Review: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (audio)
where prey become predator
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins is a prequel to the trilogy of The Hunger Games, which when I read it seemed like a novel way to approach dystopian fiction and explore themes of authoritarianism and misinformation as fact. Fast forward more than 10 years, and we’re traveling to before the time of Katniss Everdeen and her merry rebels to when Coriolanus Snow (aka President Snow) was just a school boy himself and the hunger games were only 10 years old.
I’m not going to delve into this one too much, but I will say that the most compelling part for me was how deluded Snow was from the start. He told himself lies and rationalizations from the beginning no matter what his actions, but each time the ends were the same — snow lands on top. Because to do anything else would seal the fall of the family name in the Capitol. So much self-serving behavior, it was sickening. Much of this occurs while he’s trying to convince the reader he loves District 12 tribute Lucy Gray - or maybe he is trying to convince himself.
Snow also likes to set himself apart from his classmates and keep away from them fearing censure because of his financial situation, and this may draw him to Lucy Gray. But I find the claims of love a bit hollow when you think about how he speaks to her (with the fascination of a boy with a new toy) and how he talks about her to others and even himself. Perhaps he loves the idea of her - an outcast who like him must put on a show. The difference here would be his motivations compared to hers.
One thing I was thinking about is whether my view of Snow may be colored by what happens in the other three books. Perhaps he wasn’t as self-serving as I thought he was?
Do you find prequels work well for you as a reader or do you find them extraneous? How do you react to evil characters from the series when they are not quite as evil as they become later in the series?
RATING: Tercet