My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Initial thoughts: holy crap!
I want to know how much of this Suzanne Collins had in mind when creating Snow in the original trilogy of books.
Suzanne did such a good job of weaving content from THG into this prequel. I didn’t want to learn about Snow but this was really enlightening of his character and how we got who we got at the 74th HG and on.
It was a good balance of “foreshadowing” (is it foreshadowing if written after?) and character building.
Parts were difficult and made me queasy, which is to be expected with Snow.
It was very long and at times dry. There were some scenes that could have had more but were possibly sacrificed for lesser scenes.
I’ve read reviews that don’t like how much is inside his head and not shown to the audience through empathy and showing the reader. It’s more his thoughts on things/his life, but I think that’s entirely the point. We see what HE thinks about his life. Not what his life really is. He feels sorry for himself in ways that really aren’t worth sympathy, and I think that’s the point of getting to know him. He sees himself as a victim and justifies pretty bad things because of it. It helps us to see how he becomes who he is, and I think being in his head in that way, while maybe more exposition and less showing, is necessary.
Honestly, I loved it. I’d like to give it more like 4.5 stars.
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