A review by emsprobablyreading
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I love love love this book. A wonderful prequel to the dystopian series that defined my adolescence. Suzanne Collins has done an excellent job of giving her readers a look at how the Hunger Games from Katniss' time came to be as well as a trip inside the mind of her greatest adversary, President Snow. The callbacks to the original series are wonderfully crafted, and I especially love how Lucy Gray is both her own character and written is such a way to set up Katniss as the perfect ghost of Snow's past, come to make him pay for his sins. I could write an essay on the implications of this book, but instead I leave you with this: if what you enjoyed about the Hunger Games trilogy was the commentary on war, power, control, privilege, rebellion, and what it means to love one another, then read this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, War, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Slavery, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Suicide, Addiction, Alcohol, Confinement, Medical content, Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Confinement and Vomit