Kaity Sears

I normally don't review books. I read a lot and, though I find a lot of books I like, I never feel emboldened enough to review. This book changed that. I was worried that a prequel about President Snow, the villain, for all intents and purposes, of the Hunger Games trilogy. I thought it would end as many of these books do, you are forced to sympathize with the main character until someone they love dying at the hands of their enemy which snaps them into "villain mode". That was not what this book was. It was a beautiful character study of how a man could be turned by his family, his school, his mentors, his government into someone so twisted to think that love is manipulation. This book gives you moments to sympathize and feel for him, only to, in the next, remind you that his motives are self serving more than pure. He goes from an upstanding citizen who, though a little misguided, is relatively pleasant into the twisted human that would run the Hunger Games for 55 years with no remorse in a way that is realistic and deeply fascinating. And the ending was a shock. And the epilogue was great. There really isn't enough praise I could give this book. Suzanne Collins really outdid herself.