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A review by icedpinecones
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
2.0
Despite my excitement for this book, the multiple attempts I've made to read it finally got egged on to completion with the movie coming out and I can honestly say I don't even want to watch the film now.
With a more in depth, adult writing style than the hunger games (and nearly doubling the page length) this book manages to say less than it's predecessors with 2x the words.
My main issues fall with lacklustre characterisation, and I think this book could've benefitted from a dual POV type perspective as snow is well... Snow. And other main characters (Lucy and more notably Sejanus) are given barely any page time.
The book handles snows characterisation well, going from a relatively central position on districts, war and hunger games to the seeds thoroughly planted and sprouting on what we see when we meet Katniss. However the other characters, most importantly Lucy, feel underdeveloped and lost to the story.
With the book lacking on characters to follow, it'd need an engaging plot and narrative to carry you along. However, nothing really serious or gripping happens til there's around 65 pages left (which is just over 10% of the book).
The book really had potential, but it falters at every step. It's essentially one big set up for the hunger games (as to be expected of a prequel) that fails to carry any of the charm and narrative prose that would lead you to wanting to pick up and enjoy the hunger games.
With the dragging and slow narrative, painfully annoying moments from snow and drab characterisation of anyone else, there's really nothing good going for this book apart from knowledge of the development of the hunger games; on that note especially I'd of preferred a 'history of the hunger games' outlining the arenas of each, tributes and victors, new rules etc.
An incredibly long book that only really comes to say 'snow is a bad person & is the reason the games are more a spectacle than a reminder of war'
With a more in depth, adult writing style than the hunger games (and nearly doubling the page length) this book manages to say less than it's predecessors with 2x the words.
My main issues fall with lacklustre characterisation, and I think this book could've benefitted from a dual POV type perspective as snow is well... Snow. And other main characters (Lucy and more notably Sejanus) are given barely any page time.
The book handles snows characterisation well, going from a relatively central position on districts, war and hunger games to the seeds thoroughly planted and sprouting on what we see when we meet Katniss. However the other characters, most importantly Lucy, feel underdeveloped and lost to the story.
With the book lacking on characters to follow, it'd need an engaging plot and narrative to carry you along. However, nothing really serious or gripping happens til there's around 65 pages left (which is just over 10% of the book).
The book really had potential, but it falters at every step. It's essentially one big set up for the hunger games (as to be expected of a prequel) that fails to carry any of the charm and narrative prose that would lead you to wanting to pick up and enjoy the hunger games.
With the dragging and slow narrative, painfully annoying moments from snow and drab characterisation of anyone else, there's really nothing good going for this book apart from knowledge of the development of the hunger games; on that note especially I'd of preferred a 'history of the hunger games' outlining the arenas of each, tributes and victors, new rules etc.
An incredibly long book that only really comes to say 'snow is a bad person & is the reason the games are more a spectacle than a reminder of war'