Book Synopsis:
It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capital, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.
My Review:
5/5 stars. There are many words I would use to describe Coriolanus Snow - entitled, narcissistic, power-hungry, manipulative, possessive- and likable is not one of them. He’s the complete opposite of a good, heroic protagonist. Despite that, this book managed to be a compelling story that kept me engaged almost the whole time, and made me feel a lot of things (mostly anger at Snow). The ending is a whole other thing entirely, and in not sure how I feel about it.
I didn't really know what to expect going into this book. A lot of the reviews online were more negative, but I had heard great things about it from people I know personally. The people I knew personally were right.
A lot of reviews called this book a "villain origin story", but I disagree. It's not the story of how he became a villain - right from the start, he exhibited villain characteristics, this book just showed how those characteristics affected his choices. Even in chapter one, he reminded me a lot of Draco Malfoy with his purist attitudes and how much he charmed everyone.
There were so many moments that showed Coriolanus' true personality. At one point, he assumed someone was being kind to another person just so they could win their trust and manipulate them, just because that's what he would do. Another moment was when the students were tasked with writing an essay about what they liked most about the war. Other students said things like "being part of something" or "fighting for our country", but Coriolanus wrote about the feeling of having control and power.
One big difference between the Hunger Games in this book compared to the original trilogy is how much more the tributes are treated like animals. They were transported to the Capitol in cargo trains, put on display in a cage at the zoo, and treated by a veterinarian instead of an actual doctor. While the Games are still horrible either way, future tributes got treated well for entertainment purposes.
Another difference in the Games in this book is that the arena wasn't a technologically-controlled event. They couldn't change what the arena looked like each year or drop in things like fires. It makes me wonder when that started to be a thing.
Seeing the Games from the Capitol perspective was so much worse, in a way. The host is doing "silly antics" and celebrating, meanwhile, people are killing each other. It was also so awful how the host said they had something to celebrate because they were halfway through, with "only twelve tributes to go" as if they were collectible items.
Sejanus was the best character, and it made me so mad how Coriolanus treated him. Every time he gave a little speech about the horrors of the Hunger Games or wanted to go against the Capitol, I loved it. He was one of the only characters that had good morals and that you could actually root for.
The plot of this book was so engaging. While the third part was the least compelling to me, the rest of it was very interesting and exciting. Suzanne Collins is great at writing cliffhanger endings. There were so many times where I was planning on stopping after I finished a chapter, but then got to the last few sentences of the chapter and had to keep going. There were a few times it seemed like she was trying to have a big cliffhanger moment at the end but it wasn't actually a dramatic moment. Most of the time it was good, though.
Finally, the romance wasn't compelling to me. I didn't really understand what Lucy Gray saw in Coriolanus, or if she realized what a horrible person he was. Every romantic moment they shared just annoyed me, because I knew it was pretty one-sided. Coriolanus was also so possessive, saying all the time how "Lucy Gray belonged to him" and getting super jealous for no reason.
Content Warning:
Language: Barely any. Just mild words like h--, p--, and jacka--, used maybe once or twice.
Sexual Content: Brief mention of selling your body, multiple kisses with descriptions of how they made the character feel inside, thinking about kissing people, a girl was mentioned to be seeing another girl.
Violence/Gore: As with all the Hunger Games books, this book has a lot of violence. There were mentions of cannibalism, blood, death, torture, and lots of wounds/injuries.
Drugs/Alcohol: Both in the Capitol and District 12, people drink alcohol and get drunk frequently, often having to sleep off hangovers. One character is addicted to drugs.
Commenti