Everlark shipper and Starvation Video games fan since 2008, I will be doing my reread in chronological order — doubtless subsequent to a field of tissues.