Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

I’ve been a long time fan of the Hunger Games series. It was an interesting turn getting into the mind of Snow. Suzanne Collins does a fantastic job balancing the duality of man and decisions in this novel. I watched the movie first and I’m glad I did, because I got to see how the songs sounded, and also visualize the book better. I enjoyed seeing how it differed. This book did get a bit slow for me occasionally, which is why it’s not quite a 5 star. Occasionally because I knew the ending, considered putting it down. However, I’m glad I kept on though! Sejanus deserves the world. I loved the callbacks to the original series and seeing how everything got started.

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rsoule7's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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nialiversuch's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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rebekkamafia's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

Idk why I saw Coriolanus through rose-coloured glasses for a huge part of the book and was hoping he would change and not be like the President Snow we know but towards the end I truly realised (and let myself see) what a fking psychopath he is oh my lord i loathe him

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bellebeaumont95's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Making a concerted effort to review every book I read this year because: resolutions! Or something.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes tracks a pivotal time in a young Coriolanus Snow's life, all the moments that lead up to him becoming the President of Panem by the time of Katniss' Hunger Games, 64 years after the events of this book.

It's such a well-crafted franchise. The worldbuilding in this one is still very well thought out, rich and just phenomenal, each character serves a very clear purpose in the story, and as usual, the perspective is where the book really shines. We spend the entire time seeing events unfold from Snow's POV, and while we are at times drawn to empathize with him, since he is a very nuanced character, at every turn it's inescapably clear that he always had choices. Collins shows this vividly through characters like Tigris, Sejanus, Lucy Gray, even some of his classmates from the Capitol (which really surprised me, I hope Lysistrata had a nice life far away from this man) who live through most of the same events as Coriolanus and simply make different choices.

It does run a little longer than needed (I don't think learning all the minutia of bird-trapping was all that vital, unless it was to draw another parallel to Katniss' hunting? STILL), and it does occasionally suffer from a bit of prequel-itis, such as some heavy-handed winks towards the future and certain in-your-face-"isn't-this-so-diabolical" moments, but I can't really fault Suzanne Collins for that, since people still! keep! missing! the point! (The next person to make a "Snow lands on top of me" thirst trap edit owes me 50$!!!!)

Overall I would recommend this book as a worthy installment in The Hunger Games series; at no point does it fall into villain apologism, and it has a lot to say about the complexity of privilege.

4.25/5 stars!

Content Warnings

eminent_reader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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captaindaz's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

It took about 200 pages for the actual Hunger Games to start. Then the the rest of the book kind of raced to the finish line to end the story. Still a very well written story.

Coriolanus Snow can choke on himself and all my homies hate him.

Content Warnings

def_ni's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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