A review by cammiem8
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Collins does an excellent job of writing action in a way that feels like seeing it in real time. I was skeptical when this book came out around the same time as Midnight Sun, thinking it was a nostalgic YA cash grab, but the book does pose some interesting questions about old money male entitlement and the nature of power and control. I think the Hunger Games universe is rich enough to warrant revisitings, and while it doesn’t quite stack up to Katniss’s story, it’s worth a read for fans of the original trilogy. Regarding the audiobook, it drove me nuts that a story that involved so many scenes with singing and many passages with lyrics, the narrator read them out monotonously without any attempts to give the reader a sense of the melody. Surely Collins had an idea for what the original songs would sound like, and it couldn’t possibly be difficult to find a narrator who could sing “Oh My Darling Clementine” and “The Hanging Tree,” the former being a well known folksong and the latter having a canon melody from the films. Really annoyed me, given that the book has “song” in the title. 
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