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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
Honestly, it was boring. 50% of the book just describes food.
3.5 stars. Definitely doesn’t read like the original trilogy, this is a much slower story. Interesting to read about Snow’s origin, but it dragged a little. Certainly there were some Easter eggs for fans of the original trilogy that served as fun foreshadowing. Good read, I probably won’t revisit it the way I do the other three.
There's some good ideas in here and Snow is a better choice for a spinoff character than I initially assumed. But the good stuff is weighed down by an inconsistent character arc and an underbaked central relationship, and the book does itself no favors with frequent nods to the main trilogy.
Snow's story is ostensibly about control and given a better treatment could have been an interesting exploration of the fuzzy line between the rule of law and outright tyranny. In practice, however, it's mostly just charting Snow's trajectory into his familiar Hunger Games form with a few pit stops along the way to make some friends and perhaps betray them. Suzanne Collins also delivers a lot of the big character moments quite late, resulting in one or two chapters that are so head-spinning they scarcely make sense.
The plot itself centers Snow's mentor-ship of tribute Lucy Gray from District 12, the district that all Hunger Games stories are contractually required to revolve around. Lucy is a serviceable character and their dynamic has enough plot-driven complications to keep it interesting but it at times feels aimless and eventually gets caught in the gyre of Collins' twisty late chapters. The end result is a quick read that will probably get the job done for serious Hunger Games fans and completionists, and is the book equivalent of empty calories for anyone else.
Rating: 2.5 stars
Snow's story is ostensibly about control and given a better treatment could have been an interesting exploration of the fuzzy line between the rule of law and outright tyranny. In practice, however, it's mostly just charting Snow's trajectory into his familiar Hunger Games form with a few pit stops along the way to make some friends and perhaps betray them. Suzanne Collins also delivers a lot of the big character moments quite late, resulting in one or two chapters that are so head-spinning they scarcely make sense.
The plot itself centers Snow's mentor-ship of tribute Lucy Gray from District 12, the district that all Hunger Games stories are contractually required to revolve around. Lucy is a serviceable character and their dynamic has enough plot-driven complications to keep it interesting but it at times feels aimless and eventually gets caught in the gyre of Collins' twisty late chapters. The end result is a quick read that will probably get the job done for serious Hunger Games fans and completionists, and is the book equivalent of empty calories for anyone else.
Rating: 2.5 stars
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really struggled with this one. Not sure if I didn’t find the story engaging because I’ve already watched the movie or because I felt don’t love rooting for a true villain, but I really had to push to finish this one.
But I never once felt bad for Snow throughout the books. I saw him go through some tough situations but he would immediately talk poorly about other people or be so whiny that I would just roll my eyes before I could feel empathy for him.
Because I reread the Hunger Games series so recently, the contrast was very stark between Snow and Katniss. They actually had some overlap in their experiences due to the war but obviously went totally different directions. I mean everything Snow did was only focused on himself and self preservation. In fact, I honestly don’t quite believe he loved Lucy Gray. In the book, it never felt real having recently read the love between Katniss and Peeta.
It was super interesting to learn more about the backstory of the games though haha
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Damn that’s a good book
dark
emotional
informative
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:
Yes
dark
reflective
tense
medium-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
In a Nutshell: A prequel to the acclaimed Hunger Games trilogy. Villain-origin story of Coriolanus Snow. Excellent continuity from here to the main book series. Works well in its purpose but boring at times, especially in the second half where the “romance” seems to dominate the action. A good option if you want a psychological study of the future President Snow and expect a character-driven storyline than an action-driven one.
Plot Preview:
It’s a big day in the Capitol: the day of the Reaping that will start off the 10th Hunger Games. Eighteen-year-old Coriolanus is determined to excel in his role as the student-mentor to one of the tributes. If he wins the accolades, he can probably restore some name and money to the once-powerful house of Snow, which has fallen on hard times.
The odds aren’t in Coriolanus’s favour. He is assigned the scrawny young girl from the remote District Twelve as his mentee. Initially upset at such an obvious insult, Coriolanus soon sees that his charge isn't what he expected. Lucy Gray Baird is spirited, brave, and clever. Can she possibly surmount the insurmountable and give Coriolanus what he wants? Then again, is he himself sure about what he wants? Are his desires limited to the prize money?
The story comes to us in Coriolanus’s third-person perspective.
I have a shelf on GR titled ‘Nevers and Not Anymores’ If a book has a high rating and an appealing premise but it either is panned by my trusted friends or has triggers that don’t work for me, I add it to this shelf. Once a book enter my Nevers list, it *never* makes a return back to my TBR. The only book that has been an exception to this policy is ‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.‘
After seeing plenty of reviews saying that this was not as strong as the original trilogy, I was sure I didn’t want to read it. But then Suzanne Collins pulled one over me by writing a fifth Hunger Games book focussed on Haymitch, one of my favourite characters from the main trilogy. The series freak in me couldn’t accept jumping from Book Three to Book Five, and hence I had to recall Coriolanus’s book from the Nevers blackhole. 🤭
Do I regret my decision?
Well… not really. While I didn’t love this book, I also didn’t hate it. It has enough value to offer in terms of characters as well as Easter Eggs from the main trilogy. If only the second half were stronger!
As a villain-origin story, this book ensures that we get Coriolanus’s personality right. What marvellous character detailing he gets! Thanks to the plot coming from his third-person POV, we hear his thoughts and inner conflicts in every scene. The way he thinks, the way he functions, the things that motivate him, the people who holds dearest… we get a proper insider look at “Corio”, making it easy to see how he charted his path from the end of this book to being the President of Panem many years later. In several scenes, we feel like we can see through a chink in his ambitious exterior self to get a glimpse of his hidden human side, but soon we realise that it is just wishful thinking. Kudos to the author for creating such a convincing teen antagonist who doesn’t fit into the typical villain pattern.
Of course, there is no suspense in the outcome of his arc. We already know his future: his role as the president of Panem, his dictatorial behaviour, his obsession with roses, his micro-managing of the games... But the journey from the starving poor rich kid to the despotic president is what is key in this book’s reveals, and this journey is fairly entertaining, especially in the first half.
There cannot be a Hunger Games story without a tribute and the games. The tribute in focus this time is Lucy, a nomadic singer settled in District Twelve. It is obvious to expect her to have some traits of Katniss Everdeen as we humans love to recognise patterns. However, Rachel Zegler, the actress who plays Lucy in the movie adaptation of this book, explains the difference between Lucy and Katniss perfectly: “Lucy Gray is a performer forced to fight and Katniss is a fighter forced to perform." Lucy isn't similar to Katniss, but she holds her own and will make you root for her. However, I don’t think her character was carved with any consistency. She seemed truly strong at the start, so her connect to and dependency on Snow felt unnatural and unconvincing. Needless to add, the budding love story also fell flat because of this.
As the Hunger Games in this novel is only in its tenth iteration, it is a rudimentary version, bearing only minimal similarities to the 74th and 75th games we see in the Katniss books. But what makes the game segments weaker is that our narrative point of view is not that of the contestant but of a mentor. As the mentors are outside the arena and as this early edition hardly has much technological infiltration, there isn't as much apprehension during most of the games. Moreover, we already know who will win, and we barely get to know most of the other contestants. So the overall “hunger game” feel is somewhat bland.
Despite this, the games section was the strongest-performing part of the book for me. The initial chapters, highlighting the lead-up to the games, were also quite good, though a tad too slow and rambling. However, once the games were done, a little beyond the halfway mark, the book changed direction abruptly. Though there were some good scenes scattered in this part also, most of the proceedings were boring to me. That said, the epilogue was worth the wait and somewhat redeemed the overall story. (Readers who like settled endings might not be happy with this writing choice, but I liked that it kept the focus on Snow.)
I enjoyed finding several Easter eggs from the main trilogy, none of which I shall detail in my review for fear of spoilers. I’ll just say, you better know the last names of all the key characters from the Hunger Games trilogy because you are going to need those! Other than Snow, there is only one character in common to this book and the trilogy. I enjoyed knowing them better through this novel.
🎧 The Audiobook Experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 16 hours 16 minutes, is narrated by Santino Fontana, a Tony Award-winning actor. Considering his credentials, I thought I was in for a treat. And I was, but only when Coriolanus was speaking. This book has several conversations between Coriolanus and Lucy, and most of them turned me off due to the narrator’s annoying style of voicing Lucy. But worst of all was the narration of the songs. This book has quite a few song lyrics. While the narrator doesn’t sing the songs (Thank heavens!), he reads their lyrics aloud like a toddler would read a nursery rhyme, in a weird kind of nasally sing-song voice. One of the songs was without words, with just “la la la la la la…” as the lyrics. The way the narrator *performed* this song is something I wish to forget ASAP. It was like listening to my TTS app read a para full of “La la la”: comedic and annoying at once!
Overall, I enjoyed the first half of the book to a great extent, despite its slowish start and the external view of the Hunger Games. However, the second half was boring to me, despite its regular twists and turns. Many fans of the original trilogy consider this the weakest book of the Hunger Games series, and for once, I am not an outlier in my opinion because I agree with them.
Recommended, though not with gusto. If you want to read a decent villain-origin story, or if you want to read Haymitch’s story and need continuity, this does the job. I’d suggest reading the series in publication order and not in chronological order of events. So this book needs to be read AFTER the original trilogy.
3 stars. (3.75 for the first half, 2 stars for the post-Games content except for the ending which gets 2.5 stars.)
I have high expectations from Book Five: ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’. I love Haymitch’s complex character and can’t wait to see how the author brings his Hunger Games to life. Given that he is the participant and winner of the fiftieth games, we already know the trajectory of his life beyond the games. But all my GR friends have found Haymitch’s book better than Snow’s. May the odds be ever in my favour!
Plot Preview:
It’s a big day in the Capitol: the day of the Reaping that will start off the 10th Hunger Games. Eighteen-year-old Coriolanus is determined to excel in his role as the student-mentor to one of the tributes. If he wins the accolades, he can probably restore some name and money to the once-powerful house of Snow, which has fallen on hard times.
The odds aren’t in Coriolanus’s favour. He is assigned the scrawny young girl from the remote District Twelve as his mentee. Initially upset at such an obvious insult, Coriolanus soon sees that his charge isn't what he expected. Lucy Gray Baird is spirited, brave, and clever. Can she possibly surmount the insurmountable and give Coriolanus what he wants? Then again, is he himself sure about what he wants? Are his desires limited to the prize money?
The story comes to us in Coriolanus’s third-person perspective.
I have a shelf on GR titled ‘Nevers and Not Anymores’ If a book has a high rating and an appealing premise but it either is panned by my trusted friends or has triggers that don’t work for me, I add it to this shelf. Once a book enter my Nevers list, it *never* makes a return back to my TBR. The only book that has been an exception to this policy is ‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.‘
After seeing plenty of reviews saying that this was not as strong as the original trilogy, I was sure I didn’t want to read it. But then Suzanne Collins pulled one over me by writing a fifth Hunger Games book focussed on Haymitch, one of my favourite characters from the main trilogy. The series freak in me couldn’t accept jumping from Book Three to Book Five, and hence I had to recall Coriolanus’s book from the Nevers blackhole. 🤭
Do I regret my decision?
Well… not really. While I didn’t love this book, I also didn’t hate it. It has enough value to offer in terms of characters as well as Easter Eggs from the main trilogy. If only the second half were stronger!
As a villain-origin story, this book ensures that we get Coriolanus’s personality right. What marvellous character detailing he gets! Thanks to the plot coming from his third-person POV, we hear his thoughts and inner conflicts in every scene. The way he thinks, the way he functions, the things that motivate him, the people who holds dearest… we get a proper insider look at “Corio”, making it easy to see how he charted his path from the end of this book to being the President of Panem many years later. In several scenes, we feel like we can see through a chink in his ambitious exterior self to get a glimpse of his hidden human side, but soon we realise that it is just wishful thinking. Kudos to the author for creating such a convincing teen antagonist who doesn’t fit into the typical villain pattern.
Of course, there is no suspense in the outcome of his arc. We already know his future: his role as the president of Panem, his dictatorial behaviour, his obsession with roses, his micro-managing of the games... But the journey from the starving poor rich kid to the despotic president is what is key in this book’s reveals, and this journey is fairly entertaining, especially in the first half.
There cannot be a Hunger Games story without a tribute and the games. The tribute in focus this time is Lucy, a nomadic singer settled in District Twelve. It is obvious to expect her to have some traits of Katniss Everdeen as we humans love to recognise patterns. However, Rachel Zegler, the actress who plays Lucy in the movie adaptation of this book, explains the difference between Lucy and Katniss perfectly: “Lucy Gray is a performer forced to fight and Katniss is a fighter forced to perform." Lucy isn't similar to Katniss, but she holds her own and will make you root for her. However, I don’t think her character was carved with any consistency. She seemed truly strong at the start, so her connect to and dependency on Snow felt unnatural and unconvincing. Needless to add, the budding love story also fell flat because of this.
As the Hunger Games in this novel is only in its tenth iteration, it is a rudimentary version, bearing only minimal similarities to the 74th and 75th games we see in the Katniss books. But what makes the game segments weaker is that our narrative point of view is not that of the contestant but of a mentor. As the mentors are outside the arena and as this early edition hardly has much technological infiltration, there isn't as much apprehension during most of the games. Moreover, we already know who will win, and we barely get to know most of the other contestants. So the overall “hunger game” feel is somewhat bland.
Despite this, the games section was the strongest-performing part of the book for me. The initial chapters, highlighting the lead-up to the games, were also quite good, though a tad too slow and rambling. However, once the games were done, a little beyond the halfway mark, the book changed direction abruptly. Though there were some good scenes scattered in this part also, most of the proceedings were boring to me. That said, the epilogue was worth the wait and somewhat redeemed the overall story. (Readers who like settled endings might not be happy with this writing choice, but I liked that it kept the focus on Snow.)
I enjoyed finding several Easter eggs from the main trilogy, none of which I shall detail in my review for fear of spoilers. I’ll just say, you better know the last names of all the key characters from the Hunger Games trilogy because you are going to need those! Other than Snow, there is only one character in common to this book and the trilogy. I enjoyed knowing them better through this novel.
🎧 The Audiobook Experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 16 hours 16 minutes, is narrated by Santino Fontana, a Tony Award-winning actor. Considering his credentials, I thought I was in for a treat. And I was, but only when Coriolanus was speaking. This book has several conversations between Coriolanus and Lucy, and most of them turned me off due to the narrator’s annoying style of voicing Lucy. But worst of all was the narration of the songs. This book has quite a few song lyrics. While the narrator doesn’t sing the songs (Thank heavens!), he reads their lyrics aloud like a toddler would read a nursery rhyme, in a weird kind of nasally sing-song voice. One of the songs was without words, with just “la la la la la la…” as the lyrics. The way the narrator *performed* this song is something I wish to forget ASAP. It was like listening to my TTS app read a para full of “La la la”: comedic and annoying at once!
Overall, I enjoyed the first half of the book to a great extent, despite its slowish start and the external view of the Hunger Games. However, the second half was boring to me, despite its regular twists and turns. Many fans of the original trilogy consider this the weakest book of the Hunger Games series, and for once, I am not an outlier in my opinion because I agree with them.
Recommended, though not with gusto. If you want to read a decent villain-origin story, or if you want to read Haymitch’s story and need continuity, this does the job. I’d suggest reading the series in publication order and not in chronological order of events. So this book needs to be read AFTER the original trilogy.
3 stars. (3.75 for the first half, 2 stars for the post-Games content except for the ending which gets 2.5 stars.)
I have high expectations from Book Five: ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’. I love Haymitch’s complex character and can’t wait to see how the author brings his Hunger Games to life. Given that he is the participant and winner of the fiftieth games, we already know the trajectory of his life beyond the games. But all my GR friends have found Haymitch’s book better than Snow’s. May the odds be ever in my favour!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
great symbolism and character origin story. sad to see this is how he started out and even sadder to see how he continued.