If you liked The Hunger Games for the action and the character growth, you're not going to like this book. This is a book about the guy who is literally never evil in a way that makes you enjoy it, he's always just evil to make sure he gets the best out of everything. He isn't evil because he's
insane, or because he was made evil by some sob story, he isn't evil because Katniss needed an…mehrIf you liked The Hunger Games for the action and the character growth, you're not going to like this book. This is a book about the guy who is literally never evil in a way that makes you enjoy it, he's always just evil to make sure he gets the best out of everything. He isn't evil because he's insane, or because he was made evil by some sob story, he isn't evil because Katniss needed an antagonist- Snow is evil in the way privileged, rich supremacists usually are. Which is exactly why this is a very timely and very clever book. Snow gets all the chances to learn and to grow and every time you expect him to finally accept other people as just as human as he is, he doesn't. This, again, is the brilliance of the book and exactly what makes it so timely.
The real evil is always considering other people less than what you are, because this means you think you're better, which in turn breeds supremacy and the belief that you get to do whatever you want to the person who is less. As soon as you consider them less than human, you can do literally anything to the other person and think you're in the right. Which is such a huge part of this whole book, it's actually stunning how subtly and then how violently obvious Collins makes these distinctions.
And what is especially brilliant, because it's revolting in its simplicity, in its base on modern life, is the romance. Because of course, of course Snow will never be able to love someone who is equal to him. That is the whole point of the romance, why it's in there. I love this commentary on power balance, toxic relationships, sexism and what it always comes down to: supremacy. This book isn't supposed to humanise Snow, it's not supposed to make his villainy cool or spectacular. This is a book about heteronormativity, about white supremacy, about privilege, about patriarchy, about power, about police brutality, about how people can put other people in a situation where they have to kill to survive and still pretend that was a choice made out of free will.
Like I said, if you enjoyed The Hunger Games for the action, this book is not for you. Snow and his entire generation have grown up during a war, a war they were told was started for no reason. They are also constantly told they are the elite, they are the best of the best. Most of them probably own slaves or know someone who owns slaves. They are constantly being told the Capitol is all powerful and the only thing keeping the world from descending into another war. Also a really great commentary on "America is the greatest country in the world" and what growing up with that kind of propaganda will do to a person.
So to me, these characters made a lot of sense, they fit their world. Was is super interesting and fun to read about their lives? No. It's supposed to make you think and it really made me think and will probably keep making me think for a good while to come.
