While I typically really enjoy LGBT-focused stories, I can’t say I loved this one. The premise of “closeted person has super religious friends and/or family that shun them when they come out” seems a bit overplayed. I didn’t have a problem with the inclusion of a trans grandparent for the main character, like some did, but it did feel a little half-assed. I guess it’s just gotten to the point where it’s exhausting to read about the hatred some harbor towards LGBT (especially T) folks. I wanted to see more of a relationship built between the main character and her step-grandma Dina. I wish that was explored more and less time was spent on trying to get the audience to have a soft spot for characters that wound up being incredibly homophobic. It’s just something I would have preferred to read about.

I’m going to start with the things I liked about this book:

1) The world-building that added on to what we already know from the original trilogy was interesting. I liked the idea of seeing how the Hunger Games as we know them got started.

2) I like Lucy Gray’s character a lot. Her backstory of not really being “from” anywhere touched on the intriguing topic of what life was like before the rebellion.

3) The concept of seeing a perspective other than a tribute was intriguing.

Things I didn’t like:

1) I didn’t like that Snow was our main character. I was not invested in him, and I really didn’t care what happened to him. This made the book very boring. I didn’t care that he got in trouble at school or that he was “in love” with someone. I would have preferred to see a different POV, maybe one that took place during the rebellion.

2) Speaking of love, I hated the romance in this book. I know it wasn’t really meant to be a true romance, but it seemed to come out of nowhere and was so unrealistic. I just couldn’t believe that the love interest would return feelings for Snow.

3) The pacing was overall bad, in my opinion. 75% of the book felt to be about essentially nothing; following Snow to and from class and viewings of the Games. The entire third part felt almost entirely unnecessary, save for the last couple of chapters. I was very bored for a lot of the book.

Overall, as a fan of the original series, I liked seeing how the Games were built up to what we know them as. I’m not sure if it was worth having to trudge through a poorly paced book about a character I can’t sympathize with (despite how hard Collins seemed to be trying to get us to sympathize with him in the beginning)? I’m not sure.