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

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

4.0

I enjoyed that even with the knowledge of Snow’s character from the original series built a very believable development balance of Snow’s tenderness and sense of self-preservation – particularly towards his family - as it twists and warps over the events of the book to truly cement his mindset into a self-serving and capitol centric belief system that we see reflected in the core series.

I feel that parts 1 and 2 of this book where incredibly gripping and created some brilliant scenes, though did feel the book started to drag out in part 3 as the intrigue of the plot itself lulled in the background during many of the events in my opinion.

I am undecided whether I think having Lucy Gray’s POV would of helped or not and Snow’s POV did become quite stagnated in part 3 of the book, but also liked the mystery of not knowing how she would react to certain events and this question mark it left at the end of the book.

Overall I think a nice addition for context though not exactly a heartbreaking dramatic character arc for Snow, I feel it captured what it needed to for a prequel though there are areas I wish had been fleshed out a bit more.
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