The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a prequel to the beloved dystopian series, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I loved the Hunger Games series myself because I loved Katniss as a character. I thought her relationships with Peeta, President Snow, Prim and Gale were all poignant. The political agendas and symbolisms were gorgeous. I’m really glad that it got the praise it deserved and a wonderful film series that did it justice.

When it was announced that there would be a new installment of the series featuring a young Snow, people were divided. I wasn’t sure what to think at first, but I hoped that it would bring someone new to his character and bring more details about the origins of the games.

Despite my enthusiasm, I ended up rating this book just 2 stars on Goodreads. As I said before, I loved the original trilogy, so was interested in this book. As I expected and hoped, it was different because it’s about President Snow before he was President Snow.

The best thing about the book is the dark undertones and the history of Panem and the Capitol. It's always been a dark and savage world where the theme of hunger is played in all of it's meanings. It dosen't just show a hunger for food, but a hunger for power.

The most glaring change is that it’s written in third person as opposed to first person. I wasn’t too keen on this because I think Suzanne Collins writes a lot better in the first person narrative. In the trilogy, we really get all of Katniss as a character.

I liked Suzanne Collin’s writing style. Even though it’s simple, I still feel the description and the characters. She’s really good at world building and showing a dystopian world with action and the social classes of the characters.

We already knew from the trilogy that Snow was a jerk and in this book we learn that Snow was always a big greedy jerk. I still like the fact that it’s different because it’s about President Snow when he was younger and written in third person as opposed to first person. There’s nothing wrong with writing about jerks, but I felt the book didn’t give off anything that we already knew or shown us anything interesting.

At first I thought the only saving grace is the lyrics and the Lucy Gray character. When I read the book again, I wasn’t as disgruntled as I was the first time. I had read reviews on Goodreads, and Book bloggers’ videos about this book and already felt a negative aura about the book before I even read it. Reading the book with a clearer mind the second time around, I found myself actually liking it. I might change my goodreads rating to three instead of two cause I’m still mixed about the book.

I was happy to see Tigris and learn more about Snow and his family life. It was strange to see how she was helping Snow here whilst in the books she helps Katniss hide from him. Sometimes I oforget that President Snow and Alma Coin are related in the main series. Even though Coriolanus Snow is the only major character from the trilogy that appears in this book, I felt a sense of Katniss in Lucy.

I’m not sure if I would recommend this book or not. To me, it now feels like eye-candy. The cover is eye catching and the title follows a fantasy format like A Song of Fire and Ice series. I think only Hunger Game fans would appreciate the Easter eggs, the symbolism of songbirds and snakes and the poison. These nice touches would be missed out by somebody who is blind to the Hunger Games series. I think this is the sort of book you get because it looks nice on a shelf.