The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
About the book
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic Press
More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.
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My review
When this book was first published, I wasn’t interested enough to pick it up. It had been many years since I’d read The Hunger Games (when it first came out while I was in high school, in fact), I’d hated the end of the original trilogy, President Snow didn’t interest me much, and this one had gotten lukewarm reviews. But then Sunrise on the Reaping (the next one) came out and everyone LOVED IT, and so I decided it was finally time to reread the trilogy and then finally check this one off.
I won’t go into this too much, but I’m so glad I decided to rearead The Hunger Games before reading this prequel. I had forgotten almost all the specific details, including a lot that was revealed about Snow in the third book. I also came to fully respect the way the trilogy ended — I’m a much more mature and skilled reader now, and the truth is that the big death at the end (IYKYK) is really the only way the books could have ended and also accomplished what they set out to do.
Anyway, on to Coriolanus Snow here. Like all the other books, Songbirds is fast-paced and gripping, and I flew through it just like I flew through the others. Collins really knows how to pace a book, build suspense, and draw you in. That said, this did surprise me. I had expected Coriolanus to follow a much more of a linear descent into evil than she gave us. While he is never truly likable and his morals are never truly good, he dips his toes into the side of good much more than I thought he would. Obviously we know where he ends up, but she still manages to make you think about the external forces that act on someone as they’re deciding which way they’ll go, without ever losing sight of the ultimate lesson that power corrupts and the power-hungry are never going to be on the side of the people.
While not a favorite of the series, I’m glad I finally read this and even more excited to finally move on to Sunrise!
Content and trigger warnings
Violence, murder, and death (this is the Hunger Games, people)
Cannibalism (not graphic or described on page)
Death of a parent
