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

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I read another review who said it best (@nataliya):
You don't root for young Hitler to find love and success... Coriolanus Snow cannot be redeemed. But he can be understood, to a point, and thats what Collins did well here.

I struggled to get into this prequel story knowing full well I would not sympathize with Snow, but I wanted to understand how history unraveled itself into the world we see by the 74th reaping. The level of foreshadowing Collins does within this story alone, as well as tying things into the original trilogy, is phenomenal. I am still constantly thinking back to how every action by the rebels in the future, knowingly or unknowingly, packs a bigger punch to the gut against Snow/against the capitol. Although I enjoyed the overall message, I really didn't care for a lot of the characters nor the games they played. 

What I thought was originally just a love story gone wrong developed into more of a study on the human psyche, and for that, I did enjoy this read slightly more than average and more than what I expected.

For all these reasons, I am also glad I borrowed this from the library rather than spent the money as it would not have met my original trilogy Hunger Games expectations.
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