The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (a Hunger Games Novel)

It explains somethings about the hunger games universe but not how it all came to be so I was a little disappointed. But it did keep my interest

After a decade, Collins returns with a prequel to the Hunger Games. Coriolanus Snow, the villain of the series, comes out on top as a young man struggling to discover is identity. It’s pure fun and filled with backstory about the corruption of Snow’s soul that led to his ultimate showdown with Katniss Everdeen for years later.

3.5 Stars

Whelp, I liked it! I can’t say I looooooved it, but I did enjoy the story. It was enlightening to see where Coriolanus Snow came from and how he came to be the ruthless President of Panem that we know him to be in the ‘The Hunger Games’ trilogy.

My recommendation? Do NOT listen to this book on audio. The narrator, Santino Fontana, is so boring and monotone. There are numerous songs in this book and he talks them…not even trying to sing them, and his various voices for the characters were lackluster. This was my first full audiobook, so I don’t have a lot (or anything) to compare to, but the reviews on Audible.com told me I was not alone.

Aside from that, this was a great addition to the Hunger Games series. There’s a good amount of action and you see how the games slowly became what we know them to be. They certainly didn’t start out that way. Sixty-four years ago they bore very little resemblance to the flashy over-the-top spectacle that we saw in the 74th and 75th games.

I won’t completely dissect this book as it’s already been done a gazillion other times here, but I enjoyed it. Sure, if I wanted to over-think it I could find some faults with it, but I’m choosing to look at this as an exciting and informative look at the early days of Panem and the Hunger Games. This books ending was set-up in a way that there could be a follow-up, but who knows.

Overall, I’m glad I read it.

I would never have seen that coming. I’ve read and watched all the “Hunger Games” thinking that Snow had no right to be mad and have hatred for those that didn’t do anything. But to read from him perspective I had learned not to judge a book by it’s cover. Learning that Snow was just like every other teenage kid who wanted his every own happy ending but ended losing and fighting the ones that he loved causing his to change his perspective on the world and not trust anyone ever again. From now on I will always say Snow isn’t who you really think he is. That he’s now one of my favorite characters.

In this prequel to The Hunger Games, readers follow Coriolanus Snow during a formative summer in his life. The once-powerful Snow family lost everything when District 13 was obliterated but they’re still trying to keep up appearances. Corio needs a scholarship to the University if he’s going to have any hope of bettering his family’s circumstances. He sees his chance to stand out when he’s offered the opportunity to be a mentor for a tribute in the annual Hunger Games. His heart sinks when he’s assigned Lucy Gray Baird, the girl from District 12, but he quickly realizes that she’s a natural performer and concocts scheme after scheme to capitalize on her talents. The founder of the Hunger Games, Dr. Gaul, begins to view Corio as something of a protege and asks him and his classmates for ideas to make the Hunger Games “better,” i.e. more widely watched. Corio finds that he’s a natural at this kind of thing, even as he finds himself growing attached to Lucy.

So. I haven’t re-read any of the original novels since they were first published and I haven’t re-watched any of the movies since their respective releases. So I’m fuzzy on those plot points.

But this didn’t do much to further the broader story. Snow is a manipulative prick. We know that. All I learned in this book is that he was even able to manipulate himself into believing he was a good person when he was a teenager. But he’s constantly looking out for his own interests and playing the angles that give him the biggest advantages. He’s a major kiss-ass and backstabber but he doesn’t really acknowledge that, even to himself. His conscience tweaks him every now and then but he easily shuts it up by twisting other characters’ motives to justify his own actions. It was interesting to see how the Snow of the later books was shaped so much by this one summer. Dr. Gaul has some pretty brutal theories about warfare and the nature of humanity and she plants her seeds in very fertile soil when she decides to start mentoring Corio.

I would say that his devotion to his grandmother “The Grandma’am,” and his cousin, Tigris, are slightly redeeming, but now that I think about it, why was Tigris the one who worked herself to death to support him? He used her too. (I wish I remembered more about Tigris. She shows up in Mockingjay, right? That’s all I recall).

While I liked Lucy, I didn’t quite understand her actions either. Was she someone who could murder in cold blood? Or was she someone who bought Corio’s BS about how much he cared for her? She seemed too street-smart for the latter and too honorable for the former, even when she explained why she did it.

The Hunger Games in this early version are almost unrecognizable as Katniss’s Hunger Games. The kids are just thrown into an arena to kill each other or starve to death and no one watches it. That all starts to change the year that Corio and his classmates start mentoring the tributes, which brings up more questions. Why would Dr. Gaul, the force behind the whole idea, ask her students for ideas to make the games more entertaining rather than her Gamemakers? That aside, the introduction of recognizable elements felt a bit clunky. “Oh, I know! We can let the Capitol bet on the outcome.” “Oh, wait! It’s boring to watch them starve, so why don’t we let viewers buy food and supplies? Then the tributes will be in better condition to fight!” That’s really how “subtle” it was. And there was a constant reference to “the odds” being in someone’s favor or not in regular conversation. That isn’t something that’s said at the Reaping, so it felt a bit forced.

And the ending was…ambiguous and lackluster.

Maybe I would have enjoyed this more if it had been the true origin of the series, but as a prequel, I never felt any doubt about Corio’s path and that robbed the book of a lot of its dramatic tension. By all means, fans should read the book, just don’t expect it to add much depth to the series.

I am a fan of the Hunger Games. I was planning on buying this book some time in the near future, but I had to wait. I did the next best thing, and got on the waiting list at my public library. A very long wait. Then something happened that I didn’t expect. I happened on a young girl who was reading this book! I started reading it until she came back. Jokingly, she took the book and said, “get your own.” Hahahaaa and so I ordered it that evening. I couldn’t wait for the three days, for this book to arrive. When it did…I couldn’t put it down.

My Review (no spoilers – get your own)
Five stars! Amazing! I loved it. To be brought back to a story I’d loved. I listened to The Hunger Games Soundtrack while reading. The new songs in this book, went well with the old song from the trilogy. Here we have Snow, a young teen about to graduate. I learned why he hated District 12. I learned why he hated Katniss “The Mockingjay,” so much. I watched Snow over-analyze everything…some times over thinking his way deeper into the rabbit hole. I learned more about how the games evolved. You will learn these too…when you read this book! I cried when I read the last chapter.
I had tears again as reached the last page…well because it was over. Great job Suzanne Collins…another home run. I’m hoping there might be a book two to this story!

A prequel to The Hunger Games, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes gives insight into President Snow’s youth and how he became the authoritarian ruler we see in The Hunger Games. From his upbringing as an aristocratic youth in the Capital, his participation as a mentor in the tenth hunger games, his peacekeeper duties, his starting university, we follow Coriolanus Snow’s life. The tone is dark in this novel as we learn more of his convictions. An interesting story. Well done Ms Collins.

If you loved the Hunger Games you will love this book. Insight into who and why Snow was who he was. Many twists and turns. Had the same can’t wait to get back to my book feel that I had with The Hunger Games

I gave this novel two stars.

It pains me to rate a Hunger Games book this low, but this book was extremely disappointing and quite the chore to finish.

In this novel, we follow along Coriolanus Snow’s origins. Just years after the war between the Districts and the Capitol, the Hunger Games is much different than what it becomes in the trilogy.

No one really watches it, and they basically dump the tributes in a rotting arena to duke it out to the death. But this year, students at the Academy are sponsoring the tributes and brainstorming ways to get more people to watch it.

Snow has lucked out with an opportunity to sponsor a tribute, and if he wants to pay for University, he’ll have to win a prize by getting his tribute to win. Can he pull it off, or will he end up like so many other penniless, impoverished Capitol citizens?

This book missed the mark in many ways, and I’m not going to sugar coat.

The one thing that truly worked for me was the concept.

I mean, it’s the Hunger Games. That’s why I wanted to read this so bad. The trilogy was a lot of fun, so this had to be great, right? I also thought it would be interesting to learn more about the Capitol in its earlier days and learn more about the world they live in. Unfortunately, the positives end here for me.

As usual, I’ll start with the characters. I had many issues with Snow’s character.
Starting out, I sympathized with him. His family was once a great family name in the Capitol and is now struggling financially like many others. Snow wants to make something great out of himself, like so many other young men in the Capitol. Cool, good for you.

However, throughout the book, his character is compromised, creating an unenjoyable experience. My main issue is the bipolar nature of his thoughts and actions. They don’t make any sense. Snow has no issue thinking awful thoughts of others, throwing them under the bus, then feeling ‘sorry for said person’ and feeling pity for himself. He goes through these motions over and over again, and I really got sick of it after a while. This kind of a character is not something anyone really enjoys reading about.

Snow is self-righteous, selfish, and way to mercurial for my taste. His thoughts betray themselves from page to page, and I can’t understand how anyone could really trust him in this book. He assumes that everyone needs him so much when clearly he’s being a total jerk, and it was exhausting.

The plot seemed intriguing enough at the beginning, but the first part stretched on far too long before anything interesting happened. Yes, we did get to see how they formulated the 10th Hunger Games, but nothing was really happening, not enough to keep from struggling to move forward. Finally, we do get some action with the Hunger Games, but it felt a bit lackluster overall, certainly not comparable to the first three books.

The third part of the book was the hardest part for me. I felt the flow suffered immensely, and at that point I had become so sick of being in Snow’s mindset that it took forever just to finish a chapter.

In the end, this was an unsatisfying origin story to the Hunger Games. I cannot recommend this book, and if you enjoyed the Hunger Games trilogy, maybe you should consider not reading this if you don’t want to sour your former reading experiences.

“Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.”
―Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

It’s difficult to summarize or even review a story where you basically know the ultimate ending. In The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, future President Snow is an 18 year old student with his entire future ahead of him, and his outcome is based on a series of choices that sets him on his path of not only being the President of Panam, but also the most hated man in the Districts and the cause for the birth of an uprising the Hunger Games was put in place to squelch.

The prequel gives the reader an insight to the brutality of the early Hunger Games…no frills or fancy parties or high-class interviews with the tributes. The children selected at the reaping, starved and treated no better than animals in cages, are thrown in an arena gladiator style with no prize for the winner beyond their life. The choices these innocents are forced to make to stay alive are just as life altering as those of the Capital students forced to mentor them.

While reading, I found it difficult to sympathize with Snow, but did push through till the very end! Did I enjoy the story? Yes. Just as I appreciated knowing how and why (excuse my Star Wars reference) Darth Vader chose the Dark Side of the Force. It’s always interesting to see or to guess the “What if’s?” What if Snow had chosen a different path? One of love and a happily ever after? Would his lack of cruelty over years given the Districts a reason to rise up and follow the Mockingjay? Was he fated to be President as his family always stated? So many “What if’s?” All based on a choice at each crossroads in his life…

It’s understandable why several readers found passages of the book rather long winded and boring. Truth be told, I found myself skimming over bits too. But if you are a fan of the Hunger Games trilogy, I’d recommend…but again, that is your choice.