Suzanne Collins’s bestselling dystopian Hunger Games trilogy is set in a future America, Panem, whose capital city Capitol extorts a terrible annual tribute from the 12 Districts it rules. Adolescents are chosen to fight each other to the death in a televised competition. Only one survives. In this sleek, well-constructed prequel, we delve into the early years of this grim contest. Fans will remember Coriolanus Snow as the psychotic president of Panem; here we discover his backstory in a novel that discusses the corrupting influence of the societies into which Collins’s characters are born. Nature, nurture, or both? Capitol has emerged triumphant from a civil war. Now, with the rebellious Districts quelled, the once-powerful Snows live a precarious existence in a penthouse apartment, concealing their poverty from the rest of the city’s aristocracy. The Games are in their 10th year, and losing their audience; those in charge decide to bring in mentors from the city’s elite to increase engagement. The teenage Coriolanus is chosen to mentor Lucy Gray Baird, an eccentric vagabond singer who has been picked as a tribute from District 12. He must guide her to win, pleasing both the spectators and his teachers. Coriolanus sees his chance to gain glory back for his family name, his eyes firmly fixed on the cash prize and his future career. Everything you would expect from Collins is here: fraught teenage love; plenty of violence; character names untethered from their contexts (Fabricia Whatnot; Satyria Click) and a pervasive awareness of the power of media. Snow and his fellow mentors are always thinking about how they look on screen, how their actions will be judged. Nefarious tactics are put into play without question; deaths are barely registered. It is a frightening view of adolescence that accepts constant surveillance as a norm. Meanwhile, his teacher, the borderline insane Dr Gaul, is conducting genetic experiments. Her relationship with her pupils mirrors that of the mentors and the tributes: exploitative, vicious, mercenary. Whereas it was easy to root for Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of the trilogy, as she battled her way through the Games, it’s harder to do the same for Coriolanus, watching safely from the sidelines. He is ruthless and political throughout in his decisions both to help Lucy in the Games and to further his own designs. Could his heart be softened by Lucy? Could his gentle friend, Sejanus, help him on to a different path? The plot of the novel rests on deception and pretence, its view of humanity bleak; yet Collins’s themes of friendship, betrayal, authority and oppression, as well as the extra layers of lore about mockingjays and Capitol’s history, will please and thrill.