The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (5/5)

The Hunger Games is a popular series with a confusing antagonist, and many people are left wondering how he became the way he is. This book is the 4th book in the Hunger Games series, and it takes place about 60 years prior to the other books. This book tells the story of President Snow as a teenager and his life in the Capital. This book starts just before the 10th Hunger Games. This year is special, as Snow and his classmates have made the ideas for mentors and sponsorships for the tributes in the arena. When the tributes are assigned to Snow and his classmates, Snow ends up with the “unlucky” pick of the District 12 girl. The tributes all later arrive at the Capital, and Snow greets his tribute upon her arrival. This is where he sees the brutal treatment that occurs for the tributes. Throughout the lead-up to the games themselves, he is one of the very few mentors to actually get to know his tribute and for the tribute to trust the mentor. He manages to sneak her food and things to use in the arena to keep her alive. The two of them get very close and even fall in love. When the games start, it is a tense time, as due to a recent bombing, tunnels have become accessible in the arena, leading to a longer Hunger Games than usual. After the games, Snow is found cheating to help his tribute, so he is sent to become a Peacekeeper (guard) for District 12. Here he learns a lot and becomes a high-ranking officer, eventually granting him access back to the Capital, where the story leaves off and we are forced to assume how he got his powerful President role we all know him as. I found this book as an amazing prequel to a series that I already loved, and it was really fun seeing the antagonist of that series in a whole different light. This book brought a lot more info about the games themselves, and it was fun to see how the main ideas for it actually came around. This book was a great read and a great addition to the series, and I would recommend it to anyone who loves the Hunger Games or just dystopian novels in general.