The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Author: Suzanne Collins
Published: 2020
Genre: YA Fantasy
Synopsis From Goodreads:
It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.
The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined – every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the area, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute…and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.
My Take:
My first reaction when approaching this novel was excitement: I loved the Hunger Games series. My next was trepidation. Did I really want to read a tale centered on the origins of President Snow, the villain in The Hunger Games? I didn’t know if I could connect with a book with a protagonist who was evil later on. And so, with mixed feelings, I dove into this story which takes place 64 years before The Hunger Games, in a world still recovering from the war a decade before. Everything is a lot rougher, from the state of the Capitol itself to the Hunger Games, the treatment of the tributes, and the interactions with the districts. Coriolanus Snow is stuck in the middle, dealing with pressures from those in power on all sides, situations with no good answer, and the weight of a tribute’s life in the balance. Throughout all of that, I was reminded that no person is a 2D caricature with only good or bad aspects. We are melds of both, and knowing a person’s history can at least bring a measure of understanding even if there is no agreement with their decisions. What someone values will determine their outlook in life, their priorities, and will define their choices. We see that demonstrated in Coriolanus, his friend Sejanus, and his tribute Lucy Gray.
This fast-paced book drags your emotions from one end of the spectrum to the other, from dreading what happens next to hoping for a positive outcome even though you know where Snow ultimately ends up. I do love it when authors add extra details that connect to their other books and make those books richer, and there were a lot of those in this book. The origins of songs and traditions, as well as visiting familiar locations, lent a greater sense of history and connections to characters in the rest of the series. Through the feelings of camaraderie with Coriolanus, I finished with an enhanced understanding of his character and what made him tick in The Hunger Games books. And it was fascinating to see how the world developed from this to how it was in Katniss’ time. If you love The Hunger Games, you have to read this but don’t expect a happy ending. It is, after all, only the prequel of the story.
Language:
There is only one instance of language: “kiss my a__.”
Sexual Content:
Besides a couple of kisses, there are only a couple of side references to things such as a lover, something that happened at night in an alley, or actions you have to take to survive (selling themselves).
Drug/Alcohol Use:
There are alcoholic drinks such as posca and moonshine, with mentions of characters becoming drunk. There is also morphling, a drug that deadens senses and wastes away people’s bodies. But there are not many, or any in-depth, descriptions of either.
Violence:
This is the Hunger Games. Yes, there is violence, and in this book, it is in and out of the arena. There is mention of cannibalism, throats slit, bombs exploding with people being killed and injured, people hung, beaten to death, killed with various weapons and poison. Some characters consider other people to be just assets or have the worth of animals.
Plot/Storytelling:
This is a character-driven story from a single perspective. Instead of character growth, it is character degeneration, but the progression keeps you reading as you see, step by step, Coriolanus’s change from his origin to the future President Snow of The Hunger Games series. The world-building is good, but banks on the knowledge of the other books to add depth to it. On its own, it might be a bit flat but is meant to be read after completing The Hunger Games series.