This prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy provides fans with how the pageantry of the games evolved and an insider look at President Snow’s past. The storyline focuses on eighteen year old Coriolanus Snow and his struggle to balance his loyalty to the Capital and his new found relationship with a District 12 tribute named Lucy Gray.    This will be the 10^th reaping, and at this point, the games are a no frills, gladiator type violence event in a stadium setting with the tributes being treated like animals in a cattle car without food and water.  Capital born Coriolanus has been chosen to be among the first group of student mentors to the tributes in a way to bolster viewership.  He is goal driven while trying to uphold the “honor” that his family name once represented.  Coriolanus helps institute sponsoring a tribute, uncovers behind the scene power struggles and navigates the games rules to have Lucy Gray win.  All that comes at a personal cost for Coriolanus as it sends him away from his destitute family to become a peacekeeper in District 12.  Fans will find this prequel more introspective about control and war then the trilogy and more graphic in the violence.  Those interested in the evolution of mockingjays will be intrigued.

Reviewed by Sheila Dube, Youth Services, Springvale Public Library