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ellielou13 's review for:
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
by Suzanne Collins
I'm a recent fan of the Hunger Games books (I literally read them a fortnight ago) so maybe I didn't have the same expectations others did but I was surprised by how much I liked this because I'd seen a lot of negative reviews.
I think it was super interesting to read about Snow as a teenager and learn what got him to that point he's at in the original trilogy. In some ways he came across as decent and I think it was really clever the way Collins developed his character and added in certain traits that helped us conceive how it could have all went wrong. I'm not used to reading about unlikeable characters so it was a cool experience.
More generally, I also loved reading about an early hunger games. It's definitely changed a lot and I just really enjoyed experiencing a vastly different games and being present while they made decisions (i.e. introducing mentors and betting) which carry on into Katniss's era.
The throwbacks and easter eggs to the original trilogy throughout were also super fun. I loved seeing Snow learning about mockingjays and discovering the origins of The Hanging Tree song!
Overall, I think that this was a little slow at times - the third section especially - but I thoroughly enjoyed this insight into Panem's past and remained interested throughout. My only other issue is that the ending is a bit open-ended and I feel the need to know exactly what happened.
I think it was super interesting to read about Snow as a teenager and learn what got him to that point he's at in the original trilogy. In some ways he came across as decent and I think it was really clever the way Collins developed his character and added in certain traits that helped us conceive how it could have all went wrong. I'm not used to reading about unlikeable characters so it was a cool experience.
More generally, I also loved reading about an early hunger games. It's definitely changed a lot and I just really enjoyed experiencing a vastly different games and being present while they made decisions (i.e. introducing mentors and betting) which carry on into Katniss's era.
The throwbacks and easter eggs to the original trilogy throughout were also super fun. I loved seeing Snow learning about mockingjays and discovering the origins of The Hanging Tree song!
Overall, I think that this was a little slow at times - the third section especially - but I thoroughly enjoyed this insight into Panem's past and remained interested throughout. My only other issue is that the ending is a bit open-ended and I feel the need to know exactly what happened.