I was really excited when this book was released because I am a huge fan of the Hunger Games series. I ate those books up so quickly and adored every second. It's one of the few books I've read that brought me to tears and made me want to throw the book against the wall, especially Mockingjay.
My husband gifted me this prequel for my birthday last year and it sat idly by until I was ready to read it this summer. I was happy to be finally cracking it open, even though I was really getting myself into quite a long read. The story is basically the villain origin story of President Snow and how he became to be the person he was.
As I got into the book, I was interested in the character development and how this kind, young man would eventually become such an evil person. While there were some moments that excited me, the book overall was a bit disappointing.
That's not to say that there weren't some great moments and pieces that have stuck with me and made me want to go back and at least watch the Hunger Games films to see if I could pick out the parallels. However, it was the flow of the story that had me itching to just finally get it done.
It was one of those books that was slow to start. I kept telling myself it would pick up, and there were moments it did, but it didn't really give me a great thrill until about the last ten chapters.
I also found myself flip flopping between liking Snow and being annoyed with his snooty, rich-kid attitude. At the end, I didn't really understand why he had such a change of self and the reasons I could pick out seemed kind of expected and cliche.
Overall, I'd give this book three stars; mostly for Hunger Games nostalgia. It had a lot of potential, but ultimately really left me wanting more from the story.
Read the author's summary --> HERE
Buy it on Amazon --> HERE
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