Review by jenna36 - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

jenna36 's review for:

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

4.5

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is a reread, though I hadn't quite finished it the first time I read it. I actually really enjoyed it; at first I didn't know why we needed to hear more about Snow, but I think Suzanne Collins really had something to say here about choice: when you choose to do something vs. when you choose to do nothing, and the impacts that can have.

In our current political climate, it especially hits home because Coriolanus is the type of person who would claim to be "good" while standing by and letting horrific atrocities happen, and even contributing to those atrocities himself.

Eventually, he is groomed by a monster, and it makes him a monster in his own right.

We as an audience see every opportunity to be kind and decent to others that he did not take; every time he chose his image or others' perceptions of him over his morals (and we do see him recognize things are wrong, but he rationalizes it away for self-interest).

I found it deeply sad in a way, because we get glimpses of the man he could have been had he made the choice to be that man.

And I forgot how much I love Lucy Gray; we don't always see her true thoughts, as she's a performer who is good at hiding them when needed. But we see her courage and her heart shine through, and I love that we know her legacy lived on despite everyone's attempts to stamp it out.

It makes me full of spiteful glee that everything Haymitch and Katniss ever did was Lucy Gray come back to haunt him. I just know he was crashing out about Katniss singing Hanging Tree and being called the Mockingjay the WHOLE time, probably convinced Lucy Gray had made her way back to 12 and started telling all his secrets and the entire district was laughing at him.

Content Warnings