Coriolanus Snow must prove that Snow always lands on top.
It is time for the 10th annual Hunger Games and 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow has been chosen to be a mentor to the tributes, a new tactic implemented by the Capital to try to get more views for the event. For Snow, the odds are not in his favor. His family has fallen into debt, barely able to keep food on their own table while trying to keep up the illusion they have the same power they used to. Snow is determined to prove himself as a mentor, in hopes of getting a scholarship so he can continue his schooling and get his family back on track. When he is given the female tribute from District 12, the poorest district with the least likely chance of winning, he must find a way to get her through as much of the games as possible, to make himself look like a good mentor.
What Snow doesn’t expect is for Lucy Gray Baird to take the Capitol by storm. At her reaping she shows no fear, singing a song for the views of Panem before comforting the other tribute on live TV. Now in the Capitol she is keeping up her fearless look, grinning for the cameras and keeping herself looking put together. Snow sees this as an opportunity to get people to support her, suggesting to the Gamemakers to let those in power give money and food to the tributes they think will win, and even betting on those they think will make it, expanding the popularity of the Games.
As Snow tries to use his own charisma and power to keep Lucy Gray on top, he also starts to fall for her beauty and charm. After getting one demerit for sneaking her food, he tries to do whatever he can to keep her alive until the end. When she ends up winning via cheating, from his support, he is punished by being told to enlist as a Peacekeeper and finds himself set to District 12. Reeling from the demotion in status, Snow tries to figure out if the feelings he has for Lucy Gray are enough to make him happy. After reuniting with her in 12, he finds himself in a mental battle of staying by her side and doing what he believes is right for the Capital and Panem as whole.
This book is a prequel to the OG series, and in my opinion should be read after. It also is coming out as a movie in November, and though the rest of this review will probably make you think I hate it, I will be seeing it. I’ve always loved the Hunger Games movies and series and I’m excited to see another movie in that world. Now for this book, I think there are many, many others characters I would have rather seen have a prequel book. Overall, I only really cared about Lucy Gray, but a book from her perspective would have essentially been the original series, so I understand why it was Snow.
But much like President Snow in the original series, this man sucks and I don’t always think it is his fault. Though his charm and name get him through a lot, the boy is being used by most of the adults around him, especially the lead Gamemaker (who is in fact a horrible person) and one of the reasons he is so easy to use is because he overall believes in the Capital, and the Hunger Games as a whole. There is a discussion in the book about how when left to our own devices we become nothing more than animals, aka the kids fighting each other in an arena for the nation to see. But much like the OG series, it’s the Capital punishing kids who were barely even alive when the war ended (which is seemingly much worse in the OG series since that’s like 70 years later). Snow is convinced the districts are the problem, when it is pretty obvious the Capital is, but when this is pointed out to him by both Lucy Gray and one of his closer friends Sejanus, he starts to think they are the ones that are insane. Obviously there is a bigger overall moral here, which I understand, but to have this 18-year-old who has just suffered at the hands of the Capital be its biggest cheerleader and be used by the adults in power above him is something else. They created the monster he became, thought by the end of the book you start to realize he wasn’t very far off to begin with.
Near the end of the story, Snow is trying to decide between running away with Lucy Gray and going to District 2 to train to become an Officer, mind you all of this happens within like 2-3 months after he is ‘punished’. When Lucy Gray figures out the he is the one who caused Sejanus to be hung, she runs, just disappearing into the woods. I would have liked to know what happened to her if I’m being honest, I really enjoyed her character overall. When Snow then goes to District 2, he instead finds himself in the Capital, being greeted by the Gamemaker and told that he passed whatever test she had set up for him. She helps him get into school, and he becomes her protégé, and the rest as they say is history. This man also becomes resentful of love, which is something. There is really no mention of him even remotely having feelings for someone before Lucy Gray and though heartbreak can be rough, he blames her more than he blames himself, which was mostly his fault. Also, this man then has the family of his dead friend, who’s death remember HE CAUSED, help get his only family back on their feet. It’s just…wow.
Overall, I still gave the book 3 stars. Why? Because I have always enjoyed Suzanne Collins writing and I adored the OG trilogy. This book didn’t put me off from wanting to see the movie, but it did anger me to my core how much I still hate Snow, which I guess is probably the point. I think it would be neat to see the perspectives of others that are mentioned in the trilogy, or even seeing if there is a connection between Lucy Gray and Katniss’ family. Since we learn that Lucy Gray is the writer of the Hanging Tree song.
I think I was hoping for Snow to have a small redeeming quality, but in fact he does not. He gets used then uses others and then seemingly lives until Katniss stops him. Must have been a fun flashback for him when Katniss showed up.
Like I said before, a solid 3 out of 5 stars.
Maybe I'll write another review when I see the movie too.
Have you read this book? What did you think?
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