The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes By Suzanne Collins
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For my second book this year, I read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. It is the prequel to the Hunger Games series, and tells the story of Coriolanus Snow, the future president of Panem. This article will contain a general summary, as well as my opinion on the book.
This book takes place during the 10th Hunger Games, 64 years before the next book in the series. In the Hunger Games, one girl and one boy from each district are chosen to fight to the death in an arena, totaling 24 tributes. In addition, each tribute is assigned a mentor from "The Academy", an elite school in the Capitol. Coriolanus is assigned to a girl from the 12th district, called Lucy Gray. His goal is to make sure gains the publics favor and is the last surviving person.
As he plays a lead part in the Games, he learns classified information about what troubles lie ahead. Simultaneously, he begins to develop feelings for Lucy Gray, even though she is set to die. It is up to him to help her survive, even if it means breaking all the rules.
My Thoughts
I had mixed feelings about this novel. On one hand, it is interesting to see this protagonist who is shown as caring, compassionate, and kind shift into the monster we know him as in the other books. It is also interesting to learn the back story, of how the Hunger Games were created. However, I thought that the book had no character building. At the end of the book, Coriolanus suddenly snaps and becomes a different person, one much like the character we know him as. This, in my opinion, is not well written. She should have given more time for it to happen, but it felt rushed and almost forced. Another feature I did not like was how many songs Collins included. Throughout the book, numerous songs and narrations were included, but felt unnecessary and useless to the story. Eventually, I stopped reading them altogether because I felt they contributed nothing to the story.
Overall, if you liked the Hunger Games series, I would recommend reading this book, despite my negative comments. I would give this book a 6/10.
-Joseph
Oooh, I actually had read this book before, so when I spotted this story on this blog, I immediately clicked on it! I enjoyed reading about your description on your feelings throughout the book. I actually probably liked the novel a tad bit more than you did, however. I feel like that may just be that I felt like the character development did grow overtime stronger than you thought it did, but I do agree with you that Snow at the beginning of this book and in the original Hunger Game trilogy are so very different.
ReplyDeleteWhat a thoughtful review, Joseph! I remember also reading this book a while back and your opinion is respectable. However, if I'm remembering right, I still feel like there was some sort of development as the reader approaches the end of the book. I won't spoil anything for anyone else, but I remember that Coriolanus was torn between two choices of life, which is, in my perspective, what made him snap. With that in mind, I enjoyed the book a lot more, though character development isn't something huge in my mind unless it's like a serious problem to the story overall. But I can see where you're coming from from the detailed description you've given; great job on this review!
ReplyDeleteThe book sounds pretty interesting, though I think I know what you mean about rushed character development. I personally have not read the book, but I'd heard of it and was thinking about checking it out. I'm glad I read your review now because even though you suggested it, it sounds like it may not be fully worth the time, especially given that I have a long list of other books I want to read that don't have negative aspects that I'm aware of. It's also thought provoking that the way Snow is shown as compassionate is because he has a love interest, because I feel like people can be caring and kind without having a romantic relationship.
ReplyDeleteGreat review, the book seems interesting even though I have never read any book from the hunger games series before. Based off this review I might start reading the hunger games series. 6/10 seems like a low score for a book you would recommend. I do know what you mean by rushed character development, a lot of other books I have read have the same problem. Overall great book review!
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting, I didn't know there was a prequel. A lot of series have errors in writing too many books that have bad quality (cough harry potter #8) so I am interested to see how well done this book is.
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