The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
Katniss Everdeen volunteers in her sister's place for a televised contest in which young people fight to the death.
Book 1 of 5, published 2008.
All reading orders
The Hunger Games reading order
The Hunger Games began as a trilogy and later gained two prequels, so the order you read them in is a real choice. Here are all five books, in the order they were published and in the order of the events they tell.
Where to start
Begin with The Hunger Games, the book that started everything. The two prequels look back on the world it introduces, so they tend to mean more once you know that world.
The series includes violence among teenagers, so check the books before you hand them to a younger reader.
Publication order
Publication order is the one most readers follow: the trilogy first, then the two prequels in the order Collins wrote them.
Catching Fire
Suzanne Collins
The second book, set after the first Games, widens the story from one arena to the whole country of Panem.
Book 2 of 5, published 2009.
Mockingjay
Suzanne Collins
The third and last book of the trilogy, in which the conflict at the heart of the series comes to a head.
Book 3 of 5, published 2010.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Suzanne Collins
A prequel about the young Coriolanus Snow at the tenth Hunger Games, set decades before the trilogy.
Book 4 of 5, published 2020.
Sunrise on the Reaping
Suzanne Collins
A prequel about Haymitch Abernathy, who is chosen for the fiftieth Hunger Games, in the same world as the trilogy.
Book 5 of 5, published 2025.
Chronological order
By story time the prequels come first: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set at the tenth Hunger Games and Sunrise on the Reaping at the fiftieth, both before the trilogy.
- The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
- Sunrise on the Reaping
- The Hunger Games
- Catching Fire
- Mockingjay
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Keep reading
Want more reads in the same spirit? Books like The Hunger Games.
Watching the film? Read it before you watch it: Sunrise on the Reaping.
More reading orders
- Harry Potter reading orderHarry Potter is a seven-book series, and the books were written to be read in the order they came out.
- Empyrean reading orderThe Empyrean series began with Fourth Wing, a dragon-rider fantasy that became a bestseller, and each book picks up where the last stopped.
- Dune reading orderFrank Herbert wrote six Dune novels between 1965 and 1985, and each is set later than the one before.