Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Release Date: May 19, 2020
Reviewer: Jessica Higgins
Fans of The Hunger Games will not want to miss this prequel that will have readers view President Snow in a new way you never thought possible!
The Hunger Games is about to have its tenth game and eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is getting ready to be one of the first mentors the games have ever had. His family has fallen on hard times and it is up to him to repair the powerful Snow name and prove they will come out on top. The odds are not in his favor as he is given the assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest assignment he could have gotten. If he is able to help her succeed and win the games, he will no longer be looked down upon and be able to resume the high status his family has always held. If she fails so does he. It doesn’t take long though for him to develop feelings for her making his job that much harder.
Fans of The Hunger Games will not want to miss this newest addition. I picked it up knowing there was no way I would ever feel any empathy for President Snow, the villain of the first three books. Within the first few chapters, I forgot to look at him in that way and was wrapped up in this story and how a young Snow developed into the foul, loathsome dictator we know from the series. Suzanne Collins did an outstanding job turning this character around for us and making him be seen in a whole new light. So many little references to the trilogy are tied in here and each time I came to a page with these I would find myself smiling. We find out the origin of the song Katniss sings to Rue and the song she sings in MockingJay. These instances were some of my favorites. If you pay close attention to names throughout, you will be able to connect them to descendants later on in the story. So much is tied while it is its own story. If you’ve read The Hunger Games, you are probably like me in thinking there is no way you could every feel anything other than hatred for the character of Snow. Don’t be surprised when you walk away shaking your head at how wrong you were. The book read quickly and was thoroughly enjoyable. I recommend this one to all readers that have read The Hunger Games and want a look into the origin of Snow and so much more.
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As much as I ate up the original Hunger Games trilogy, I was beyond disappointed with this one. I wasn’t able to find empathy for Snow as you were. There needed to be something that inarguably could help explain his villainy later on but right from the beginning his selfishness knew no bounds. From what I’ve seen with this one, people either love it or hate it; There’s not really many in the middle. Not every book is for everyone though. I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it yourself 🙂
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