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

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I had high hopes for this because I loved the trilogy and I was curious about President Snow's origin story. The story started strong but went downhill from there and I was so disappointed. Even the romance part didn't save it that made me sad because Coriolanus and Lucy Gray were so cute, but yeah, it didn't work well. All I could say was that at an early age, the villain tendency was apparent. LG and her disappearing act must be a poetic way of her way out, but even that, I hated. I love music, but I didn't like the lyrics in this book (except for the song dedicated to Coryo.) I liked the twist that Coriolanus' dad stole the idea of the Hunger Games from his friend and passed it on as his own. It was evil and gutsy. But, tbh, there were a lot of times that I want to DNF this because I was so bored. I guess, the third POV was a mistake as well. The saving grace of all this chaos was the narrator of the audiobook companion, Santino Fontana. He's a great narrator. You're an awesome writer, Suzanne, I devoured the trilogy, but this wasn't for me. I'm sorry.

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