An origin story for both President Snow and the Hunger Games as we know them. Coriolanus Snow has the right family name, a prestigious address, talent, and charisma--but unless he wins a prize to pay for university, it's all for nothing, as his family's wealth came from the now obliterated District 13. He must succeed in his final project of being a mentor in the Hunger Games, but his District 12 girl tribute assignment at first feels damning. However, Lucy Gray Baird is vibrant and wild, a singer and performer with star power; she's perfect for Coriolanus, who has been tasked with boosting the grim, lackluster games that, early in the shift from mock war to sporting spectacle, are even more brutal and unpredictable. Coriolanus is pulled between Mengelian Dr. Gaul's twisted mentorship and connections with sympathetic foils Lucy Gray (which veers romantic) and compassionate classmate Sejanus. Conflicted Coriolanus thinks of himself as a good person in an impossible situation but also as exceptional--a belief with a high price. Collins humanizes him as superficially heroic and emotionally relatable while also using him for a vehicle for philosophical questions. Though readers know how he will eventually answer the questions explicitly asked of him, the central question is why, resulting in both a tense, character-driven piece and a cautionary tale. There is some mention of diversity in skin tone; Coriolanus and Lucy Gray seem to be white. The twists and heartbreaks captivate despite tragic inevitabilities. (Science fiction. 12-adult) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

It's been a decade since the Capitol overcame an uprising and instituted the bloody Hunger Games as punishment. Some families, like the Snows, lost much in the war. Coriolanus, 18, hides his poverty with charm and fights for acclaim in school, hoping success will restore the Snows to their former glory. Mentoring a tribute in the tenth Hunger Games is the chance he's been waiting for, though Lucy Gray Baird, the tribute he's assigned, is from the unimpressive District 12. And this is not Katniss Everdeen's well-oiled Hunger Games. The event is brutish, short, and unpopular even with Capitol citizens. It's up to Coriolanus--and perhaps his tribute, a magnetic, natural performer who might exceed his wildest dreams--to make it, and themselves, into something more. Collins maintains a safe third-person distance from her protagonist, who is not yet the Machiavellian leader he will become. Less action driven, and in many ways less adroit, than The Hunger Games (2008) and its successors, this is an overtly philosophical examination of war, its aftermath, and the depths of human darkness. But readers fascinated by the world and hungry for more detail will forgive this prequel its heft, and secondary characters more compelling than the hero help to give it wings.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: There hasn't been a release quite this buzzy since, well, the last Hunger Games book (Mockingjay, 2010). Whatever your thoughts on Snow may be, people will want this book. Order up.

Collins continues her unflinching exploration of power and morality in this prequel set 64 years prior to the events of the Hunger Games trilogy. In a challenging move that considers the journey from complicity to what lies beyond, the story centers on Coriolanus Snow, archvillain of the Katniss Everdeen era. Obsessed with restoring his family's grandeur and securing a rosy future for himself, the 18-year-old Academy student is selected to mentor a competitor in Panem's 10th Hunger Games. Though Snow feels slighted by his assignation, a tribute from lowly District 12, his mentee, songstress Lucy Gray Baird, shows an audacity and showbiz flair that captures the country's attention. Over the course of the Games--a relatively low-tech affair set in the war-scarred Capitol's crumbling arena--the two begin a close partnership. While Snow experiences moments of doubt about his participation, his ambition draws the attention of the sinister Head Gamemaker, Dr. Volumnia Gaul. Providing a counterpoint to Snow is classmate Sejanus Plinth, wealthy and compassionate, who must mentor a tribute from a district he still views as home. A gripping mix of whipsaw plot twists and propulsive writing make this story's complex issues--vulnerability and abuse, personal responsibility, and institutionalized power dynamics--vivid and personal. Ages 12--up. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. (May)

In this prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy (beginning with The Hunger Games, rev. 9/08), the Games are in their infancy, and eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow, the future president of Panem, is mentoring tribute Lucy Gray Baird, a beguiling singer-songwriter from District 12 -- but, as always, there are twists. First, quite a few mentors and tributes die before the games even start, victims of unfortunate "accidents" or rebel attacks. Second, there is a budding (though generally unconvincing) romance between Coriolanus and Lucy Gray. The play-by-play account of the Games occupies less of the book's attention than does Snow's character development. Despite an aristocratic background, the Snow family has fallen on hard times, and Coriolanus's future hinges on his success as a mentor, even as he sorts through his feelings about the Capitol-district enmity and about Lucy Gray. The rising action develops rather haltingly, and the downbeat ending seems to emphasize the worst in human nature. However, readers who make it past the slow beginning may find that Collins's storytelling gifts, characteristically formidable here, outweigh any shortcomings. Jonathan Hunt September/October 2020 p.86(c) Copyright 2020. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.