Book Cover

Snow lands on top.

Previous Hunger Games book reviews:

• Mockingjay
• Catching Fire
• The Hunger Games

# Review

This is a prequel to the Hunger Games franchise and follows an eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow during his youth in the Capital. The once-mighty Snow family has fallen on hard times and Coriolanus is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird, the tribute from District 12 in the Hunger Games. Coriolanus must leverage this opportunity to regain the Snow family’s prestige.

While this book has some young adult themes, such as romance, overall this book feels more mature than the main Hunger Games trilogy. The protagonist, Coriolanus, is a very nuanced character and this book is not just a typical villain origin story. The worldbuilding is very good and Collins describes the various parts of the Capital and the backstory of the civil war. The story does drag on a bit and Coriolanus feels very passive for a protagonist, but I found his character arc to be quite good. I especially enjoyed how Collins portrayed Coriolanus’ internal dilemmas and the cynical way Coriolanus views the people around him. The supporting characters such as Sejanus and Lucy Gray also do a good job shaping Coriolanus’ character. Finally, I really liked the ending, which I found very fitting and almost poetic.

# Conclusion

My favourite book from the series.

# Overall rating: 8.1

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