Ambition will fuel him. Competition will drive him. But power has its price. It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able … hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.
The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined – every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute . . . and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.
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Ended too quickly!
I was a little wary of reading this book. I am a fan of The Hunger Games and sometimes when an author adds to a series so long after it’s initial publication it can be found wanting. I am happy to say that was not the case here. I found it very intriguing to learn about how the Capitol and Snow himself were in the early years after the war and in the beginning stages of the Hunger Games. Some of the circumstances and situations that can be traced back to the events in this book were quite shocking. Even knowing where Snow ends up, I was still hoping for his redemption. I find it to be a compliment to the author that even knowing how much I would come to hate Snow, I was still pulling for him to be a decent human being. We all know how that turned out, however, so I am left a bit sad at the ending of this book… but then, I don’t think it was meant to be happy.
It was a fantastic prequel. You were able to understand so much more about the world of Panam and there were so many connections to the Hunger Games trilogy.
Great prequel to the hunger games
I’ll admit I put off reading this book so long because I didn’t want to see a young Snow, assuming his youth would equal naivety, and give the reader a chance to decide he was blameless in becoming the monster we know of from the Hunger Games. In short, I didn’t think Snow deserved a redemption arc and now that I’ve read the book I’m still convinced of it snd glad that wasn’t what Collins tried to do at all. I enjoyed the look into the “past” and all the history of how the Hunger Games came to be what we knew them as in the original books. My favorite part though was the way Collins worked in the things that a reader of the original trilogy would know must have set Snow off by bringing up these “new” old memories such as his connection to 12 and to a girl willing to put on a show, to the songs and signs that heralded the rebellion. It was an interesting book with many a thought provoking moment and I’m glad I finally got around to reading it as a fan of the Hunger games books.
Wow, this book brought me right back into Panem and the Hunger Games. I would recommend.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is exactly the kind of tale you get when a striver falls in love with a survivor in The Hunger Games world. It is also a prequel, so the end is predetermined. There is no surprise at the end but there were many teeth-clenching twists and turns along the way. I rather enjoyed finding out the history of things and the psyche of the unusual (President Snow doesn’t think himself evil and this book shows it!) so it was a great fit for me even though there were a few slower parts. I rated it 4 stars instead of 5 because I kept running across sentences with odd wording that I’d have to read a couple of times, breaking the flow. Overall, I’m adding it to my bookshelf.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was okay, I guess. I didn’t full on hate it but I also didn’t love it. A huge part of the story wasn’t very interesting, I must admit and in general I wasn’t very impressed with it either. I love a good villain origin story but somewhere something missed its mark with this one.
I listened to the audiobook and I wasn’t a very big fan of the narrator. His voice was pretty dull and often droned on. This didn’t make it fun to listen, that’s for sure. There were parts in the book where characters were singing and the voice he did then was just plain weird. I really couldn’t keep a straight face with it. So I wouldn’t recommend picking up that version.
I do have to say that because I didn’t like the book that it doens’t mean it didn’t have its good parts. It takes place during the tenth Hunger Games (and after) where a eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is a mentor to Lucy Gray from Distric 12 (what can go wrong, right?). I liked learning more about the history and world of Panem. But that was probably the only likable thing in the book.
I hate to say it because I’m a big fan of the original Hunger Games trilogy but it kind of read like some sort of fanfiction. Yes Snow is a somewhat intriguing character, there’s no denying that but I feel like this could’ve been a so much better story. And don’t get me started on the romance. I really wasn’t there for it at all. It was creepy. So I feel that with two stars I’ve been pretty generous. If not for all the extra information and things I learned about The Hunger Games, the Capital and the districts then it probably would’ve been a star less even. It’s a no from me.
In this prequel, I found it really interesting to see how many things in the world of The Hunger Games came to be. This is especially true for a lot of the songs that Katniss sings throughout the series. Reading this backstory was very entertaining to say the least, but not as enlightening as I would have hoped.
Lucy Grey stole the show. She had a lot of personality and it filled up a lot of the “gray” (no pun intended) areas of this book. A lot of things were lackluster and the ending didn’t really make sense to me. Anyone who loved The Hunger Games will enjoy this prequel, but don’t expect it to be as good as the first novel!!
Favorite quote: “‘Nothing you can take from me was ever worth keeping.’”
I think this prequel novel to the Hunger Games series is even better than Mockingjay.
I love the Hunger Games world and this book did not disappoint. I hope Collins continues to uncover the stories of the beloved characters as she has done so well in this book. A must read for Hunger Game fans…
Masterful story-telling with complex characters, a plot with unexpected yet compelling and sensible twists, and gripping narrative. One of my favorite prequels of all time.
An interesting back story for President Snow, his relationship to District 12, and the development of the Hunger Games.
I read all three hunger games books when they came out and saw the movies. While the trilogy was dark, the theme overall was uplifting.
In the prequel, Suzanne Collins takes a risk in using a POV character whose thoughts are cold and calculating. She is a talented writer and pulls off the challenge. But there were moments in the book when I wished I heard Lucy or Sejanus’s views rather than Snow’s.
Few parts of the book reminded me of reading Lord of the Flies. My outlook on humanity is hopeful, so reading Lord of the Flies depressed me, and reality is dismal enough that I prefer my reading to be inspiring.
I liked reading about the early hunger game structure. I loved getting the back story for the song “Are you…”.
Good to see katniss the plant, make an appearance.
Lucy Gray (Original by Wordsworth and modified by Suzanne) song featured in the book was beautiful, though Snow’s interpretation grated me. That is the challenge of being in such a mind. Lucy Gray’s character is haunting.
Overall, a dark grim book that is splendidly written to portray humanity and its flaws. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you are intrigued by how the mind of an aloof, distant character works and what influences such a person, this book does a good showcase of it.
What a great origin story! When I read the premise of the book, I was initially skeptical, as I did not see how you could make President Snow a sympathetic character. Thankfully, Collins proved me wrong. The literary adage that every villain is the hero of his or her own story was never more on display here. While the character of Lucy Gray might seem a bit derivative of Katniss Everdeen (or vice versa in a weird literary time-travel sort of way), that is about the only complaint here. There is plenty of “fan service” as people like to call it these days, with the origins of several Hunger Games traditions and some of its song (fans of the haunting “Hanging Tree” song will not be disappointed).
The bar was set extremely high with the original trilogy and although this was a fantastic story in it’s own right it didn’t quite reach that bar. I do recommend this though, it tells the story of Coriolanus Snow, how and why the man became who he was. A must read for lovers of the original series.
If you liked Hunger Games, and especially if you watched the movies and enjoyed the background details with Snow and the gamemakers (an addition I really enjoyed), then I’d recommend checking out A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
I think my favorite part was seeing how the hunger games evolved into the spectacle we see in the original trilogy. There’s a lot of Easter Eggs that work their way into the story, most of which go smoothly and have their “ah-ha!” moments, though a few do seem a bit on-the-nose.
That said, my second favorite part of the story is the twisted philosophy of the primary game maker (ever enjoyed Knights of the Old Republic II for Kreia’s point of view? You may also enjoy Dr. Gaul as the villain she is and how she shapes Snow’s world view).
It should be noted that this is a villain story. Snow definitely has flaws, and they’re the kind of flaws he doesn’t every fully work through, leading to the tragedy we ultimately see unfold. Knowing that going in, I found it to be an interesting view of his youth.
The main downside for me was that, while the beginning went super fast and was hard to put down, there was a part in the middle that kind of bogged down before eventually picking up the pace again toward the end.
Overall, this story is great for seeing more of the dystopian Hunger Games world and getting more context, and for giving additional meaning to “The Hanging Tree” song we see in Hunger Games.
This prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy contains all the suspense and relationship angst of the trilogy, but I deducted one star from perfection for the ambiguity of the characters and the ending. True, Suzanne Collins is such a skilled author that her subtle relationship changes and puzzling ambiguities in many characters kept us glued to the pages of the Hunger Games books. In the prequel, I was hopeful that the ending would resolve some of the questions in a positive way. I wanted less badness in my good guys, if not less goodness in my bad guys.
For lovers of the Hunger Games books and dystopian fiction in general, I nevertheless recommend The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. If nothing else, you will be enthralled by the origin story of the Mockingjays.
Some violence, no sex, mild language. Appropriate for middle grades through adult.
If you read the other Hunger Games books, you need to read it. But with that said, I didn’t like it nearly as much as the other three books. Although it was really interesting to learn more about the early hunger games, we were in the point of view of President Snow, and so I hated him from the beginning. Granted Coriolanus wasn’t nearly as bad as a teenager, but I still disliked him and I knew he was going to turn out to be really bad. I also didn’t really love Lucy Gray. I didn’t dislike her, but I didn’t feel any emotion toward her. This was not the fault of Suzanne Collins’ writing, simply the fault of being a prequel about the villain. When I picked it up, I expected to finish it in two days. Instead it took me a month.
I thought it was interesting to see some of what made Snow the person he became. I would love to see this story continue as another trilogy leading up to Hunger Games.