The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
“It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot of glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute. The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the tribute from District Twelve, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined-every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to fate or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute . . . and might weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.”
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins has, at the time of writing this, inspired a Hunger Games series renaissance among the public. I am part of the generation that got to experience the cultural phenomenon that these books, and later movies, would cause. It felt very nostalgic to revisit a world that has elements of the original series in it, although a very different kind of world altogether. I found myself rooting for a character that is obviously the main antagonist in the series was bizarre. Watching him slowly lose the shreds of his own morality until he truly becomes something that a reader of the main trilogy would recognize. Still, I can’t help but wonder how things would be different had different decisions been made. I am envious of those that have the opportunity to read this one before the main series, as it frames the world and its history in new ways whilst establishing a continuity with the other books. Perhaps I will have to revisit the series, it has been years since I’ve read it.