The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel) (The Hunger Games)

Ending felt rushed and sudden, but the book was well written and interesting. I enjoyed being put back into the world of Panem and learning about the background of the Hunger Games.

As a huge fan of the hunger games I was so excited to read this finally! I’ll be honest I had bought this from Costco back in 2020 simply because I saw it was a prequel to the series but I really didn’t know much about it and it wasn’t until the movie came out that I knew it was time to finally read it. The hype for the movie is huge but I’m not sure the book is as hyped and I can see why. It’s a good book and I love how many origin stories and connections we get to see but it definitely wasnt as exciting feeling as the original trilogy. I devored those books back in the day and this one, although good, didn’t captivate me the same way. I was surprised by how much I found myself liking Snow because of knowing how much I hate him in his later life. I don’t really buy into any theories of Lucy gray being related to katniss but I do see how we might think that. What I think was the coolest part of this book is seeing how far the hunger games have come from the 10th to the 74th. To know this part of the games history was erased yet it was the start for the way we know them is pretty mind boggling. Overall, I really enjoyed it but I think I’m more excited to go see the movie now.

A great prequel to the hunger games! Snow is such an interesting character. His thought process makes so many connections to the hunger games.

4.5 stars

3.5 stars. 3 stars for the first half and 4 stars for the second.

This really picked up at the end but the first two thirds dragged and the whole book was just too long. Even though I enjoyed the end, the pacing was just off and made the ending seem rushed. Snow's inner monologue is insufferable but does explain a lot about how he got from the boy at the beginning of TBOSAS to the villian he became. I thought this was almost like a psychological thriller to be in Snow's brain and see how he devolves. You really see how he is just a complete narcissist and even from the very beginning, before he was totally evil, he was manipulative and lacked empathy. I have read some criticism that the ending seems out of nowhere and that Snow was a "good person" in the beginning of the book and then does a complete 180, but I didn't feel that way at all. I thought the progression was very well written and you can tell from the first page that all of Snow's actions are self-serving.

A LOT of this book is unnecessary fan service to explain things from the original series which made a lot of the story seem contrived. The only callback I really enjoyed was the origin of the Hanging Tree song. But the fact that in this 3 month period, Snow had so many ideas that shaped the Games of the original trilogy made the story's progression less natural. because it seemed like Collins was really just trying to figure out a way to get from A to B.

I do recommend this to readers of the original trilogy and am looking forward to watching the movie!