A triumph of a prequel.

In my opinion, there are few book series that compete with Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games in terms of world building. I buy into everything she sells and could devour book after book if she decides to write more.

To write a book about young Coriolanus Snow is to really unpack why The Hunger Games still exist during Katniss’ time and how they got to a point of pure entertainment for capital citizens. While Snow didn’t create the games, he definitely is the reason they have continued for 65 more years. When I read this the first time, I sympathized with Coryo for a majority of the book. He knew what he wanted and was good at getting it and that is typically what you hope for for a protagonist. Of course you have the person he becomes in the back of your mind but Collins does a great job of allowing you to still care about what happens to him; at least until the third part where things start to fall apart. The second time around, I was able to really see his “me before you” mentality all the way through. Which, in my opinion, made Snow more interesting. He’s always flirting with the line between good and bad, even as an 18 year old. Instead of the big reveal of him “turning evil”, I saw it in him the whole time.

Lucy Gray is such an interesting character. I wished we got just one chapter from her pov. For this read, I was really able to see her as the songbird AND the snake. She is just as good a manipulator as Snow and I like to think she was manipulating him the whole time. She is alive and well in my mind. I refuse to think otherwise.

Suzanne Collins please hear my plea for another book in this era from Tigris’ pov!!!!!!!