If you’ve ever stood in front of a bookstore display and tried to figure out where to start with The Hunger Games (or which order to revisit them for the hundredth time), Suzanne Collins has officially put the debate to rest. In a new interview tied to the release of the gorgeous new collector’s edition of The Hunger Games, Collins finally weighed in on the question fans have been arguing about for years: prequels first, or publication order? Her answer is firm. Read them in the order they were published.
For newcomers and longtime fans alike, Collins recommends starting with the original trilogy (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay), then moving on to the two prequels (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Sunrise on the Reaping). The reason? The series was designed as a “thematic conversation” about power, war, and authoritarianism, and reading it in publication order is what gives that conversation its full weight, especially the way each new book reframes the ones that came before it.
It’s a particularly relevant question right now with Sunrise on the Reaping set to hit theaters and a wave of new readers picking up the series for the first time. Whether you’re a Hunger Games veteran considering a reread or someone diving in fresh, here’s the Suzanne Collins-approved reading order in full.
1. The Hunger Games
The book that started it all. Collins recommends beginning here because the original trilogy is the emotional and political foundation of the series. Every theme, every piece of foreshadowing, every layer of meaning that surfaces in the prequels lands harder if you know Katniss’s story first. 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen volunteers in her sister’s place for the 74th Hunger Games, a televised fight to the death between 24 kids from the 12 districts of Panem, and what unfolds is one of the most influential YA novels of the past two decades. If you haven’t read it since high school, the new collector’s edition is a genuinely beautiful excuse to revisit it.
2. Catching Fire
The middle book of the original trilogy is where the series’ political stakes really sharpen, and reading it second is non-negotiable in Collins’s reading order because of how it sets up the rebellion. Katniss and Peeta have survived their first Games and are forced back into the public eye on a victory tour through the districts, only to discover their defiance has sparked rumors of uprising. With a new Quarter Quell arena and a Capitol determined to make an example of them, this is where the world of Panem starts cracking open in a real way.
3. Mockingjay
The final book of the original trilogy is where the “thematic conversation” Collins talks about really comes into focus. As the Capitol’s grip on Panem unravels and a full rebellion takes shape, Katniss becomes the reluctant symbol of the resistance, forced to weigh duty, grief, and love against the cost of revolution. Reading it third (and not jumping into the prequels yet) is essential because everything Collins explores in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Sunrise on the Reaping hits differently when you already know how the story ends.
4. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Now we go back in time. Set 64 years before the events of The Hunger Games, this prequel follows a young, ambitious Coriolanus Snow (yes, that Snow) as he’s assigned to mentor a girl from District 12 in the 10th Hunger Games. Collins’s reasoning for placing this book fourth is one of the most compelling parts of her reading recommendation: knowing the future President Snow first is what makes watching his slow descent into ruthlessness so devastating. Read it before Mockingjay, and you lose half the emotional weight.
5. Sunrise on the Reaping
The most recent addition to the series takes us back to the 50th Hunger Games (the Second Quarter Quell) and follows a 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy as he’s forced into the arena 24 years before Katniss. Collins has said this book was inspired by philosopher David Hume’s idea of “implicit submission” and the ease with which the many are governed by the few, which makes it the perfect capstone to her recommended order. By the time you reach this one, you’ve already met an older Haymitch, you understand the Capitol’s machinery, and you know exactly how Panem’s story ends, all of which makes his fight to survive land like a gut punch.
Andrea Navarro, Assistant Editor
Andrea is a writer and editor with 10+ years of experience in women’s lifestyle and commerce content. She is based in Los Angeles, California, and her work appears in Vogue, Glamour, The Zoe Report, and many more.
