Review: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ten years on from the release of Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins has returned to the world of The Hunger Games with the long-awaited prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - a prequel that, I'm sure none of us have forgotten, provoked a storm of controversy when it came out that the protagonist of this one would be a much younger Coriolanus Snow in the year of the 10th Hunger Games, rather than the Haymitch-centered prequel most of us (myself included, not gonna lie) were hoping for.


Yeah, but then again, after how aggressively Mockingjay explored the damage done by war, now we're finally getting a book that talks about what happens after a long war. Except this time, it's the war that started the era of Panem's history we all know - and ten years later, the Capitol is still suffering from the terror of the Dark Days. Seriously, the strength of this book lies in how much Collins overturns a lot of easily preconceived notions about the Games - that the Capitol unilaterally loved the concept, all the citizens were pooling lots of money to sponsor their faves, all the costumes were over the top and lavish as hell...

...nope, not quite.

Truth is, in the year of the 10th Hunger Games, lots of Capitol families are still very poor and struggling to make ends meet after years of war and siege. Including Snow's family, left destitute because their parents are dead and lost all their money from investing in District 13 after it was nuked off the map (at least on the surface...) So Coriolanus really has to claw his way up to the top, and you almost feel sympathetic for him...

...almost.

Collins loses no time reminding us that Snow, even though he starts out fighting for his family's return to glory and honor, is supremely self-centered and only in it for himself when all is said and done. He has a friend, he falls in love, but all of the above end tragically. Though the dynamic between him and the District 12 girl tribute he's supposed to mentor, Lucy Gray Baird, is truly something to behold. Lucy Gray, a member of an itinerant group called the Covey - clearly inspired by Irish Travelers, Romani, etc. - actually comes off like Jennifer Lawrence playing herself. (It helps that she's got quite a bit in common with Katniss, most notably her singing abilities - hell, it's my headcanon at this point that Lucy Gray is an ancestor of Katniss, which explains a hell of a lot about Snow in the original trilogy if so.) I almost wish that Collins had included some of her POV as well, because even though she's got her own flaws - she's introduced dropping a snake down another girl's dress - she's still far more likable than Snow could ever be.

But then, of course, that's the point. War is hell and makes monsters of us all.

I guess Piéra Blackthorn and I disagreed on this one. Hopefully, though, Francis Lawrence directs the hell out of the forthcoming film adaptation. And that Lucy Gray gets the most pitch-perfect casting she can.

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