The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Book Review
When I first read The Hunger Games, it was back in 2008, before any of the other books had been published. My good friend had recommended it to me and I read it like it was that cursed book mentioned in Harry Potter where once you start reading it, you can’ t put it down no matter what you do. Then I had to wait ages for Catching Fire to be published, and even longer for Mockingjay to arrive and rip out my heart and stomp on it. All of this long winded way of saying I was beyond thrilled when I heard there was a prequel coming. What was it about? Haymitch’s games? Finnick’s? Johanna’s? The fall of the districts to the capital during the first war? Could it be–oh wait, what was that? It’s about Snow?
Then I regrouped. Okay, sure Snow sucks a lot. But we all have our literary tropes that we absolutely adore, and for me, one of my top tropes is reading a book from a protagonist who is absolutely terrible. Don’t ask me why I enjoy this, but I love reading a good “our protagonist is the villain” story. It’s why I’ve always loved And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. It’s why I enjoyed Gone with the Wind (not of course, because of the horrid racism). Vera Claythorne is a monster. Scarlett is a self-serving spoiled wretch. And then I remembered Fairest, the prequel to the Cinder series that focused on the villain, which I perhaps enjoyed more then all four of the other books, and I got excited again.
Spoilers ABOUND ahead, so beware!
Then I started to read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I was immediately reminded that Suzanne Collins, who is immensely talented, has a writing style I find jarring at first and have to get used to. Then I was reminded about the names. Oh god, the NAMES. Look, I adore Katniss as a character. I worship the original trilogy. But her name is an abomination. I enjoy a good made up name but KATNISS? Haymitch? Peeta?
Even worse we get teenage Coriolanus “Coryo” Snow who refers to his grandmother as “The Grandma’am” for some godforsaken reason and Tigris, his cousin who we know ends up a tiger/human woman who maybe eats cat food and has a fetish for fur underwear in the future. Every time I felt adjusted to the terrible names someone new would arrive to set my teeth on edge with their ridiculous name.
But I powered on through “Coryo’s” boring narrative and terrible name because it grew more interesting. See, it turns out The Hunger Games were totally different then when we saw them in Katniss’s time, more of a drab gladiatorial effort where the tributes beat each other to death in a sad little concrete stadium. No costumes, no sponsors, no mandatory viewing, no pomp and pageantry, no bread and circuses…not yet. Because where this book goes so very right is when we realize how much the young Snow has influenced the current Hunger Games.
But let’s get back to the start, because I swear I would’ve given up on this book if I hadn’t believed in Suzanne Collins pretty early in. Snow has been chosen as a student mentor for the district twelve female tribute in the tenth annual Hunger Games, the first year they’ve had mentors for the tributes. and THIS is how this scene is described:
I…I just…
So she’s wearing a rainbow ruffle dress with melted clown makeup and drops a SNAKE down someone’s dress after she gets reaped and then she breaks into song on stage. WHAT?!
And then she meets Snow and--what the hell is this?!
What in the Betty Boop Manic Pixie Dreamgirl Queenie Goldstein wannabe hell is this?!??
Readers, I almost Breaking Dawn‘ed this book at this point, which means flung it in disgust, but I abstained due to my love of Suzanne Collins and I am so very glad I did. Because after this weird Rainbow Brite unicorn flapper clown nonsense this book got really good.
Sure, Lucy Gray’s name drove me up the wall. Yes I know it’s a normal name and there’s a reason behind it and yes I was just complaining about weird names but I’m a whiner, what can I say. Perhaps the fact that it was so normal that I found jarring, or perhaps it was because everyone called her “Lucy Gray” and never just Lucy like normal humans, but it irked me nonetheless.
The story takes us on a journey as to how the Hunger Games became the popular pop culture phenomen in Panem that it was later on, with early looks at Gamekeepers and the way Capital citizens grew to view the district kids competing as entertainment, rather then find it grotesque or a form of justified punishment.
It’s also fascinating to see the story from Snow’s perspective, as it’s clear he’s a sociopath but it’s also not a ridiculous cliche where he’s killing babies and puppies and drinking blood. *cough Tom Riddle in Half Blood Prince cough* Hes a believable, subtle villain who even fancies himself in love with Lucy Gray. He’s not, of course. He only ever thinks of her as an object he owns, and his friend Sejanus, a District 2 born newly become capital citizen who has a heart and a conscience Snow generally thinks of as a stupid annoyance.
I enjoyed as well the clear parallels between Lucy Gray and Katniss, which explained Snow’s total hatred of the latter. Both girls from district twelve, both singers, both rebels who captured a nation. I read the entirety of Lucy Gray’s Hunger Games experience trying to remember if a girl from district twelve had ever won, or if Haymitch was just the only living district 12 winner before Katniss and Peeta. I’m glad I didn’t remember, since this lead to me reading the story on edge, wondering if she was going to die. But Lucy Gray does win, and then our PLOT TWIST happens! It was both well telegraphed yet I somehow didn’t see the twist coming and made this face when it happened
Snow’s caught helping Lucy cheat to win, and is sent to district 12 as a peacekeeper. While I was initially thrilled at this development it’s here when the book goes off the rails again. I’d spent the whole book waiting for two things: Sejanus’s awful death to his idealism, most likely at the hands of Snow, and Lucy Gray revealing she’d never cared about “Coryo” all along. And while the first happens, and it’s awful, the second…never materializes. In Fact, Lucy Gray really was in love with Snow. I’m of two minds on this.
When I first read Mockingjay, I was disappointed. Over the years, I’ve come to realize it’s absolute brilliance. The Lucy Gray/Snow relationship I’m not sure if it’s like Mockingjay….a brilliant deception cleverly woven into the book, or a disappointing plot fizzle. Because we are given hints over and over that Lucy Gray doesn’t care about Snow, that she’s a user and frankly, I bought it because I thought who could possibly love Snow. But then when we never get that twist. When we realize Coriolonus was ready to believe the worst of Lucy Gray, I realized I had bought the narrative of a sociopath, and I do appreciate being tricked. Sure, Snow doubts Lucy Gray, but why should we? Just because her enemies and his snotty grandmother say mean things about her? So perhaps like with Mockingjay, I will grow to think this is genius on reread.
My bigger problem with the ending is that it suffered from what I like to call Deathly Hallows camping syndrome. The last third of the book drags and drags, we read about endless songs and drinking, and Snow’s four billion internal thoughts about the mockingjays (do you get that this foreshadows his rivalry and hatred of Katniss? Do you? DO YOU? Do you get that it shows his hatred of the peasants in the districts (the mockingjays) flourishing without the shiny tech of the control freak capital citizens (the jabberyjays) DO YOU? Or do you have to get beaten over the head with a book marked “symbolism and foreshadowing?”
So after this draaaaagging along and we get beaten with symbolism books we then get the Whambamthankyouma’am because now Harry’s killed a bunch of Horcruxes in a row after spending two books finding one and destroying it—I mean, the end of our book is bum rushing us in a flash. Gee, I’m so glad C. Snow’s ending with Lucy Gray is fast forwarded through after reading about mockingjays for eleventy years!
Even worse, Lucy Gray disappears and we find out no more about her…unless of course, she’s meant to be Katniss’s ancester, which she probably is.
Is it wrong I would kind of prefer for Lucy to die all alone in the woods?! It makes Snow even more awful! So Snow is recalled back to the capital, it was all a test by his evil mentor who engineers all the monsters in the games, and he doubles down by taking the love, money, and support from Sejanus’s parents after he causes the kid’s death. You know, typical Coryo Snow stuff!
All in all, I enjoyed most of this book quite a lot, and even the meh ending and sparkle pony quirky whimsy beginning couldn’t keep me from a strong recommendation for more people to read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
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