The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Hunger Games Novel

4.5 stars Amazon delivered my copy early, so I'm going to do a spoiler free review and then a spoilery one. Pardon if this winds up sounding like an English paper. I have thought so much on the morals and questions in this book that I feel like I should have read this in school. Note: I'm writing this review with the express belief that you, reader, have at least read the book description. Otherwise why are you reading this review? I want to start this off by saying two things. One, this is not a hero story. Snow is never once, in my opinion, shown to be a hero in this in what we modern folks would call a hero. He's no Luke Skywalker or redeemed villain. This isn't some sob backstory to explain "why the bad guy is bad." This is yet another set of layers to the onion that is Snow. Second, this book is dark. It's been a minute since I read the original trilogy, but I swear it wasn't quite as graphic as this book was. Cannibalism is mentioned, and it's shown/talked about that someone sawed the leg off a dead woman and ran off with it. One character is killed then hung on a hook and paraded. Another is also gruesomely displayed after their death. Several characters are dragged through processions to "prove a point," another character is hung from two large poles and left to basically die in the sun. Multiple accounts of vomiting/poison throughout, and a general unpleasantness at the lack of regard for human life. Non-spoilery review: This book makes you think. A lot. It makes you question things, and wonder if maybe Snow is right (he's not), but it's written in such a way that he's not a villain. Donald Sutherland in an interview made a great point in saying that Snow isn't a villain, he's just a ruthless man doing what he thinks is right to keep his home and country in one piece. "He does it so well. And he doesn't think he's a bad person. He thinks it's the only way society can survive. And whether you think he's right or wrong, he doesn't think he's bad. He likes himself." This should be the mantra for this book. Snow is a conflicting, flawed human. In our society, he's evil, a sociopath or a psychopath. He's a murderer and a killer. He's a bad guy. In his world, he's one of the masses. He simply lives as he's been raised to, with a mentality that has been ingrained in him since the war between the Districts and the Capitol. He's simply more ruthless then most and has the guts to make what he considers the "hard decisions." Regardless of the other characters in this, they're all props to his story--which fits well with the Snow we know from The Hunger Games. Everyone is second stage to Snow and his life. This is his evolution from being a child to a man, to becoming the Snow we know and love/hate. I definitely don't think this book is for everyone. I'm sitting here with my mom breathing down my neck because she can't wait to read it, and I don't think she'll like it at all, and she's a diehard THG trilogy fan. Why? Because not everyone likes to read depressing books. There's no redemption in this. There's no saving someone from themselves. This is the fall, stumble, plummet into being a not great person and embracing it fully. So take that as you will. Full spoilers below about everything. P.s. This is a standalone. SPOILERS BELOW Okay, so, I was worried about this book when I read the first chapter sample and it got announced that Snow would be training the District 12 girl. I thought, oh crap, it's gonna be a cliche YA. It's gonna have a stupid romance that undercuts the whole plot and makes him a sap. And yeah, it did that, and up until the last 50 pages I was teetering on a 3-3.5 stars. And then oh boy, the end. Lucy Grey was a sweet girl, but she felt off since the beginning. I still can't fully put my finger on it, but her and Snow's relationship felt so <i>wrong</i> the entirety of the book. The red flags went up repeatedly every time he made comments about how she was his, and even so far as to say she was his property, and that's all kinds of wrong. And even though their romance was cute and fluffy, it felt bad, tainted. You knew something was going to happen. It always does in these villain backstories. Usually the whole reason the villain is bad is because the love interest gets brutally killed and then they're like whelp, guess I'll just be evil. Not in this book. Snow constantly struggles with morality and right and wrong throughout this. Should he turn in his friend to the Capitol because they're colluding with rebels and could tear down the (flawed) infrastructure? Or should he turn a blind eye and let his friend do his own thing? Is the Hunger Games wrong or good? Is it wrong to view the District people as second class humans? And so on. This book broaches the topic of racism in very broad terms with the whole District/Capitol thing. You've always known there was a divide between them, but in this, you really see how much the Capitol looks down on the Districts, and you can easily see how that morphs into such a hatred and distaste by the time Katniss first enters the Hunger Games. But I digress. Snow struggles with morality, but he's flawed and very, very imperfect. He rationalizes every death he takes as self-defense or some other reason when really he's just murdered someone because it's inconvenient for him. He kills (or at least removes her from the picture; it's ambiguous) Lucy Grey in the end because she's a loose end and too free. He does it. Not someone else, not some freak accident. He chooses to do it and, by the time it happens, you already know what direction he's headed in so it's not quite another nail in the coffin. It fully feels like him tying up loose ends so he can go do whatever he wants. All the nods to THG characters and names was cool. You also had a lot of The Great Gatsby vibes in the Old Money versus New Money mentality that a lot of the Capitol had with District people who gained a fortune and bought their way into the Capitol life. They're looked down upon by the old families and viewed as trash. You saw a lot of the evolution in the Hunger Games, and you can see how it begins to change and grow into what Katniss and Peeta suffered through. You see how it begins to change from a simple punishment to a sport and a holiday, with the growing encouragement that it should be a normal and good thing. You also see a side of the Capitol you most definitely did not see in the trilogy--suffering. A lot of the book shows Snow struggling with having been a small child living through the Dark Days and the war. He was 8 when the Capitol won, and even then it was hard. You learn about the hell the Capitol lived through as they were besieged by the Districts' army and forced to ration, starvation, and cannibalism. It's a hard picture, and it's so blatantly told. Collins didn't hold back any punches in this. I never felt like what was done was for shock and awe for the reader, but it was definitely that for the story, and it made sense. Regardless of the Capitol not being at war with the Districts anymore, the tensions were still so high that it makes sense for the Capitol to overreact in their retaliation of events. So when one mentor gets killed by her tribute, they shoot the tribute and parade her body around on a hook at the mentor's funeral. It's disgusting, debasing, and shows how much the Capitol views the Districts as nothing more than rodents or livestock. Anyway, I'll stop talking. Go read it yourself. It's a hard read, a heavy read, but it was very, very enjoyable.

The book was not great, nor very exciting or realistic. But if you are a Hunger Games fan, you really do have to read it. Suzanne Collins is a good writer, so I did find myself compelled by her words and found it often hard to put the book down. That said, there were a few things that felt forced in the storyline, and the timeline felt a little off. For example, the games were going on for 10 years already, and they were only just getting around to working out the bugs. Also, by the time Katniss came along, the games had been in effect for 75 years. That would make Snow something like 85 years old. He wasn't described as that old in the Hunger Games series. And in this book, Panem did not have the advanced technology they had 60 years later. However, this seems wrong since Panem is already far into "our" future. So shouldn't they already have the holograms and high tech gadgets? Things I liked: It was interesting to see the Hunger Games from the earlier days when tributes were treated more like animals than celebrities, and the arena was an actual arena, like in a bull fight. The idea that there were vagabonds throughout Panem, who weren't part of any district. The idea that in the old days, not all the tributes made it to the games. (Though I think they'd have worked that out in 10 years.) I loved Lucy Gray Baird. I liked the appearance of Tigris. Snow's transformation from a reasonable human being to an obsessive deviant. What I did not like: While I did like the district 12 tribute (Lucy), she wasn't very realistic. She was too cheerful for someone who wasn't even from the districts and got thrown into their bizarre death ritual. The misconception that Snow was poor and hungry. In the first few pages, they try to depict Snow as someone who hadn't eaten in days, someone who rarely has anything but cabbage soup. Then suddenly his cousin shows up with potatoes and veggies and they ate pretty well. From then on, Snow ate ALL THE TIME. He was always eating. The tributes were also eating all the time. It seemed like no one ever went hungry, even though the narration implied that everyone was poor and starving. The never-ending page after page of singing. This is the worst thing to put in a book. You can't read a song! I don't know the music and I don't feel like making up a tune to go with pages worth of someone else's lyrics. How annoying! This was so obviously Suzanne Collins setting the book up to be a movie. Annoying. Oh and how about some of the songs that just happened to be the ones Katniss sang later. Really? This is a play on OUR future. No one has a David Bowie song stashed somewhere? Despite my dislikes, I am glad I read it and I think if you are a fan, you should definitely read. Don't expect great Hunger Games characters or even much of a storyline. Think of it as a bit of supplemental info on a great trilogy.

I adored the Hunger Games series. Dystopian YA is not a normal genre for me, but this series is awesome and this prequel? A fantastic villain origin story. Coriolanus Snow is an ambitious 18-year-old student whose wealthy family barely survived the war. He is all about image and pretense, which often vie against his normal, human feelings. His parents are dead and he lives in a rundown apartment with his grandmother and cousin Tigris. But, the 10th Hunger Games is to be the first one with mentors and Coriolanus has been chosen to mentor the female tribute from District 12. While at first humiliated at not being given a more highly rated district, he quickly realizes that Lucy Gray is someone who could win and it's up to him to figure out how to help her do that. Along the way, Coriolanus learns about love and the dangers it can bring. As he works his way through the Games, he also discovers who wields the power in the Capitol, who controls the games and what he needs to do to rise up above the masses. The student mentors also have a say in how the games are run, and in a somewhat twisted sort of way, their professor gives assignments and in Coriolanus' essays, we see how future Games come about and evolve. As the mentors talk about the games and what is happening, we also see how they are not all unfeeling or unkind. They view their tributes as people and they can see how unfair the Games really are. At the same time we see that those in the Capitol are only concerned about their well being and that their losses are because of the rebels. The Hunger Games series is vibrant and colorful in its imagery. This book, however, was almost more black and gray in its imagery, what with the rubble of the arena and the Capitol still trying to rebuild from the war. That made the contrast of Lucy Gray's colorful skirt and the snakes all the more striking. As with the rest of the series, we see the government oppression, we see the results of war and rebellion. We see society broken, but fighting and we see that even with survival, life isn't grand and colorful. But we also see that the human spirit is strong. No one likes who President Snow becomes and I think writing about his story so that he gains the reader's sympathy is brilliant. The story isn't fast-paced, but it drew me in and kept me enthralled.

I’d like to preface this by saying that I love philosophical and moral quandaries. It is fun for me to debate topics in that general field and think deeply about aspects of life like what the true nature of man is, as is discussed in this novel. However, I also love stories. Over complicating story-telling with hidden meanings and philosophy gets dull after too long and sometimes you do just need a story that doesn’t make you think too hard. If that’s you, still buy this book, but wait until you have to mental capacity to think a little more. This book is brilliant from the framing to the writing to just the everything, it is absolutely brilliant. It felt realistic, like something that could actually happen. Coriolanus, from the very beginning, is shown to be a little two-faced, easily figuring out what he needs to say to make people like him and it works. At the beginning, I remember feeling casting uncomfortable with the knowledge that Coriolanus, if he wanted to, could have easily fooled me and I would have no idea. What is most chilling about him even from the beginning is just how REAL he seems, like someone you would actually meet walking down the street, and by the end, I nearly felt sick seeing just how similar to myself he is and the sheer ease with which I, in different circumstances and conditions, could become just as twisted. But what really sets this book apart for me is how she portrayals the “villain origin story.” When I think of origin stories, I think of the classics: murdered girlfriend, abusive parents, abandoned by the world, betrayed by all, wrongfully imprisoned, etc. We’ve all heard and read something along those lines at least once, but this is different. Coriolanus doesn’t become the President Snow we love to loathe because of tragedy. We get the unique pleasure to watch from our seats in his mind as he is faced with several different philosophies: Dr. Gaul’s “we’re all monsters who have to be controlled” idea, Lucy Grey’s “everybody’s born as clean as a whistle” mentality, and Sejanus’ “fundamental rights of man” mentality. We watch him struggle through philosophies, trying to determine which one he will allow to influence him all while his strings are secretly being pulled without his knowledge. What we have here in this book is a REAL person who is a student who CHOOSES to view the world in such a way that causes him to believe his actions during and after this book and into the Hunger Games series are the right thing to do. He see his CHOICES not his tragedy shape him. If you’re still here, I just have one thing more. I loved this book and I think we all have a lot we can learn from it. If you’re considering it, buy it, even if it just collects dust for a while. One day, you can draw it out and embark on the twisted story of a realistic villain that will twist your insides in ways no obviously fictional villain can.

Compared to the original Hunger Games trilogy, this book has a very different feel. But how could it not be, centered as it was on the backstory of President Snow? Katniss is a protagonist that readers feel for, a perhaps imperfect person but one who garners compassion and care. Snow as a protagonist is somehow still the villain most of the time. That's a delicate balance to maintain, but the author does so beautifully. To know Snow in his younger years gives a much better understanding of the man he is in the main trilogy. We see him living in the Capitol in the post-war era, not long after the war ended. The Capitol is but a shade of what it is in Katniss' time, even Snow living in near destitution. In contrast to the man he becomes, it's eye-opening to see that there is more to him than the cruelty he embodies. In his youth, he's clearly consumed by the once power of his family, consumed with the Snow family name. It's made him ruthlessly ambitious, very entitled, and incredibly arrogant. Dangerous qualities when combined with a sharp intelligence. But even with these faults, he's not yet the man he becomes. In TBoSaS, he still has some humanity in him... the capacity to love and care for his family, the capacity for friendship, the capacity to love, even the ability to sacrifice for others. But we also see all that begin to fade, the precursor to the man in power later. The complacency that Capitol citizens feel about the Games is still in the early stages, but you can see it beginning to form. It was also fascinating to learn more about the specifics behind the creation of the Games, the twisted minds and reasoning behind them. I definitely can understand why some Hunger Games fans might not like this, but for me, the negatives really made the story more interesting for me. If Snow had been portrayed as a kinder, more compassionate person, it would have felt like the origin story of a different character. I respected the reality that he was never that person, even if he, at least for a time, was not the man he later becomes.

After owning this book for several years now, I finally got around to reading it and man.... I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. And to be fair, I had seen the movie before reading the book, and to be honest there were some things in the book (both that happened in the arena and out of it) that I wish the movie would have kept, but overall I feel like the book shined a better light on what drove Coriolanus Snow; on his innermost thoughts and motivations. But that is likely due to the fact that it is told from his point-of-view. And what a point-of-view that is. Throughout this book I found it hard to like Snow. NOT because I knew the man he would become, but because more often than not he simply came across as whiny and hypocritical. Yes, he can be charming when he wants something. Yes he is definitely cunning and intelligent. But good Lord, the constant internal whining was tiring. When he wasn't thinking about the loss of his family fortunes and the resulting poverty they were forced to live in (and the food they had or didn't have), he was complaining about literally everyone around him. He looked down upon the Plinth family at every turn (and I will get to Sejanus in a second), while still gorging himself on the food that "Ma Plinth" sent him. I get it, he's a sociopath. But he's still obnoxious and I expected more. Then we have good ole Sejanus Plinth, the martyr. I get what he was meant to be. He was everything Coriolanus was not. He was empathetic to the districts and their plights, having been born in district 2. He wanted to be the better person, to not only do good, but to help stop the people from suffering. He stood up to the capital against the games at every turn, but did so in a way that showed he was too emotional about it all. And then he went to District 12 and he really spiraled out of control. And when Coriolanus tried to point out that this path was not one that should be taken (and even knowing how he was linked to Coriolanus as being as close as brothers and how much Coriolanus had already risked for him), Sejanus persisted. And honestly, when things came to a head what had he been expecting? Throughout most of this story I will admit to being bored. There was no sense of urgency. Even the games themselves were boring (which is something I am glad the movies omitted). I'm still confused about that scene in the cabin though. Why did Lucy Gray think she was in danger just because he found those guns? How did she figure out that Coriolanus had a hand Sejanus' death? As for the "third person" he killed, he could have admitted to her that it was Sejanus. I mean come on he was smart enough for everything else, but he wasn't smart enough to say that he had known about the rebel plan and had tried to talk him out of it, but then spun it to seem like maybe he hadn't done enough so he carried the guilt of him being hung? I definitely think this book could have benefited from a dual point-of-view so that we could get to see/hear what Lucy Gray was going through. Not only in the arena and her first meetings with her mentor, but also after. How she adjusted back to life in District 12. How she went from trusting Coriolanus to knowing that he was going to kill her. I still have questions, but overall I am happy to have been able to witness the downfall of Coriolanus Snow. Because let's face it, if he hadn't had to mentor Lucy Gray, things might have turned out differently for the future of Panem altogether.

The book is great. However, the beginning each disk is distorted and fuzzy.

Solid entry in Hunger Games

Bough this book just out of curiosity with no expectation - well, I literally couldn’t stop reading it! The writing is simply amazing, sending the reader into the story. 100% recommended!!! Book quality is ok and delivery was on time, as expected.

Toujours dans la même veine que les premiers hunger games, encore un roman qui fait la part belle aux subtilités psychologiques humaines plutôt que de se satisfaire de personnages caricaturaux. S’intégre très bien à la série : j’adore !

Ótimo

Inga skav eller liknande när boken kom hem. Är så taggad på att läsa den, Hunger Games fick mig att komma in i läsandet så ska bli spännande! Jag såg filmen förra året så har höga förväntningar på boken nu🫣

Love this book, great condition as well.