The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
(Hunger Games, #0)
by Suzanne Collins
Publication Date: May 19 2020
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Pages: 517
ISBN: 9781338635171
Genre: Young Adult | Dystopian | Science Fiction
Source: Own
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Synopsis: It's been 10 years since the war ended and the penance for the districts retaliation against the capital is the Hunger Games. Every year each district must send 1 boy and 1 girl to the Capital to fight against the other tributes in a battle to the death game that is aired publically. This is the 10th Annual Hunger Games and the Academy has chosen 24 of its top students to act as mentors to the tributes. Being chosen as a mentor is a sign of respect and standing within society and Coriolanus Snow finds himself selected as a mentor. The odds are against Snow as he finds himself the mentor of the District 12 girl, a humiliating assignment. Their fates are now intertwined and her survival is directly linked to his. Tasked to make the tough decisions, Snow needs to use brains not brute to help Lucy Gray survive in the arena.
Review: When I first heard that this book was coming out I was told it would be about Haymitch and his time in the Hunger Games, I was so excited because Haymitch is one of my favorite characters in the entire series. When details were released that the book would take place during the 10th Hunger Games and revolved around Coriolanus Snow, I was a bit disappointed. I hated Snow. Absolutely despised his character because of how pure evil he was. After thinking about it some more I realized that as much as I hate him, he is still perhaps one of the most fascinating characters to read about because his story would unlock the reasoning of his evil. It's a great way to "study" human behavior and see the cause and outcomes.
I know this book has gotten a ton of mixed reviews, but I absolutely loved it. It's definitely one of my favorites. You really can see and understand how his mind works and the series of events that transpire to set up the rest of the series. At the beginning of the book, I really felt for Snow. His family was poor, having lost all their money in the war. He was still dealing with the loss of his parents, his mother who he absolutely adored and looked upon fondly, and his father who he appeared to have a somewhat contentious relationship with. He came from an affluent noble family with a high standing within the capital. The war transpired in his youth and he ended up losing his parents, his family fortune, and essentially their place within society as one of the founding families.
I really was rooting for Snow at the beginning of the book. He was just down on his luck and trying desperately to cling to a society he believed he still belonged in. It was abundantly clear from the beginning that not only was his focus only on himself and his presumed rise to power, but also on his allegiance to the capital. He was friendly with his classmates but didn't truly have any real friendships, except perhaps with Sejanus - which was sort of forced upon him unwillingly.
Loss of parents. Loss of money which led to not enough food to eat, no money for new clothes and items. Feeling like an outcast due to the fact that his family's social standing was in jeopardy without the money to support the lifestyle he had been accustomed to and felt like he deserved. He seemingly had no moral compass. He cheated his way to winning the games and then he just seemed to spiral from there - murdering two, presumably three people, and being responsible for the death of his only friend. Snow had a lot of reasons for his anger, and it eventually was just too much for him that it's no wonder he became the evil person he was.
Snow was truly a sociopath. He was incapable of loving and caring about others. He had no empathy and wasn't able to relate to others. Everything was centered around the fact that he felt like he deserved better because of who he was, and his family's legacy and notable name. His infatuation with Lucy Gray was because she benefited his own advantage. He ended up using her for personal gain but when she was no longer needed, he cast her aside.
One thing I really loved about this book was all the philosophical situations that arose. I loved the foreshadowing of the future and the 74th Hunger Games. There were many characters and their families who were introduced that play a large part in the future of the games, such as Crane and Heavensbee. There were also some really notable quotes that I felt really foreshadowed the other books in the series.
“The show’s not over until the mockingjay sings,” she said.
“The mockingjay?” He laughed.
“Really, I think you’re just making these things up.”
“Not that one. A mockingjay’s a bona fide bird,” she assured him.
“And it sings in your show?” he asked.
“Not my show, sweetheart. Yours. The Capitol’s anyway.”
― Suzanne Collins,The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
“Nothing you can take from me was ever worth keeping.”
― Suzanne Collins, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Snow made horrible decisions. He used people for his own gain. He discarded those he longer needed. Everything he did was a calculated move to make it to the top. Not only did he think he was better than everyone else, he truly believed that he was. He had no respect for human life and would happily run someone over to get what he wanted.
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