Book Review
Title: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games #0)
Author: Suzanne Collins
Genre: YA/Dystopian
Rating: DNF (for now)
Review: I am so excited for this book for many reasons, one it is the first book written in the Hunger Games in almost a decade, two is focuses on President Coriolanus Snow and finally it takes place at the 10th Hunger Games a full 64 years before the amazing novel where we met Miss Katniss Everdeen. The opening to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was amazing as we introduced to Coriolanus Snow, whose family is bordering poverty since the end of the rebellion, known as the Dark Days in the original trilogy. He is relying on his position as a mentor in the 10th Hunger Games to get enough money to go to university and provide for his family and restore their name to its former glory. One revelation that comes earlier on is that Snow and Tigris, the designer, are cousins and live with their grandmother since both their parents are dead.
Coriolanus has seen the depths people have sunk to including cannibalism in order to survive and won't let his family get to that point, despite having no money he uses his charm to secure a position as a mentor and hopes to be assigned a good district. He ends up being assigned the female tribute from district 12 which he sees as something bad until he sees his tribute. Lucy Gray Braid is the tribute for district 12 and she is sassy and clever, she makes her first appearance by putting a snake down the mayor's daughters dress at the reaping which earns her a slap from him. After he is removed by Peacekeepers to calm down Lucy entertains everyone with a song. Coriolanus and the other mentors are completely captivated by her and he even sees her as attractive and begins to think his luck is turning. However, a stupid nickname for the Dean of the Academy may be jeopardising his chances before the games have even begun.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Coriolanus waits for the tributes to arrive in the Capitol and is shocked to see the conditions they are being kept in but tries to make a good impression on Lucy. At first, she is indifferent to him but when he shows his courage but getting in the truck full of tributes and defending himself when one tribute attacks him, he begins to win her over. By the time the tributes are put on public viewing for entertainment, Coriolanus ends up in the cage with them but Lucy encourages him to take it in his stride and he does wonderful, furthering their budding friendship and possibly romantic feelings between them no matter how doomed they are. We are also introduced to the only other mentor that shows up before the tributes are introduced to the Capitol at large, Sejanus. Coriolanus doesn’t really like Sejanus as his family is from district 2 but due to his father’s wealth and position they have moved up to the Capitol and taken the position in society formerly occupied by the Snow’s.
However, Sejanus isn’t comfortable mentoring someone from his own district which is made worse as he knows Marcus personally as they went to school together. Coriolanus considers swapping tributes but when it comes down to it, he decides to keep Lucy, not just because he likes her but because he knows she is his family’s ticket back to the top. Learning about the development of the Games into what we see in the original trilogy is brilliant as the games here aren’t as “perfect” as they are when Katniss enters her first games. In fact, Coriolanus and some classmates are the ones that come up with the idea of betting on the games and sending items, specifically food into the arena for the tributes and Doctor Gaul, the head Gamemaker is going to use them. However, leading up to this two mentors are put out of action. One torments her starving tribute with food which causes the tribute to slit her throat meaning there is one less tribute and one less mentor. Another one is punished by Doctor Gaul for lying about helping with the proposal, Coriolanus is the one who wrote the proposal as a way to avoid thinking of his friend’s death but it is true that the whole class bounced ideas off one another leading up to this. Coriolanus also has more pressing issues as Lucy Gray seems about ready to give into starvation and he needs to get her more food but he barely has enough to feed himself. Coriolanus so far has been shown to be a character willing to do anything to further his own agenda but he is human, he does have feelings especially for Lucy Gray.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, things get even worse for Coriolanus as in the aftermath of his friend’s death, the mentors and tributes are taken on a tour of the arena and some bombs explode, although no one knows where they came from. In the resulting explosions, the tributes from districts 1, 2, 6, and 9 are all killed along with several mentors, however, Marcus managed to escape despite other tributes being shot for running. Coriolanus is pinned by a burning beam and Lucy Gray comes to his rescue injuring herself in the process, but he is surprised she saved him rather than taking her chance at escape like Marcus. After being packed up, Coriolanus knows he owes Lucy Gray his life and she says he can start to repay her by believing she will win, which is a possibility with the drastically reduced tribute pool the Gamemakers are now working with. This is also where the movie canon is changed, in the movies the winner of the 10th Hunger Games is briefly mentioned and it is the male tribute from district 2, however, this can’t be the case as Marcus has fled and the female tribute is dead. This means unless Marcus returns specifically for the games then the winner is going to be someone else and with their numbers reduced, I genuinely believe that Lucy Gray and by extension Coriolanus are going to win but I don’t think it is going to be a conventionally win.
I know this is a complete change of tone for the review, but I am updating it to say that I am not continuing with this book at the moment. There are two main reasons for this, the first is that I was spoiled for the ending and have no desire to continue with the rest of the story right now. The second is that I made it 35% in on my kindle and I was getting a little bored to be fair even though I was enjoying it. I think I was getting bored because we were getting close to halfway through and the games hadn’t even begun yet.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
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