Kat Medrano

I jumped into this book, not fully knowing what to expect since Snow seemed an odd choice for the main character, but I was more than willing to keep an open mind because of my love for the original Hunger Games trilogy. Initially, I found teenage Snow to be relatable and I even felt a bit of empathy towards him and his situation in this timeline. There were moments throughout the book where it seemed that he redeemed himself a bit and was starting to see certain things more clearly, but just as quickly as those moments happened, there were various reminders of his underlying, self-serving motives. The dynamics of the book happened at a good pace and there weren't really any moments that I felt were dragged out or slow. I have high praise for the flow of the storyline and I will say that the various events leading up to the tributes' time in the arena came as a surprise to me. There were a couple of moments that, in my opinion, seemed to happen a bit too abruptly and gave me a bit of whiplash. I'll avoid mentioning them here to avoid spoilers but I will say that in a couple of more dramatic scenes, I found myself having to backtrack a bit to ensure I understood what had just happened. I was expecting something a bit more explosive to occur at the conclusion of his relationship with the District 12 tribute that he mentored when they were at the lake, but having some unknowns was a reminder that who we are in character can be based much more on small, consistent choices that we make throughout our life journey, rather than one major event. All in all, it was a well written book (despite having lots of challenging names to pronounce--so much so that I stuck with "Coryo" for Snow throughout the book because I found myself trying "Coriolanus" 2-3x each time it came up), shed light on the origins of certain customs that were a part of the Hunger Games we were already familiar with and gave an interesting look at the history and more insightful details of President Snow. This is a book that I would highly recommend, especially to those who find that they are very interested in having an intimate look at the thought process of a person whose perspectives are so heavily swayed by being a part of the elite upper class, but being given the opportunity to observe an opposing perspective in close proximity.