The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Hello! Welcome back to The Exploring Reader. Last time, we looked at Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and I hope you’re hungry for today’s episode on Suzanne Collins’ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

You may recognize the author from her famous saga, The Hunger Games. Now, her new continuation to the series serves as a prequel. Since its publication in 2020, it has been a number 1 for the New York Times & USA Today. The book has been adapted into the movie by the same name which came out this month.

For this story, we need to go back 64 years, to the 10th Hunger Games. Teenage Coriolanus Snow is fighting off poverty by trying to get into the University, where he hopes to regain some prestige and wealth. In order to achieve his goal, he must successfully manage to make his assigned tribute win the Games. Stuck with the District 12 female, the future president of Panem needs to put all the odds in his favour to win and get a chance at the life he wishes.

These 10th Hunger Games are much more barbaric because they are less regulated and are less technologically advanced than later ones. The First Rebellion has left a lot of damage and is still fresh among the citizens of Panem. This translates to mention of the violence that transpired and the violence the Capitol wishes to inflict on the districts for their insurrection. Expect the same detailed descriptions as the trilogy.

Out of 5 stars, I think this book deserves 3. The first thing that disappointed me was that the actual Games lasted only a little while compared to The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, the second book in the series. A lot of the focus was on Snow’s childhood and how his family lost all their wealth in the war. By being told from his point of view, I feel the reader is being forced to share Snow’s drive to get the Games over and move on to “better things” you could say. I would have liked to read more about the whole creation process of the Hunger Games, maybe get some flashbacks from the perspective of the creators. While I understand they developed over the years to become what we see for Katniss and Peeta, I felt there was a missed opportunity to connect all these important characters to a really historic event.

I would have liked to read more about the whole creation process of the Hunger Games, maybe get some flashbacks from the perspective of the creators.

Another reason for this medium rating is Coriolanus’ characterization. While his major personality traits still shine through, it felt very out-of-place to have Coriolanus be concerned about the condition of the tributes in the Games. Without spoiling, I will say that Snow has a much softer and humane view in this novel compared to the trilogy. For those who read The Hunger Games, you’ll recall how cruel and unnecessarily mean President Snow was towards Katniss. Maybe as he got older, sought power, and experienced these Games as a mentor, he had to quickly abandon his morals and make tough decisions. However, I will disagree by saying the ending of the book did not give me the impression Snow had turned into the dictator he will become. An epilogue containing the explanations for this radical change in opinions about the politics of Panem would have smoothed the transition between young and old Coriolanus Snow.

Now for the good part. The majority of the characters are complex and well developed. While some are static for good or for worse, Snow does have a dynamic characterization. Lucy Grey Baird, his tribute, shows him the other side of Panem and pushes him to explore other points of view. I also believe The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes fills in a lot to the missing puzzles pieces that where not present in the trilogy. I also liked that some of the side characters went beyond what was expected of them like Sejanus expressing his discomfort with the idea of the Games despite being rich enough to afford his way into the Capitol and avoid them. Although Snow’s characterization lacked in some areas, I still felt that his most dominant traits like his cunningness where present. This keeps him consistent and makes us appreciate the clever but cruel choices he makes during Katniss’ experience of the Games.

To restate my opinion in brief, I believe this book is worth a read for fans and those who enjoyed The Hunger Games trilogy because it “brings it full circle” as they say. However, I probably will not read it again.

Whatever your decision may be, I want to thank you for listening to this episode of The Exploring Reader. I want to stray away from trending books for the next review and so I’ll be talking about A Lite Too Bright by Samuel Miller.

Until our next literary journey, keep exploring those pages!