As the prequel to the extremely successful Hunger Games series, this book serves as a prequel and background to the trilogy. It centers around the hated President Snow, who in this book is not yet the hated President that had come to represent the deadly games. In this prequel, Coriolanus Snow is a Capitol boy whose family has fallen from grace, though he, his grandma, and his artful cousin Tigris take care not to let anyone in on the crumbling riches of the once powerful Snow family. As a top student in a Capitol school, Coriolanus is made a mentor in the Hunger Games along with his classmates, as a new experiment. Coriolanus gets to mentor the last district/person he would ever want- District 12’s girl, Lucy Gray. However, despite his misgivings, Lucy Gray proves to be a public favorite and definitely not at all what Snow expected. As Snow becomes more infatuated with Lucy Gray, she starts to attract more and more unwanted attention from the Capitol as things derail.
I thought this book was just as good as Colins’ previous ones. It was interesting to tie all the pieces together to help strengthen the background of the Hunger Games and why things happened like they did. It was also very engaging and a new perspective, from a budding villain instead of the protagonist.