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A review by ncssundormas
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
2.5
welp, that was a disappointment.
firstly, what bothered me most was the lack of soul in the writing. it was so dull the entire time (and not only because of how boring the story was, although that's definitely another point to be made) and had absolutely no emotion, just clinical descriptions and cold thoughts, so i only felt indifference throughout the majority of the book.
the chapter structure was also confusing. some were so long they told events expanding over a week in just one single chapter. others ended in the middle of the scene, leaving the next chapter to finish it off, which was weird and offputting.
then, the dialogue. it was mostly fine, but sometimes became very cringe. while it did feel like something someone would say in that situation, it felt very awkward to read.
the romance was also awful. no chemistry between the two characters, which i don't believe was intentional, and it went way too quickly. their final interaction left a sour taste in my mouth due to how anticlimactic it felt.
to conclude the negatives, i'll mention the page count and povs. this book didn't need to be this long, especially for a book with only a singular character's pov (which was, as the rest of this book, bland and boring). it would've benefitted from lucy gray and sejanus's povs in order to make it more bearable (not to mention an appropriate length). however, without them, this could've easily been a 400 page book and been a lot easier to swallow.
for me the only positives were the few mentions and hints to the original hunger games trilogy, which i found pleasant. for example, getting to know how some aspects of the games came to be was interesting (although the majority were just briefly mentioned at the end and that's it) and getting to know the hanging tree song's origin was a fun tidbit. but that's kind of it.
overall, this book lacked a lot, but was nonetheless not a book i hated, although that's probably because of how the dullness emanating from it made me completely indifferent. i'd read this in advance to the soon-to-be-released movie, but now i don't think i'll bother with it.
firstly, what bothered me most was the lack of soul in the writing. it was so dull the entire time (and not only because of how boring the story was, although that's definitely another point to be made) and had absolutely no emotion, just clinical descriptions and cold thoughts, so i only felt indifference throughout the majority of the book.
the chapter structure was also confusing. some were so long they told events expanding over a week in just one single chapter. others ended in the middle of the scene, leaving the next chapter to finish it off, which was weird and offputting.
then, the dialogue. it was mostly fine, but sometimes became very cringe. while it did feel like something someone would say in that situation, it felt very awkward to read.
the romance was also awful. no chemistry between the two characters, which i don't believe was intentional, and it went way too quickly. their final interaction left a sour taste in my mouth due to how anticlimactic it felt.
to conclude the negatives, i'll mention the page count and povs. this book didn't need to be this long, especially for a book with only a singular character's pov (which was, as the rest of this book, bland and boring). it would've benefitted from lucy gray and sejanus's povs in order to make it more bearable (not to mention an appropriate length). however, without them, this could've easily been a 400 page book and been a lot easier to swallow.
for me the only positives were the few mentions and hints to the original hunger games trilogy, which i found pleasant. for example, getting to know how some aspects of the games came to be was interesting (although the majority were just briefly mentioned at the end and that's it) and getting to know the hanging tree song's origin was a fun tidbit. but that's kind of it.
overall, this book lacked a lot, but was nonetheless not a book i hated, although that's probably because of how the dullness emanating from it made me completely indifferent. i'd read this in advance to the soon-to-be-released movie, but now i don't think i'll bother with it.