The book, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is a prequel to the famous “Hunger Games” series by Suzanne Collins. It is a fictional story set in a dystopian society in the future including the background explanations as to why Coriolanus Snow, the protagonist (turned antagonist) in this book and president of Panem in the Hunger Games trilogy, how love, war, and injustice had mentally changed and how the inner working of his thoughts, led him to unforgivable decisions he could never relieve himself of.
Coriolanus Snow even at the young age of eight has dealt with the bitterness of the world through the loss of family, sickness, witnessing rabid humans fighting through hunger, blatant corruption, and tarnished pride. Although he was determined and ambition drove him to venture out of this rut and create an existing and everlasting difference in this world in efforts to regain his family’s title that was stolen away. Ten years later, Coriolanus, who is struggling to keep his family afloat while rigorously studying and working towards getting a one-way ticket to Panem's best university, pursuing a career so he can finally make it to the top and show all the people that doubted him that he was capable. But when an unexpected curveball is thrown in his way, his success is interrupted and he will give anything to meet the winner’s outcome. He is put up to the task to mentor a scared but worthy girl in the 10th Annual Hunger Games. Once the two have been roped into the madness of the games it is harder to imagine his morals outside of them and his heart’s decisions.
Suzanne Collins’ intention of creating an origin story was, in a way, giving us readers a new understanding of Snow and how his hostile character came to be with outside influence and manipulation. It displays a new version and gives a new understanding that he wasn’t always the horrible villain in the early books and actually possessed a decent heart . I agree with the author’s choice to write a prequel instead of a continued account on the Hunger Games because it revealed the uncharted past that was kept under wraps and remained a mystery. Collins decided to add the key component that began all this madness and corruption within the society of Panem and the enforcement of the treacherous Hunger Games.
This book quickly encapsulates and compels the reader to it with its eerie tone and soft notes of psychotic mentalities, tied with delusional romanticism. In the book, the head gamemaker of the Hunger Games, Dr. Gaul suggests that the human state of mind and how it will turn to natural instinct when provoked with or subjected to greed, violence, purity, hatred, or love. It displays the change in people, to their natural mentality as stated in the book where humans used to resort to survival mode or the instinct to fight embedded into the brain from early time periods when keeping your life was your most essential priority. We experience the switch from reason to lunacy in Coriolanus when he is caught between survival on a literal and social level. As a contrast to that, there are predominant aspects of music with moving lyrics that showcases Lucy Gray Baird, Coriolanus’s tribute. She almost, unintentionally traces the book’s storyline. Through the network of her relationship with Coriolanus and the winding path of the plot’s events.
Its subtext really made me deeply think and relate to Coriolanus in some ways since it was from a third person perspective consisting of his thoughts through narration. It helps me to resonate with this character and recognize the casualties that he has faced, emphasizing specific details that led to family trauma and false depictions of protection or manipulation, exhorting others to believe in the immoral like violence over sense. In simplicity, it shows how easily a vulnerable person can be controlled by the ideals of others.
This book is one of the best books I have read, it definitely sets itself apart from the original Hunger Games Series, letting another storyline come forward. It is one I would never put down, wanting to figure out what happens in the end and at the same time never wanting it to end. It is enticing and leaves you curious and also somewhat unsatisfying with the entailment, however it never fails to disappoint in the case of worthwhile entertainment. Although, fair warning, it is a young adult book that has a description of violence and contains some profanity. Overall it peaked my interest with its jaw-dropping surprises and new found connections that encourage inquiry and excitement.
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