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

3.0

Coriolanus Snow is just eighteen years old and it’s the tenth annual Hunger Games. He comes from the prestigious Snow house, but what people don’t know, is the Snow family aren’t as rich and valued as they once were. His last chance of showing the world how great the Snows are, is to become a mentor in the games where he can use his charms to win them. Only he’s been left with the embarrassing assignment of mentoring the girl from District 12, Lucy Gray. As time passes he starts to feel for her, risking his life for her in ways that start to question his duty to the Capitol. This was President Snow’s origin story, more or less and was an interesting prequel that definitely gave readers an inside look into how The Hunger Games started. The reader kind of wanted more backstory on that; it was kind of rushed through at the very end how it originated and then what became of it. It was clever, but we just wish we’d had more of that fleshed out, instead of brushed over. The first half of this novel was slow going and really dragged on. It felt like it was filled with all this setup that, did end up paying off, but the reader felt like there could have been less description in these parts. Part three was where the story really took off and everything fell into place; the reader wished that could have been longer because that’s where all the meaty stuff was. All the betrayals, how all of it came together for us to see how Snow became who he was in the original trilogy, and it really painted a picture as to establish why he was obsessed and couldn’t stand Katniss. It felt really cool to read it all unfold knowing what we knew; it felt like being an insider knowing the future and how the past reflected what would come. It’s definitely worthwhile to read the original trilogy before this. The reader didn’t truly connect with Coriolanus as a character because Collins wrote him in the third person, but maybe on further reflection, maybe she never meant for the reader to connect with him, but to just portray where he came from. No he wasn’t all bad, but he was never really good, and as this novel progressed with got to see his shades of gray darken over time. It was fascinating to see his true colours come out. Lucy Gray was a great character, she was full of life and tenacity. The reader didn’t completely see the ending of her and Snow, but it really showed her character and that she could see through him. Her comparison to Katniss is very palpable; Lucy Gray walked so Katniss could run essentially. The other side characters were well rounded, like Snow’s friend Sejanus was a very vocal character and one who was memorable. In the end, this wasn’t exactly the best prequel, it could have been edited down and a bit better, but it definitely did make for riveting read.