Introduction
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the prequel to The Hunger Games series. Since I have read and liked The Hunger Games, I decided to read this book by the same author.
Author
Suzanne Collins is an American television writer and author. Her works include Underland Chronicles series, The Hunger Games Trilogy, Year of the Jungle, and When Charlie McButton Lost Power.
Content
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes contains 30 chapters which are divided into 3 parts. There is an epilogue at the end of the novel.
Part I is The Mentor. The second part is The Prize. Part III is The Peacekeeper. Each part consists of 10 chapters.
Review
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the story of Coriolanus Snow aka President Snow in The Hunger Games Trilogy before he became the President of Panem. Panem was what remained of North America.
The main event of the story was the Tenth Hunger Games. A lot of things were introduced for the first time in this event such as the mentor system, the interview of tributes, the release of mutts into the arena, the sending of gifts to the tributes in the arena, and the betting. Some of these things were one-off but most became the continuing features of the Games.
Other than Coriolanus, a few other characters are featured prominently in the novel. Two of them are Lucy Gray Baird and Sejanus Plinth. I will just reveal that these two characters did not have a good ending.
The Snow family was an old guard in the Capitol. However, their fortune evaporated when District 13 was nuked. After the death of Coriolanus’s father, they were having a hard time. However, young Coriolanus proved to be a shrewd manipulator and managed to keep a good image.
He had a great mentor, Dr. Volumnia Gaul, the Head Gamemaker. She tried to groom him to be a ruthless leader. In the end, Coriolanus sacrificed his moral compass or it might just be his true colour by forsaking everything he loved to be in power.
In this novel, we witness the change of a kid due to the environment. Though Coriolanus was not a saint in the beginning, he was not an evil man either. However, as he self-justified his own wrongdoings which included betrayal and murder, he had become the man known as President Snow in the end.
Quotes
- People were easy to manipulate when it came to their children. So pleased to see them pleased.
- It’s a lot to take in all at once, but it’s essential that you make an effort to answer that question. Who are human beings? Because who we are determines the type of governing we need.
Rating
[usr 3]
Interested in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes?
You may get the book from Kinokuniya Malaysia through the link below*.
*Disclosure: The above link is Involve Asia affiliate link. Thus, I may earn a small commission when you purchase the book through this link.
[…] The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the prequel to The Hunger Games Trilogy. In this book, the author shows the early life of President Snow, the villain in the trilogy. The story is great and we will see how Coriolanus Snow became the person he was in the trilogy. It shows that the environment can indeed make or break a person. […]