If you’re asking me if it had any value beyond that, I would say that it was an opportunity to right some wrongs. But, still, while this is unpleasant, I don't think I am half as bothered by it as I am by how utterly dull the story is.

The few redeeming qualities Coriolanus possesses at the beginning of the story erode at each desperate turn he takes. I loved getting to learn The Valley Song that made Peeta fall in love with Katniss and the origins of The Hanging Tree.No, I didn't expect to sympathise with him, but could I understand how he'd gotten so messed up and evil? On the one hand that made him braver than any of his classmates but on the other hand it also painted a target on his head. Part 1, “The Mentor,” opens with Coriolanus Snow preparing for a reaping, the day in which Capitol representatives select the Hunger Games’ 24 tributes. I now understand the disappointed and outraged reviews of others who read it first, but what I don't understand is how those people were still able to blast through this in a day or two.

The remaining tributes enter the arena where all but one suffer a horrific death, whether from poisoning, rabies, or blunt trauma; Lucy Gray survives. So is this book here to show us the tragic slide into villainy, the horror of the circumstances and the Games that eats away at you and taints you until there is not much left? Because I was such a big fan of The Hunger Games trilogy, I was determined to finish The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, but doing so took a LOT out of me. Mockingjay] is nearly as shocking, and certainly every bit as original and thought-provoking, as The Hunger Games. That’s the boy at the beginning of the book, but the longer I followed his journey, the more it became apparent that he’s also an exceptional egoist and opportunist.As introduced in the first three books and four film adaptations, the Games force a total of 24 young men and women to fight to the death.