Reading Vlog & Review: https://bit.ly/3gKPd9E

The Capitol is slowly rebuilding itself ten years on from a war that almost killed them all, and now 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow is helping to redeem his family name by becoming one of the first mentors to the Hunger Games tributes. When Snow receives the District 12-female tribute, he's disappointed but soon realises that Lucy Gray Baird has many tricks up her sleeves, and she may be his answer to glory.

This book is a fascinating character study into the person we know as President Snow, and what exactly makes him tick - and why he believes in The Hunger Games, and that the games are so very important to Capitol morale and to squash any ideas/hopes for a rebellion.

I loved learning about the history of The Hunger Games and what they were like at the start - very much a non-event for the Capitol and for the districts. And how Katniss's games were HEAVENLY compared to the first decade of games. I loved seeing the thoughts and discussions in class that would eventually end up being integral parts of the Games (sponsors/mentors/interviews). In a weird way, Snow helped make the tributes' lives better for a short while before they ended up dead or a true slave to the Capitol for the rest of their life. The two-week respite of glamour and plentiful food/drink to ensure true entertainment for the crowd might be the cruelest thing of all.

Snow isn't necessarily a bad person in this but he's a person with a greedy ambition, and a family name to protect which makes him dangerous, and ready to do what he takes. In a weird way, I found a lot of parallels to him and Katniss - both helping their families to survive, both living in poverty and they are both survivalists. But while Katniss is a survivor and will do what it takes for others and those she loves, Snow is doing it for himself and his own eventual glory. We know Snow has his Grandma'am and Tigris but we also know from Mockingjay that Snow eventually cast Tigris out and forgot about her (there has to be a novella in that somewhere. I'd love to know more!).

While there is some romance in this, I never really bought into it. I think Snow liked the idea of being in love with someone, and someone being in love with him, more than the girl. There's several times he refers to Lucy as something that belongs to him and I don't think he ever really, truly loved her

which is obvious when how quickly he is able to leave her and possibly kill her at the end

.

The first two thirds of this book were stronger than the last third for me, and when we returned to District 12, I found myself not as intrigued in the story setting as we already know this place so well from Katniss. It was a bit interesting seeing life in summer rather than autumn/winter as seen in the original trilogy.

There are also little easter eggs for real fans of the trilogy in here to pick up on - family names of characters in the original/possible ancestors, a real look at jabberjays and mockingjays and then the origin of the Hob and the makings of the songs that Katniss brought back into the arena (ooh wouldn't you just LOVE to see Snow's face when she sang both of them!).