The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the 10th annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to out charm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined - every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.

Blurb taken from Goodreads.

When it was announced that Suzanne Collins was releasing a prequel to the insanely popular series The Hunger Games, I, like most super-fans, was both incredibly excited and a little dubious. I'm an enormous fan of The Hunger Games. I think it's one of the best dystopian and young adult series to be found out there today, and I've reread it multiple times. I even wrote my own Hunger Games Appreciation Post for this blog, outlining all the different parts of why I believe the series is so wonderful.

When it was further announced that the focal character of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was to be none other than Coriolanus Snow, I was surprised. With so many different possibilities for a prequel, such as the war between the districts and the Capitol, and a plethora of previous Hunger Games to choose from, I was definitely taken aback that President Snow would be the focus of this new book. I have to confess that I was a little disappointed. I thought a prequel focusing on Haymitch would have been fantastic, and even further back, Mags would have been a wonderful case study. 

Nevertheless, I was prepared to give it a shot. I pre-ordered my copy of this book and waited eagerly for it to arrive. Despite my reservations, I knew that Suzanne Collins was capable of bringing me on-side. I actually think the advance notice helped me to come to terms with the fact that I was to read about Coriolanus Snow. I tend to be very dubious about villain retellings and prequels as it is, because I think it's so very difficult to get the balance right between allowing the reader to understand and empathise with the villain, whilst still retaining all the integrity of the character that had previously been established.

I'm glad I had this time to get my head around the idea. When I actually opened the book to start reading, I was excited, and the book didn't let me down in the slightest. While it was admittedly very strange to read about President Snow as Coriolanus, a school student struggling with financial issues, it was detached enough from the original series to feel like a fresh story. Which, we have to admit, it is. It is less a book about President Snow as it is about the development and evolution of the Hunger Games. We just happen to see this through the eyes of this character. I didn't think the story was without fault, but I thought it was balanced very well. We get to learn a lot more about President Snow and how he came to be who he is; how his evil character was shaped from an existing tendency towards power. And more importantly, we learn how the Capitol came to be what it is in The Hunger Games, and how the games themselves were allowed to continue.

Rating: ✫✫✫✫

SPOILER ALERT

Expect spoilers from this point on!

The Story

The story opens in the Capitol, where we see Coriolanus Snow in his apartment, getting ready for the reaping of the 10th annual Hunger Games. Aside from the interesting detail that Tigris is Coriolanus's cousin, what I really liked was the contrast from the original Hunger Games series, where Katniss wakes up in District 12 on the day of the reaping of the 74th annual Hunger Games. Both characters in completely different universes, but both struggling financially to feed and house their families. 

On reflection, I love that Collins chose the background of this book to be the Capitol. It's such a stark contrast to what we've seen before. Any story originating in another district would likely have only showed a similar landscape of hardships to Katniss's life in District 12. From the first chapter, I loved gaining an insight into life in the Capitol, even if it was many years before Katniss's time. Life as a student in the Academy was intriguing, and even more so was that this was the first year that the Hunger Games tributes were to have mentors. 

The build-up to the games is truly an entirely different world; one that I found fascinating. The tributes are all carted to the Capitol and kept in a monkey enclosure at the zoo to be ogled at. It's a world away from the Hunger Games we were introduced to in the original series. The tributes are also starved in the build-up to being taken into the arena. Consequently, the real beauty that I found in this book was that we get to see the Hunger Games in its infancy. We see how it used to be run, and we learn about the people who implemented it in the first place. Coriolanus's involvement in it proves to be key. He was an original mentor, before there were enough victors for tributes to be mentored from within their own districts. I also thought it was really interesting that he and his peers were given assignments about how to engage more people with the Hunger Games. It's an indication that citizens of Panem did not always necessarily appreciate the games, instead being traumatised by war, both in the Capitol and the districts. We find out consistently throughout the book that few people watch the games in the Capitol, and they are barely paid attention to in the districts. When Lucy Gray returns to District 12 after her win, many people did not even notice she had left and returned, and far less what she had endured. To discover that President Snow had had such a hand in implementing betting and sponsorship in the games, as well as his father being the person responsible for them even happening, was some good knowledge. 

The games themselves are obviously less interesting from the perspective of the audience. We didn't get to see the trauma and hardships the tributes face first-hand; instead, we witness other people witnessing them. We're detached, which I suppose again illustrates the point about the games - when you are not the one experiencing it, it is easier to argue that it isn't so bad after all. I did love how we got to see how simplistic the arena was, but it felt like it filled a lot of space in the middle of the book. It would have been nice, after so much prelude in the book building up to the games, to have had a bit more intense narrative on these elements of the plot. What I did appreciate, however, was the different stories happening back at the Capitol. The way we see Coriolanus witness the creation of the snake mutts, the ongoing moral struggles of Sejanus, and the increasing financial difficulties for the Snow family kept my attention throughout the games.

The final section, where we see Coriolanus cast out to District 12 as a peacekeeper for helping Lucy Gray win the games, felt very strange to me, and I think this is where the book lost its five star rating in my mind. It obviously felt very strange to see Coriolanus in the district that we know best to be the home of Katniss, but even more so, it felt a little forced. Although I appreciated that creating a connection between President Snow and District 12 was a clever move, this just seemed a little too convenient for me. When Coriolanus resides in District 12, although it was interesting, it felt like an entirely different book, and I wasn't as gripped by the events as I had been leading up to this point.

Before we talk about the ending of the book, here are my thoughts on some of the characters within this story.

The Characters

Coriolanus Snow

The biggest challenge Collins faced when writing The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was to ensure that the character of President Snow, which had already been so well established in the original Hunger Games series, was not undermined through this new background story. I had some major concerns that we were going to be made to feel sorry for President Snow through his early experiences with the games, and that this would alter the way I viewed Katniss's story. 

Thankfully, I found that this was not a concern. Although there were moments in the book where we empathise with Coriolanus's character, and moments when we can gather a lot more understanding about how he became to be the man we know, I did think that the character was written very well. Although the younger Snow is less 'evil', we do see that he is drawn by the idea of power, and is also very reluctant to let anybody close to him. I'm glad that Coriolanus wasn't made to be a boy who was altered so completely by his experiences as to become evil, as has been done so many times in villain prequels; instead, he always had the potential to become a villain, and these experiences meant that this path was made much easier for him. It was a logical shift, and although I can't say I liked him as a character, I managed to respect him for a lot of the story. The balance was done very delicately and very well in my eyes.

Lucy Gray

Lucy Gray was a very unusual character, and certainly not what I was expecting when I knew we would be reading about another female tribute from District 12. Lucy Gray is in some ways the complete antithesis of Katniss Everdeen in the way she is; where Katniss automatically assumes the worst of people, Lucy Gray chooses to see the best. She seems on the surface to be away with the fairies, but she shows herself on many occasions to actually be very shrewd and perceptive. I wouldn't necessarily say I liked her as a character, but I definitely respected her, and it was nice to see a different kind of character to anybody else we have seen in The Hunger Games in the past.

Their Relationship

I thought Lucy Gray provided a nice contrast to Coriolanus. He is cold and elusive; she is warm, kind and welcoming. She is clearly the last kind of person that he would choose to associate with, but they are pushed together, and he learns to see the beauty in her. When he found that he was to be the mentor of a District 12 girl, he was outraged; a typical response for a Capitol snob. Only when she shows that she has a little something up her sleeve does he accept the idea. Classic Snow. His decision to go and meet Lucy Gray at the station is within his character of trying to get one up on the competition, but it also was a way of showing how Lucy Gray is unlike the classic character of 'tribute' that the Capitol had tried so hard to create. She was unwilling to use violence, and prepared to help a stranger who was out of their comfort zone. 

Their interactions between Lucy Gray arriving in the Capitol and leaving again for the Hunger Games were really intriguing to me. I could see that the relationship was heading in a romantic direction, but it all seemed wrong to me. I couldn't work out if Lucy Gray was going to break Coriolanus's heart, turning him into the character that we know so well. I just felt that his attraction to Lucy Gray wasn't real. He cared for her, of that we can be sure, but on reflection, I think this was less down to love, and more down to intrigue over somebody entirely different from himself, and the fact that the two were forced together into a bubble that only they understood. I may be wrong, and I'm sure there are probably many people who disagree with me on that point, but I can't see that Coriolanus could love Lucy Gray in any real way. If he had, it would not have been so easy for him to change his mind about her at the end of the story. You could say that his decisions to help Lucy Gray, such as contaminating the tank of snakes with her scent, and sneaking her food, may have demonstrated his care for her, but I disagree. These not only helped him to win the Hunger Games, thus furthering his own political career, but they also are just an indication of general decency, which Coriolanus is shown to have had at this time in his life. His character, consistent with what we know from the original series, rejects love.

Other Characters

There were a whole host of other characters who I could write lengthy paragraphs on, but I'll refrain. I do, however, want to throw in a quick few words for a couple of other characters that we are introduced to. 

Firstly, Tigris. We know Tigris as a Capitol member in Mockingjay, who helps Katniss and the rebels gain access to the city. It is only really said of her then that she is an ally for the rebels, but we are led to believe that this is not necessarily an easy or logical decision for her. In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, we discover that she is a direct relation of Snow, and so her natural loyalty to him, even if faded after so many years, would still have been there. I thought she was a wonderful character who clearly has a good heart. I'm glad we got to learn a little more about her.

Secondly, and more significantly, we have Sejanus. Sejanus was an entirely new character, and one that really went against the grain. Amongst the Capitol citizens and Academy members, he alone stands out as repulsed by where he is. He abhors the Hunger Games, and does his utmost to follow his inner moral compass, even when it lands him in hot water. I thought the fact that Snow ultimately betrayed him, and was consequently responsible for his death, was just the kind of dramatic irony that made sense. Sejanus considered Coriolanus to be a brother to him, but Coriolanus's loyalty to himself and his ambitions surpassed any feelings he felt for Sejanus. He was by far the best character. I would have liked if he had been related to a character we knew from the original series, as this would have really strengthened the feeling I had for him. 

The Ending

When reading the book, I was fully ready to give it a solid five star rating... until I reached the very end. As much as I didn't necessarily enjoy the part of the story where Snow ended up in District 12, and rekindled his connection to Lucy Gray, I saw the purpose of it, and happily continued reading. My problem came when Coriolanus and Lucy Gray decided to run away together. Obviously I knew that this wasn't going to happen; for Coriolanus to end up as President Snow, he couldn't have his reputation so tarnished. However, how it happened, I felt was really disappointing. 

I couldn't see at all that there was any logical rationale for Coriolanus and Lucy Gray to turn on each other so suddenly. I know it is explained vaguely through Lucy Gray's realisation over the discovered guns, but her disappearance followed by Coriolanus's immediate decision to turn on her, and even shoot at her - wild! I know it was an attempt to show Coriolanus's true motives and character; he put his own power and career aspirations ahead of this girl he supposedly loved, without a second thought. But this scene I found really disappointing, as it seemed like it was just thrown together in absence of anything better. 

When Coriolanus gets back to the Capitol, it all righted itself again, and I felt like the book was back on track. We learn that Coriolanus's father was responsible for the implementation of the Hunger Games in the first place, and we see how Coriolanus moves forward, appearing to easily forget about the hardships he has forced upon others. We never find out what happened to Lucy Gray, which seems like an oversight to me. It just feels like Lucy Gray is left at a loose end that doesn't tie the book up properly. Unless she is to make a reappearance in any future books that are written, I don't understand why this was done and it left me feeling a little disappointed and frustrated.

My Final Thoughts

Okay, so that's a lot of rambled thoughts that I've provided over the course of this post! In essentials, I really did love the book, but I didn't think it was perfect.

I loved the story in the sense that we get to see the Hunger Games in their infancy, and learn about how they developed over the years to become the games we see Katniss enter into. I think this was the part of the book that I enjoyed the most, and especially to see how it worked from the other side of things. We've only ever seen it from the perspective of the tributes, so watching it from the side of the Capitol, even that many years before what we are used to, was really interesting.

I also really needn't have been concerned about President Snow's character being undermined through this prequel. I found that the balance was perfect. We get to see a younger, more naïve and vulnerable Snow, but he is every bit as power-hungry, defensive and ruthless as the character that we already know so well. The decisions he made were in line with an earlier version of his character that I would expect, and I appreciated the care that Suzanne Collins took to make sure this character retained the essence of his originally written self.

I did feel a little disappointed with how the ending was written, as it felt like Coriolanus and Lucy Gray reverted very rapidly from being in love (or so they thought) to stabbing each other in the back. I'm not sure why this was the avenue that Collins chose to go down, but it felt a little random and haphazard, and I'm not sure it was fully effective.

Nonetheless, I do think that this book was triumphant in many ways. It didn't provide a disappointing account of a well-known character's life, which I was worried it might. I actually found it painted the picture of Coriolanus very well. However, what I think it the most significant aspect of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was that it gave a really intriguing insight into the Hunger Games from much earlier years. We see the introduction of betting, and creation of mutts, and the discussions that were had around how to make it compulsory viewing. I really enjoyed exploring the history of the Hunger Games, and thoroughly enjoyed the book as a whole.