The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was written by Suzanne Collins and it is a prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follows young Coriolanus Snow on his last year of high school. Yes, it's a Snow prequel. A not very interesting choice. This is not a bad book, it is rather good actually. It is just an unnecessary one.
No one really cared about young Coriolanus Snow, but Lionsgate run out of successful movie franchises so now we got a Hunger Games prequel which will surely be adapted into a movie. Once movies are allowed to resume filming again. As a cash grab, I've read worse. I've read the prequel to Divergent. It is hard to get worse than that.
Now back to this book. Young Coriolanus Snow lost everything during the rebellion. The first one, which lead to the creation of the Hunger Games. His mother passed away a long time ago, but his father died during the rebellion. The family also lost their main source of income which was in district 13. Snow has his young cousin Tigris to help him and his crazy grandmother. They barley have any money, but they have their family's reputation and Snow's ability to adapt.
Yes, his cousin is that Tigris. But here she and Snow are extremely close to each other. They will do anything for each other, like a brother and sister. But, here they are simply poor family members trying to survive. Struggling to get their next meal. It is hard not to feel sympathetic towards young Snow, but then you remember what he becomes and all that sympathy disappears. All his cousin wanted was for them to have a respectable life and for Snow to have an honest education and a job. She thinks that Snow is sensitive person. Their grandmother wants him to become the next president. We know which side won his heart in the end.
During his last year in high school he is picked to be a mentor in the 10th Hunger Games competition. Mentors are applied for the first in the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games themselves look very different. Not the big shiny event that we all come to recognize and despise. The mentor's work isn't just for their nominee to survive and win, it's to make the games more interesting so more people will watch. And we get to see how the Hunger Games shaped up to what we know from the main trilogy. It is interesting, just not fascinating.
We also get to see the main person who influenced Snow to become the person that we know from the main trilogy.
As a book that stands on its own it is pretty good. It is interesting to see Snow's transformation, even though we don't really care about him. The changes that the capitol goes through are also interesting to observe. So yeah, I think it's a good read. Not a masterpiece, not as good as the second Hunger Games book which is the best. But still good on itself own.
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