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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book did a good job making a dictator seem... if not sympathetic, than understandable. I can appreciate the difficulty of writing a unanimous villain as a protagonist. The ending felt pretty abrupt - Corio spends so much of the book strategizing his next move and then he just... decides to run into the woods? Hmm.
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This prequel dives into the early years of the Hunger Games, focusing on a young Coriolanus Snow and the world that shaped him. It’s less about action and more about character, watching his hunger for power and control grow in uncomfortable detail. The brutality of the Games in their primitive form is chilling, and the themes of poverty, ambition, and manipulation run throughout. While I didn’t love it the way I did the trilogy, it’s an interesting and haunting look at the roots of a tyrant.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Emotional abuse, War
Minor: Alcohol
This prequel pulls back the curtain on a younger Coriolanus Snow, showing the cracks that eventually harden into the tyrant we know from the original trilogy. It explores the early brutality of the Games, far less sophisticated but far more savage in their rawness. Poverty, social hierarchy, and the desperate clawing for survival form the foundation of this story. While the insight into Snow’s psychology and ambition is fascinating, it’s also deeply uncomfortable. Watching the seeds of cruelty, manipulation, and warped love take root. Unlike The Hunger Games trilogy, this one lingers more on character study than action, and the tension comes from what you know he’ll become, not the hope of his redemption.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.7? it was def really compelling, and in some ways fun to get lost back in this world. i kept wanting to pick it up and see what would happen next. even though of course some of it, esp the hunger games themselves were pretty dire. it had been so long since i read/watched the hunger games that i couldn't quite recall how bad snow was, but then i looked it up and realized he was sorta the main villain. so it was cool that they tried to humanize him, i'm always down for that angle. and i think the first parts of the book succeeded in doing that. explaining how his family had lost all their money and pretend to be rich, as compared with his colleagues in the capital made him seem more sympathetic. but then once he was forced into being a peacekeeper, you could see the ways in which his upbringing (the propaganda that had always been around him) convinced him of the need for capital control to keep society from falling into chaos. in some ways, it felt like the conversation some people are having regarding the role of police in our society. do people need to constantly under surveillance and the threat of punishment, or can they be trusted to act as good people on their own.
the pacing was a bit odd, only in that the end felt a bit abrupt. the epilogue about how he created the victors village, and learned that his dad really created the hunger games (and that was the big beef between his dad dean highbottom, and then he poisoned highbottom) all felt a bit rushed. but it did make me open to re-watching the movies. it was unclear if he killed lucy gray at the end, but i guess tnwok.
the pacing was a bit odd, only in that the end felt a bit abrupt. the epilogue about how he created the victors village, and learned that his dad really created the hunger games (and that was the big beef between his dad dean highbottom, and then he poisoned highbottom) all felt a bit rushed. but it did make me open to re-watching the movies. it was unclear if he killed lucy gray at the end, but i guess tnwok.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes