The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel) (The Hunger Games)

I adored the Hunger Games series. Dystopian YA is not a normal genre for me, but this series is awesome and this prequel? A fantastic villain origin story. Coriolanus Snow is an ambitious 18-year-old student whose wealthy family barely survived the war. He is all about image and pretense, which often vie against his normal, human feelings. His parents are dead and he lives in a rundown apartment with his grandmother and cousin Tigris. But, the 10th Hunger Games is to be the first one with mentors and Coriolanus has been chosen to mentor the female tribute from District 12. While at first humiliated at not being given a more highly rated district, he quickly realizes that Lucy Gray is someone who could win and it's up to him to figure out how to help her do that. Along the way, Coriolanus learns about love and the dangers it can bring. As he works his way through the Games, he also discovers who wields the power in the Capitol, who controls the games and what he needs to do to rise up above the masses. The student mentors also have a say in how the games are run, and in a somewhat twisted sort of way, their professor gives assignments and in Coriolanus' essays, we see how future Games come about and evolve. As the mentors talk about the games and what is happening, we also see how they are not all unfeeling or unkind. They view their tributes as people and they can see how unfair the Games really are. At the same time we see that those in the Capitol are only concerned about their well being and that their losses are because of the rebels. The Hunger Games series is vibrant and colorful in its imagery. This book, however, was almost more black and gray in its imagery, what with the rubble of the arena and the Capitol still trying to rebuild from the war. That made the contrast of Lucy Gray's colorful skirt and the snakes all the more striking. As with the rest of the series, we see the government oppression, we see the results of war and rebellion. We see society broken, but fighting and we see that even with survival, life isn't grand and colorful. But we also see that the human spirit is strong. No one likes who President Snow becomes and I think writing about his story so that he gains the reader's sympathy is brilliant. The story isn't fast-paced, but it drew me in and kept me enthralled.

I’d like to preface this by saying that I love philosophical and moral quandaries. It is fun for me to debate topics in that general field and think deeply about aspects of life like what the true nature of man is, as is discussed in this novel. However, I also love stories. Over complicating story-telling with hidden meanings and philosophy gets dull after too long and sometimes you do just need a story that doesn’t make you think too hard. If that’s you, still buy this book, but wait until you have to mental capacity to think a little more. This book is brilliant from the framing to the writing to just the everything, it is absolutely brilliant. It felt realistic, like something that could actually happen. Coriolanus, from the very beginning, is shown to be a little two-faced, easily figuring out what he needs to say to make people like him and it works. At the beginning, I remember feeling casting uncomfortable with the knowledge that Coriolanus, if he wanted to, could have easily fooled me and I would have no idea. What is most chilling about him even from the beginning is just how REAL he seems, like someone you would actually meet walking down the street, and by the end, I nearly felt sick seeing just how similar to myself he is and the sheer ease with which I, in different circumstances and conditions, could become just as twisted. But what really sets this book apart for me is how she portrayals the “villain origin story.” When I think of origin stories, I think of the classics: murdered girlfriend, abusive parents, abandoned by the world, betrayed by all, wrongfully imprisoned, etc. We’ve all heard and read something along those lines at least once, but this is different. Coriolanus doesn’t become the President Snow we love to loathe because of tragedy. We get the unique pleasure to watch from our seats in his mind as he is faced with several different philosophies: Dr. Gaul’s “we’re all monsters who have to be controlled” idea, Lucy Grey’s “everybody’s born as clean as a whistle” mentality, and Sejanus’ “fundamental rights of man” mentality. We watch him struggle through philosophies, trying to determine which one he will allow to influence him all while his strings are secretly being pulled without his knowledge. What we have here in this book is a REAL person who is a student who CHOOSES to view the world in such a way that causes him to believe his actions during and after this book and into the Hunger Games series are the right thing to do. He see his CHOICES not his tragedy shape him. If you’re still here, I just have one thing more. I loved this book and I think we all have a lot we can learn from it. If you’re considering it, buy it, even if it just collects dust for a while. One day, you can draw it out and embark on the twisted story of a realistic villain that will twist your insides in ways no obviously fictional villain can.

I love good origin stories. And whether we like it or not, the origins of villains are often more compelling than those of heroes. Such is the case here. I bought the book on a whim since I had so enjoyed the Mockingbird Book Series and the Hunger Games Films. When it arrived, it did a quick scan and it failed to catch my attention. Many months later......rainy cold day......nothing much going on.....and I picked it up. And fell right into it. The voice/perspective in the books and the films is feminine. In "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" it is masculine. As a man I found that voice quite compelling. What makes a "bad one" a "bad one." Snow, in the Hunger Games, is an awful, vicious, manipulator who claims to be both the Master and Savior of Panem. He is, in fact, neither. His sole purpose is to stay on top. How did he get that way? The Ballad tells the tale. Collins paints a portrait of a young man born into the most fortunate of families that has fallen on very hard times. What is particularly intriguing is that Coriolanus Snow as an earnest, generally kind, family man who is trying his best to give his family a future. There is something quite noble about him as he works so hard for others......but at its root all of this is all about the "him" who he believes he was intended to be- the wealthy, powerful, influencer that his father had been. What we experience is a series of events that gradually reorient Snow's internal compass pointing him toward a future where his seeming nobility has been set aside in favor of a deeply committed selfishness disguised as the duty a true patriot owes to his homeland. The twists and turns in the storyline provide the reader the reader with the opportunity to understand the origin of the Hunger Games, the workings of Panem society and the life of the patrician and plebeian class that live there. It is fascinating. We experience the story from the top looking down vs. the approach of the Hunger Games books where the perspective is from the bottom looking up. The last chapters are chilling presaging how far down the dark path a once noble young man is willing to go. It is in the last chapters, however, that the author appears to cut the narrative short at a time when further details about Snow's sudden change of heart and mind would have been welcome. It all seems a bit rushed at the end..... Still, I would be happy to read the next volume in the saga if it were to come into being. That is probably my highest recommendation.

4.5 stars Amazon delivered my copy early, so I'm going to do a spoiler free review and then a spoilery one. Pardon if this winds up sounding like an English paper. I have thought so much on the morals and questions in this book that I feel like I should have read this in school. Note: I'm writing this review with the express belief that you, reader, have at least read the book description. Otherwise why are you reading this review? I want to start this off by saying two things. One, this is not a hero story. Snow is never once, in my opinion, shown to be a hero in this in what we modern folks would call a hero. He's no Luke Skywalker or redeemed villain. This isn't some sob backstory to explain "why the bad guy is bad." This is yet another set of layers to the onion that is Snow. Second, this book is dark. It's been a minute since I read the original trilogy, but I swear it wasn't quite as graphic as this book was. Cannibalism is mentioned, and it's shown/talked about that someone sawed the leg off a dead woman and ran off with it. One character is killed then hung on a hook and paraded. Another is also gruesomely displayed after their death. Several characters are dragged through processions to "prove a point," another character is hung from two large poles and left to basically die in the sun. Multiple accounts of vomiting/poison throughout, and a general unpleasantness at the lack of regard for human life. Non-spoilery review: This book makes you think. A lot. It makes you question things, and wonder if maybe Snow is right (he's not), but it's written in such a way that he's not a villain. Donald Sutherland in an interview made a great point in saying that Snow isn't a villain, he's just a ruthless man doing what he thinks is right to keep his home and country in one piece. "He does it so well. And he doesn't think he's a bad person. He thinks it's the only way society can survive. And whether you think he's right or wrong, he doesn't think he's bad. He likes himself." This should be the mantra for this book. Snow is a conflicting, flawed human. In our society, he's evil, a sociopath or a psychopath. He's a murderer and a killer. He's a bad guy. In his world, he's one of the masses. He simply lives as he's been raised to, with a mentality that has been ingrained in him since the war between the Districts and the Capitol. He's simply more ruthless then most and has the guts to make what he considers the "hard decisions." Regardless of the other characters in this, they're all props to his story--which fits well with the Snow we know from The Hunger Games. Everyone is second stage to Snow and his life. This is his evolution from being a child to a man, to becoming the Snow we know and love/hate. I definitely don't think this book is for everyone. I'm sitting here with my mom breathing down my neck because she can't wait to read it, and I don't think she'll like it at all, and she's a diehard THG trilogy fan. Why? Because not everyone likes to read depressing books. There's no redemption in this. There's no saving someone from themselves. This is the fall, stumble, plummet into being a not great person and embracing it fully. So take that as you will. Full spoilers below about everything. P.s. This is a standalone. SPOILERS BELOW Okay, so, I was worried about this book when I read the first chapter sample and it got announced that Snow would be training the District 12 girl. I thought, oh crap, it's gonna be a cliche YA. It's gonna have a stupid romance that undercuts the whole plot and makes him a sap. And yeah, it did that, and up until the last 50 pages I was teetering on a 3-3.5 stars. And then oh boy, the end. Lucy Grey was a sweet girl, but she felt off since the beginning. I still can't fully put my finger on it, but her and Snow's relationship felt so <i>wrong</i> the entirety of the book. The red flags went up repeatedly every time he made comments about how she was his, and even so far as to say she was his property, and that's all kinds of wrong. And even though their romance was cute and fluffy, it felt bad, tainted. You knew something was going to happen. It always does in these villain backstories. Usually the whole reason the villain is bad is because the love interest gets brutally killed and then they're like whelp, guess I'll just be evil. Not in this book. Snow constantly struggles with morality and right and wrong throughout this. Should he turn in his friend to the Capitol because they're colluding with rebels and could tear down the (flawed) infrastructure? Or should he turn a blind eye and let his friend do his own thing? Is the Hunger Games wrong or good? Is it wrong to view the District people as second class humans? And so on. This book broaches the topic of racism in very broad terms with the whole District/Capitol thing. You've always known there was a divide between them, but in this, you really see how much the Capitol looks down on the Districts, and you can easily see how that morphs into such a hatred and distaste by the time Katniss first enters the Hunger Games. But I digress. Snow struggles with morality, but he's flawed and very, very imperfect. He rationalizes every death he takes as self-defense or some other reason when really he's just murdered someone because it's inconvenient for him. He kills (or at least removes her from the picture; it's ambiguous) Lucy Grey in the end because she's a loose end and too free. He does it. Not someone else, not some freak accident. He chooses to do it and, by the time it happens, you already know what direction he's headed in so it's not quite another nail in the coffin. It fully feels like him tying up loose ends so he can go do whatever he wants. All the nods to THG characters and names was cool. You also had a lot of The Great Gatsby vibes in the Old Money versus New Money mentality that a lot of the Capitol had with District people who gained a fortune and bought their way into the Capitol life. They're looked down upon by the old families and viewed as trash. You saw a lot of the evolution in the Hunger Games, and you can see how it begins to change and grow into what Katniss and Peeta suffered through. You see how it begins to change from a simple punishment to a sport and a holiday, with the growing encouragement that it should be a normal and good thing. You also see a side of the Capitol you most definitely did not see in the trilogy--suffering. A lot of the book shows Snow struggling with having been a small child living through the Dark Days and the war. He was 8 when the Capitol won, and even then it was hard. You learn about the hell the Capitol lived through as they were besieged by the Districts' army and forced to ration, starvation, and cannibalism. It's a hard picture, and it's so blatantly told. Collins didn't hold back any punches in this. I never felt like what was done was for shock and awe for the reader, but it was definitely that for the story, and it made sense. Regardless of the Capitol not being at war with the Districts anymore, the tensions were still so high that it makes sense for the Capitol to overreact in their retaliation of events. So when one mentor gets killed by her tribute, they shoot the tribute and parade her body around on a hook at the mentor's funeral. It's disgusting, debasing, and shows how much the Capitol views the Districts as nothing more than rodents or livestock. Anyway, I'll stop talking. Go read it yourself. It's a hard read, a heavy read, but it was very, very enjoyable.

"The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" is a brilliant and captivating prequel to The Hunger Games series. Suzanne Collins does a phenomenal job of expanding the world of Panem and exploring the backstory of one of the most iconic villains, Coriolanus Snow. Why I Loved It: Rich Storytelling: The world-building is fantastic, diving into the early days of the Hunger Games and the ruthless political climate of Panem. The intricate details and dark themes make this a compelling read. Complex Characters: Coriolanus Snow is an interesting and morally gray character in this prequel. Watching his transformation from a privileged student to a cunning and dangerous leader is fascinating. Themes of Power and Survival: This book explores the corrupting influence of power, ambition, and survival in a way that adds layers of depth to the world of The Hunger Games. Emotional and Thought-Provoking: The relationship between Snow and the tributes, particularly Lucy Gray, is complex and filled with emotional tension, making for a captivating and heartbreaking read. Perfect for Fans of the Original Series: If you loved The Hunger Games, this prequel is a must-read. It not only enriches the backstory but also provides a fresh perspective on the events that shape the world we know. "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" is a thrilling and dark exploration of power, loyalty, and betrayal. Suzanne Collins' ability to draw readers in with complex characters and tense storytelling is unmatched. Highly recommend for fans of The Hunger Games and those who enjoy a gripping dystopian tale!

In many ways, this prequel is a mirror of the original trilogy. The first part is great. Like the "Hunger Games", I found myself instantly captivated by the story, which is somewhat surprising because I was a little leery of a prequel. Since it’s been a good ten years since “Mockingjay”, I told myself the author truly had something new to add to her iconic series, but I wasn’t convinced. The final book in the trilogy was a disaster, and I didn’t have a lot of hope. But the first part of “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” far surpassed my expectations. I was very impressed by how Suzanne Collins humanized a villain while still making it clear that he has very deep flaws that he doesn’t seem inclined to work past. Some of the authority figures seemed very cartoonish, but otherwise, I really enjoyed the first part. SPOILER ALERTS I’m not warning again. I’m going to get into spoilers from here on out, so if you haven’t read the book and don’t want any surprises, please don’t read any further. Just as in the second book of the original trilogy, the second part of this book gets better and better and then abruptly ends in a completely unbelievable way. The main character is punished because he bent the rules of the Hunger Games, even though there weren’t any actual rules set. None of it makes sense; based on the background and setup, why wouldn’t Coriolanus be hailed as the brilliant genius he actually was, even if some of his genius was accidental? “Catching Fire” had a bad ending that didn’t make much logical sense. Instead, it felt like the author was forcing the story to fit a preordained plot. And the same is true for the second part of “Ballad”. It doesn’t make any sense, and it’s actually very irritating. But then comes the third part, and everything falls apart, just like in “Mockingjay”. Collins is the very definition of an author that can’t even remotely nail the ending. Almost the entirety of the third and final part of this book feels like it’s all driven by a plot instead of happening naturally. Almost none of the events in the final part feel organic; instead, it feels like you’re reading a “this happened, then this happened, then this happened” story that can’t breathe or flow. I liked the idea that we never really knew if Lucy Gray was an innocent or a deceiver. Personally, I believe she was an innocent, but that’s me, LOL. And I like that Collins resisted the urge to make up stupid “origins” for the motifs behind the trilogy. Yes, she mentions roses and mockingjays, but for the most part she resists Easter eggs. But the ending was rushed and extremely disappointing. In the span of a few pages, a main character is killed, evidence of a murder is extremely conveniently found in a remote cabin, and Coriolanus’ sudden distrust of Lucy comes out of nowhere and just feels like a plot device to allow the author to finish the book she’s so clearly ready to be done with. Just like “Mockingjay”, the final part of “Ballad” feels like Suzanne Collins was ready to be finished and move on to something else. I was almost two thirds of the way through “Ballad” when I told my sister I thought it was the best book in the series by far. By the end, I realized I’d probably never read it again. I’m not some expert critic or anything. I know what I like and I know what I don’t. But I feel like this book, just like the ending of book two and the entirety of book three of the original trilogy, ended up being plot over substance. It didn’t feel natural or real, it felt forced and unsatisfying. And the ending; has there ever been a more contrived happily ever after? I did not care for this book. And I’m extremely disappointed because the first two thirds or so were so good bordering on amazing.

This review has spoilers: This book is most definitely a page turner. Suzanne Collins was brilliant in the way she wrote it. When we first meet Coriolanus Snow, he’s an ordinary, intelligent, relatively kind young man who’s biggest problem is money. He is a far cry from the cruel, inhumane, unscrupulous President Snow that we first met in The Hunger Games books. In fact the entire Capitol is very different than the one we see in The Hunger Games. For the first nine years of the Hunger Games, they are still actual people who do NOT want to watch children killing each other in the arena. This book was very skillfully written to show how quickly a young man can turn from a guy who just wants to do his best in the new Mentor program for the Hunger Games, so he can win a prize of some sort to go to University and help his two remaining family members, the GrandMa’am and his cousin, Tigris. (The woman who sacrificed a lot to protect her family in this book, only to end up hiding Katniss and her friends in her cellar, so that Katniss can kill President Snow, for turning on her, for kicking her out as a stylist in the games because she wasn’t pretty enough anymore. Granted she had done a LOT of plastic surgery, just like everyone else in the Capitol and she’d embraced her name in doing so.) One of the saddest parts is when she’s found Coriolanus’s shirt after he killed a tribute, in the arena, in self defense. She can see by looking at the shirt where he was wounded and how he was wounded and that he’d had to kill one of those Tributes himself to get them out. It saddens her, as she puts it, that they’ve turned her cousin who would never have hurt a fly into someone who killed another human being. And it was all to teach him a lesson because what he “liked about the war,” was too much of a fluff piece, as if an eight year child is supposed to love a war that took his parents, his money, and had shown him some parts of humanity, even in the Capitol that were not humane. By the end of the book, he’s changed from an innocent, kind young man who knows how to care about people and who doesn’t believe that the District children are just animals, to a man who shoots a young girl without even thinking of it and then betrays Sejanus, who thought he was his only friend, to Sejanus’s death by hanging, as a traitor, until the end when he first uses what becomes his signature way to kill; he poisons the Dean of his old Academy for hating him and’s his Father and for putting him in those positions, even though, it was really the sadistic Dr. Gaul who pulled the strings to teach him lessons along the way, which the young Mr. Snow does know. One of the most ironic things is that when he writes up his assignment on what to do to make the games more interesting to the Capitol viewers, one of the main things he’s thinking of is making sure his tribute gets food and water. The secondary idea of betting on the games runs along those lines of getting people involved so they’ll want to spend the money to send in food and water. But it becomes the catalyst to make the games exciting to people. Of course, just as his report was supposed to be theoretical unless Dr. Gaul decided otherwise, we find out that Dean Highbottom hates the Snows because he was assigned a similar assignment when he was at University. The assignment was a “theoretical” way to punish the districts. The Elder Mr. Snow was the Dean’s best friend and writing partner. The Dean had come up with the Hunger Games as a simple and completely theoretical way to handle the districts and get them back in line, but Mr. Snow kept getting him more and more drunk and kept prodding him for more and more ideas until the Hunger Games were fully formed on paper. Dean Highbottom was given the accolades for coming up with the Hunger Games and he couldn’t live with having helped to create something so evil. Again, they were told it was theoretical but The Elder Snow clearly made sure he was able to extract every bit of information he could from his “friend.” I’d like to see more books that feature both Coriolanus and Lucy Grey Baird. I’ve often wondered if Lucy Grey was Katniss’s Grandmother or at least maybe one of the other Covey people. The fact is that Lucy Grey’s strongest gift is that she can sing. We find out in the book that she knows the “Hanging Tree Song.” She either wrote it or simply knew it very well. Katniss’s Father knew that song and used to sing it and he taught it to Katniss. One of his great strengths is also singing. Both he and Katniss have voices that are so beautiful that the Mockingjays stop to listen when they sing. It’s something they would have inherited. Also Lucy Grey was dumped in the Seam part of District 12. She also knows every inch of the woods beyond District 12. She knows where the pond is that Katniss’s Dad taught her to fish and swim in and she knows where the old stone remnants of a broken down house are, where Katniss used to play. Katniss’s Father also loved to have things clean. He hated the coal dust that settled on everything. Lucy Grey loved life and color and she liked things clean too; all things she could have taught a son. There are so many places in the woods where Katniss used to go with her Father, that Lucy Grey knew about too. We know it’s rare for someone to stumble onto them because even Gale didn’t know all of those places. It does make me wonder if she was Katniss’s Paternal Grandmother. I’d like to know. I’d like to know more of what happens to Lucy Grey and even to Coriolanus. I hope that Suzanne Collins writes more books in this prequel. Having said all of this, though, the main point is how skillfully Suzanne Collins shows the slippery slope for all of us from civilized human beings to bloodthirsty people who kill and take pleasure in killing, and who believe that because you’re born in a certain place, it makes you less than human. She starts out with good people in the Snow home and shows the distinct decline that Coriolanus takes rather quickly to being a very deadly killer. He also begins as someone who knew how to love and what it was like to be loved, only to be corrupted to become a man who believes that power is everything, that there is nothing, not even family, that is more important than power. We see that when he decides at the end of the book that he will not fall in love again. He will marry for position. And we see it in the Hunger Games when Coriolanus is President of Panem and his cousin Tigris, who did everything she could to provide for him and protect him is living in a tiny shop, barely earning any money. And one of the cruelest twists was when her cousin cut her from being a stylist in the hunger games because she’d always wanted to be a stylist of some sort. In fact the reason Coriolanus looked as good as he did when they were so poor was her talent for fixing up old things. By the end of the Hunger Games Series, she helps Katniss to try and get to her cousin to kill him. First she hides them, then she gives them clothes to help them blend in with the Capitol people. So by the end of the book Coriolanus has not only learned to kill those who get in his way but he’s also decided that he will never put anything above power. Which also makes me wonder if he ever does anything to punish Dr. Gaul, or if she’s too useful for the time being.

The origin story of Snow is an intriguing one. Even early he is a very manipulative young msn always looking to sway a situation o his advantage and hiding his true thoughts. HR is confronted by love in the Hunger games. By in the end he has to choose between love for himself and love for Lucy Gray. All the time overshadowed by a master manipulater of Dr Ghaul.. The third act felt a little rushed but the story was good even thou we knew the ultimate end