My rating: 1 of 5 stars
This book was totally unnecessary in The Hunger Games series. It doesn't add anything much to our knowledge of post-apocalyptic world Suzanne Collins talks about. The book itself is very boring and I had to put it down several times. At the end of the year, I finish all the unfinished books and that's how I got myself to complete reading this. The writing is not very gripping which is a real shame because I enjoyed the books 1-3 quite a lot! The story had lots of potential plot points worth exploring but the author seemed to have missed those opportunities.
Spoilers below: 👇
**I am going to assume you know about The Hunger Games Trilogy. If you are new to it, please do not start with this book. It will put you right off! Go straight to Book 1. **
The story is about President Snow (Coriolanus) when he was young. He was assigned as a mentor to a tribute in the Hunger Games names Lucy Gray Baird. He builds up special relationship with her. This slowly evolves into a love interest. I feel like the romance angle could have been developed a bit further. Very conveniently, one half the tributes die before the Hunger Games even begin. So the competition is halved. Even during the games, which aren't very interesting, Lucy doesn't face much of a challenge. Takes the suspense away and makes it obvious that she will win. Coriolanus helps her to win and his interference is discovered. He gets punished by being made a Peacekeeper in District 12 which also Lucy's district.
Now this decision by the authorities is a bit strange. Why assign him to Lucy's district when his romantic feelings for her were so apparent? Needless to say, they reunite in District 12. As a Peacekeeper, he is faced with some difficult choices. He is torn between helping his friend who is assisting some rebels and serving the Capital. Finally, gives his friend up to the authorities and leaves the district with Lucy Gray. They turn on each other at the end and after so many pages, we don't find out what happens to Lucy! Coriolanus has a bright future waiting for him back at the Capital and his brief involvement with the rebels is not found out.
We spend a lot of time in Coriolanus's head in this book, listening to his thoughts. Whenever an event takes place, the momentum is extremely short-lived as we are back in Snow's head again. He seems like an ambitious young boy who doesn't always agree with the ways of the Capital but tries his best to succeed. Somehow, his turn towards evil doesn't make a lot of sense. Some exciting things do happen in short bursts but that's about it. I was very tempted to skip over portions but I resisted. Also, Lucy is singer the author has listed out the lyrics of all the songs she sang. One thing I did like was the reference to William Wordsworth's poem Lucy Gray in one of the songs which gives the reader a semblance of closure about District 12's Lucy Gray's fate. She seems to have simply disappeared.
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