UGH. That was my initial reaction to finding out the new Hunger Games novel was from about dear Coriolanus Snow. UGH. This was my reaction 10 minutes ago when I finally finished said novel. I said I would be a good sport and give it my all but damn. This thing took it out of me. The problem here was that near the end of each Part, things would amp up and get good and entertaining. And then it would drag on through the entire next Part and then build up and get exciting again and so forth a third time.

I commend all the references to the original trilogy, and I enjoyed learning the origins of the songs, how certain parts of the games were developed and getting a clue as to why Snow hated Katniss so intensely from the get go. But, there were so many new minor characters I didn't care one ounce about. And the ones I did care about I didn't get enough of or any closure for. I also appreciated the small moments where we would see some of Snow's true person come to light, but he came fully out too quickly in the end. Kind of reminded me of how they did Dany dirty in Game of Thrones.

All in all this book could have been at least a third shorter and we still would have gotten the same information. There was so much lallygagging going on inside Snow's brain and within each Part of the book where nothing truly important seemed to happen.

I was hoping to be more satisfied than I expected when this book was announced but alas, I'm still here wishing for a Haymitch story.