From the Publisher
Editorial Reviews
Review
Praise for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes:
#1 USA Today Bestseller
#1 New York Times Bestseller
“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes delivers a mesmerizing look into the life of Coriolanus Snow and the root causes of his villainous behavior. Collins once again proves that she is a master of building a fascinating world around complex characters who must grapple with the complications of chaos and control and their effects on human nature.” — The Associated Press
“It is a steep challenge to write a book whose hero is, everyone knows, destined to become deeply evil. Do we want to hear — now, after we know the endgame — that the young Voldemort was unfairly saddled with a demerit in class or that the adolescent Sauron fretted because he had to wear hand-me-down clothes? Yes, please.” — New York Times
“For true fans of The Hunger Games, Collins shines most as she weaves in tantalizing details that lend depth to the gruesome world she created in the original series and Coriolanus’s place in its history.” — Time
“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is your apocalyptic escape from our current apocalypse.” — Vox
“It’s the pull between Coryo’s head and heart — and the realization that he actually has a beating heart, not just a rose-scented lump of coal — that makes the future President Snow very worthy of a 517-page prequel.” — Washington Post
“[B]y introducing a new cast of teenagers, Collins is able to raise questions about privilege, the uses of violence, and the futility of war.” — People
“Collins’s themes of friendship, betrayal, authority and oppression, as well as the extra layers of lore about mockingjays and Capitol’s history, will please and thrill.” — MSN
“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes describes how most lives are actually lived, the consequences of countless small choices that ultimately amount to a big one: not just how to feel but who to be.” — Slate
“Collins reminds readers that even the most horrible people may have at one point done the right thing, but that doesn’t make them any less despicable or less worth overthrowing.” — Polygon
* “Both a tense, character-driven piece and a cautionary tale… The twists and heartbreaks captivate despite tragic inevitabilities.” — Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“A gripping mix of whipsaw plot twists and propulsive writing make this story’s complex issues — vulnerability and abuse, personal responsibility, and institutionalized power dynamics — vivid and personal.” — Publishers Weekly
Praise for The Hunger Games:
“I couldn’t stop reading.” — Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
“The Hunger Games is amazing.” — Stephenie Meyer
“Brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced.” — John Green, New York Times Book Review
Praise for Catching Fire:
“Whereas Katniss kills with finesse, Collins writes with raw power.” — Time Magazine
“Collins expertly blends fantasy, romance and political intrigue.” — People Magazine
Praise for Mockingjay:
“Fans will be happy to hear that Mockingjay is every bit as complex and imaginative as Hunger Games and Catching Fire.” — Entertainment Weekly
“Suspenseful… Collins’ fans, grown-ups included, will race to the end.” — USA Today
“At its best the trilogy channels the political passion of 1984, the memorable violence of A Clockwork Orange, the imaginative ambience of The Chronicles of Narnia and the detailed inventiveness of Harry Potter.” — New York Times Book Review
“Unfolding in Collins’ engaging, intelligent prose and assembled into chapters that end with didn’t-see-that-coming cliffhangers, this finale is every bit the pressure cooker of its forebears. [Mockingjay] is nearly as shocking, and certainly every bit as original and thought-provoking, as The Hunger Games. Wow.” — Los Angeles Times
* “This concluding volume in Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy accomplishes a rare feat, the last installment being the best yet, a beautifully orchestrated and intelligent novel that succeeds on every level.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review
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Anne Pruitt –
4.5 starsAmazon delivered my copy early, so I’m going to do a spoiler free review and then a spoilery one. Pardon if this winds up sounding like an English paper. I have thought so much on the morals and questions in this book that I feel like I should have read this in school.Note: I’m writing this review with the express belief that you, reader, have at least read the book description. Otherwise why are you reading this review?I want to start this off by saying two things. One, this is not a hero story. Snow is never once, in my opinion, shown to be a hero in this in what we modern folks would call a hero. He’s no Luke Skywalker or redeemed villain. This isn’t some sob backstory to explain “why the bad guy is bad.” This is yet another set of layers to the onion that is Snow.Second, this book is dark. It’s been a minute since I read the original trilogy, but I swear it wasn’t quite as graphic as this book was. Cannibalism is mentioned, and it’s shown/talked about that someone sawed the leg off a dead woman and ran off with it. One character is killed then hung on a hook and paraded. Another is also gruesomely displayed after their death. Several characters are dragged through processions to “prove a point,” another character is hung from two large poles and left to basically die in the sun. Multiple accounts of vomiting/poison throughout, and a general unpleasantness at the lack of regard for human life.Non-spoilery review:This book makes you think. A lot. It makes you question things, and wonder if maybe Snow is right (he’s not), but it’s written in such a way that he’s not a villain. Donald Sutherland in an interview made a great point in saying that Snow isn’t a villain, he’s just a ruthless man doing what he thinks is right to keep his home and country in one piece.”He does it so well. And he doesn’t think he’s a bad person. He thinks it’s the only way society can survive. And whether you think he’s right or wrong, he doesn’t think he’s bad. He likes himself.”This should be the mantra for this book. Snow is a conflicting, flawed human. In our society, he’s evil, a sociopath or a psychopath. He’s a murderer and a killer. He’s a bad guy. In his world, he’s one of the masses. He simply lives as he’s been raised to, with a mentality that has been ingrained in him since the war between the Districts and the Capitol. He’s simply more ruthless then most and has the guts to make what he considers the “hard decisions.”Regardless of the other characters in this, they’re all props to his story–which fits well with the Snow we know from The Hunger Games. Everyone is second stage to Snow and his life. This is his evolution from being a child to a man, to becoming the Snow we know and love/hate.I definitely don’t think this book is for everyone. I’m sitting here with my mom breathing down my neck because she can’t wait to read it, and I don’t think she’ll like it at all, and she’s a diehard THG trilogy fan. Why? Because not everyone likes to read depressing books. There’s no redemption in this. There’s no saving someone from themselves. This is the fall, stumble, plummet into being a not great person and embracing it fully.So take that as you will. Full spoilers below about everything.P.s. This is a standalone.SPOILERS BELOWOkay, so, I was worried about this book when I read the first chapter sample and it got announced that Snow would be training the District 12 girl. I thought, oh crap, it’s gonna be a cliche YA. It’s gonna have a stupid romance that undercuts the whole plot and makes him a sap. And yeah, it did that, and up until the last 50 pages I was teetering on a 3-3.5 stars. And then oh boy, the end.Lucy Grey was a sweet girl, but she felt off since the beginning. I still can’t fully put my finger on it, but her and Snow’s relationship felt so wrong the entirety of the book. The red flags went up repeatedly every time he made comments about how she was his, and even so far as to say she was his property, and that’s all kinds of wrong. And even though their romance was cute and fluffy, it felt bad, tainted. You knew something was going to happen. It always does in these villain backstories. Usually the whole reason the villain is bad is because the love interest gets brutally killed and then they’re like whelp, guess I’ll just be evil.Not in this book.Snow constantly struggles with morality and right and wrong throughout this. Should he turn in his friend to the Capitol because they’re colluding with rebels and could tear down the (flawed) infrastructure? Or should he turn a blind eye and let his friend do his own thing? Is the Hunger Games wrong or good? Is it wrong to view the District people as second class humans? And so on. This book broaches the topic of racism in very broad terms with the whole District/Capitol thing. You’ve always known there was a divide between them, but in this, you really see how much the Capitol looks down on the Districts, and you can easily see how that morphs into such a hatred and distaste by the time Katniss first enters the Hunger Games.But I digress. Snow struggles with morality, but he’s flawed and very, very imperfect. He rationalizes every death he takes as self-defense or some other reason when really he’s just murdered someone because it’s inconvenient for him. He kills (or at least removes her from the picture; it’s ambiguous) Lucy Grey in the end because she’s a loose end and too free. He does it. Not someone else, not some freak accident. He chooses to do it and, by the time it happens, you already know what direction he’s headed in so it’s not quite another nail in the coffin. It fully feels like him tying up loose ends so he can go do whatever he wants.All the nods to THG characters and names was cool. You also had a lot of The Great Gatsby vibes in the Old Money versus New Money mentality that a lot of the Capitol had with District people who gained a fortune and bought their way into the Capitol life. They’re looked down upon by the old families and viewed as trash.You saw a lot of the evolution in the Hunger Games, and you can see how it begins to change and grow into what Katniss and Peeta suffered through. You see how it begins to change from a simple punishment to a sport and a holiday, with the growing encouragement that it should be a normal and good thing.You also see a side of the Capitol you most definitely did not see in the trilogy–suffering. A lot of the book shows Snow struggling with having been a small child living through the Dark Days and the war. He was 8 when the Capitol won, and even then it was hard. You learn about the hell the Capitol lived through as they were besieged by the Districts’ army and forced to ration, starvation, and cannibalism. It’s a hard picture, and it’s so blatantly told. Collins didn’t hold back any punches in this. I never felt like what was done was for shock and awe for the reader, but it was definitely that for the story, and it made sense. Regardless of the Capitol not being at war with the Districts anymore, the tensions were still so high that it makes sense for the Capitol to overreact in their retaliation of events. So when one mentor gets killed by her tribute, they shoot the tribute and parade her body around on a hook at the mentor’s funeral. It’s disgusting, debasing, and shows how much the Capitol views the Districts as nothing more than rodents or livestock.Anyway, I’ll stop talking. Go read it yourself. It’s a hard read, a heavy read, but it was very, very enjoyable.
MJ –
The Ballad of Songbirds and SnakesAs most readers already know, this prequel explores Coriolanus’s life when he was a teenager. The opening chapters reveal that he was also chosen to be a mentor for Lucy Gray who was from the despised district 12.But what she lacks in fighting skills she makes up for being a charismatic performer. Lucy Gray learned how to work a situation to her advantage.In the beginning the tributes did not enjoy Capitol luxuries but were kept in cages and barely fed. It’s a stark contrast to the future hunger games when tributes were met with an extravagant welcome and dined on rich foods.The problem was that watching too much brutality turned the Capitol away from the Games. Snow’s addition to the Hunger Games of costumes, interviews, and the underdog tributes made the propaganda go down easy. This should be a cautionary tale.A lot of readers are not getting the point the author is trying to make. In the opening of this book there’s a quote by Hobbes:“Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called Warre; and such a warre, as is of every man, against every man.” — Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651Coriolanus’s first “lesson” to be molded into the future oppressor was during the Hunger Games; when he was forced to go in the arena to get out Sejanus, one of the mentors, who was not supposed to be in there. While at the hospital getting stitches, the head gamekeeper, Dr. Gaul, asked if Coriolanus understood what he was supposed to learn.“Without the threat of death, it wouldn’t have been much of a lesson,” said Dr. Gaul. “What happened in the arena? That’s humanity undressed. The tributes. And you, too. How quickly civilization disappears. All your fine manners, education, family background, everything you pride yourself on, stripped away in the blink of an eye, revealing everything you actually are. A boy with a club who beats another boy to death. That’s mankind in its natural state.”“I think I wouldn’t have beaten anyone to death if you hadn’t stuck me in that arena!” he retorted.“You can blame it on the circumstances, the environment, but you made the choices you made, no one else. It’s a lot to take in all at once, but it’s essential that you make an effort to answer that question. Who are human beings? Because who we are determines the type of governing we need. Later on, I hope you can reflect and be honest with yourself about what you learned tonight.”A very similar thought process was also stated by the Joker in The Dark Night:“To them, you’re just a freak, like me! They need you right now, but when they don’t, they’ll cast you out, like a leper! You see, their morals, their code, it’s a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They’re only as good as the world allows them to be. I’ll show you. When the chips are down, these… these civilized people, they’ll eat each other. See, I’m not a monster. I’m just ahead of the curve.”Both the Joker and Dr. Gaul has distorted thinking. It’s one thing to make a choice freely and it’s quite another thing to be forced into one.Human nature is such that coercive enforcement of rules is indispensable to protect the rights of all but there is a fine line between government rule and government oppression.Later, as Coriolanus’s feelings toward Lucy Gray grew, he helped her to survive the games only to get caught and was sent to train with the peacekeepers in her district. Sejanus joined him there soon after.Sejanus was never one who was comfortable with the Capital and its way of life. He got a plan to help the districts by providing the rebels with guns for their flight up north, out of Panem.Coriolanus found out about Sejanus’ plot. Mayfair threatens to tell her father [the Mayor] everything, which would implicate Coriolanus and Lucy Gray despite them being only bystanders; he shot her.Sejanus is charged with treason and hanged. And Lucy Gray Baird is the main suspect in Billy Taupe [her ex rebel boyfriend] and Mayfair’s deaths, as he left her for the mayor’s daughter.In desperation, Lucy Gray decides to join the rebels up north and Coriolanus decides to go with her, thinking there’s nothing left of his life once the murder weapons were found.But as they prepare to flee district 12, Snow gets paranoid that Lucy Gray is betraying him. When they stop at a house near district 12’s lake, he discovers the rebels’ store of the weapons. When Lucy Gray takes a long time to cut up some katniss plants, he convinces himself that she has abandoned him and went to turn him in.”What if they interrogated or even tortured her? The story would come out. She hadn’t killed anyone. He had. His word against hers”.But even though Snow searches for her, Lucy Gray was nowhere to be found.The three killings that Snow did throughout the book contributed to his downward spiral and PTSD. Coriolanus clubbed to death a tribute, Bobbin, in the Hunger Games arena. He also shoots the mayor’s daughter and also turns in his best friend, Sejanus, for treason, resulting in his execution.Lucy Gray was the last straw for his sanity. Back at the Capital the reader sees Snow’s change to “the dark side”.”Sometimes he would remember a moment of sweetness and almost wish things had ended differently. But it would never have worked out between them, even if he’d stayed. They were simply too different. And he didn’t like love, the way it had made him feel stupid and vulnerable. If he ever married, he’d choose someone incapable of swaying his heart. Someone he hated, even, so they could never manipulate him the way Lucy Gray had. Never make him feel jealous. Or weak. Livia Cardew would be perfect. He imagined the two of them, the president and his first lady, presiding over the Hunger Games a few years from now. He’d continue the Games, of course, when he ruled Panem. People would call him a tyrant, ironfisted and cruel. But at least he would ensure survival for survival’s sake, giving them a chance to evolve. What else could humanity hope for? Really, it should thank him.”This happened to Ted Bundy as I believe one of the main reasons he became a serial killer was because his first love dumped him. If you were to get all his victims lined up together you would think they were all sisters and you will notice that they all look like his first girlfriend.Rejection is a powerful force in a person’s life if they are not stable. Dr. Gaul planted the seeds for that rejection to take root and grow.
Nicole –
I liked the backstory of how Snow rose to power. Between the hunger games, the districts, and the Capitol, there was a lot of plot happening throughout the book. The only thing I found a little lacking was Snow’s sudden change of character that seemed too abrupt to be realistic. He went from a charming boy, who was unsure about his place in the Capitol, to the man we know as President Snow in a matter of pages. There were some things left unknown that I would’ve liked to know regarding Lucy Gray.
Nicole A. Carro –
Every villain is the hero of their own story. Even so, I was reluctant to pick this book up even though I loved the first three books and the four movies.I didn’t read this when it came out because I really wasn’t interested in a story revolving around any privileged male protagonist, especially not Coriolanus Snow. But the trailer just looked so good, so I decided to read it before I go to see the movie.Suzanne Collins and The Hunger Games don’t come close to passing the Bechdel test, but I appreciate that they focus on a female protagonist who is brave and powerful, even if she is a little too love-struck. Why would she want tell a story about Snow?Well, because there is a great story to tell. There’s a reason why Collins is a wildly successful author with an amazing movie franchise.So if you’re a modern feminist who is a little embarrassed at how much you love the cishet melodrama that is The Hunger Games and you were avoiding this book because of the privileged white male cishet protagonist, go ahead and read it. It’s a very satisfying way to revisit Panem.
Mr. David Tutt –
How does she do it?
I read the first books twice before the films came out then watched the films then read the books another two times then re-watched the films but now found myself wondering if Suzanne Collins had just sort of cashed in and written a book just to set the scene and maybe she had spoilt things for a committed believer of the world she created. I am some 30 pages in and already I am hooked. How does she do that? I’m fast approaching my 65th year and see all around me the very world that these books are depicting like it is a plan that our poisonous leaders are intending to tread and I see parts of Snow in every one of them. Is that an accident or just poetic licence? Read things like “A Planet for the President” by Alistair Beaton or “1984” for examples how are we to tell if art is mirroring life or the stories told by our novelists are actually the catalyst for what is happening in the world. It is impossible to write something without being affected by what is going on around you but likewise you cannot read something without being directly affected by it and I feel that this and the other books from this writer are things we should be aware of in our own futures.Fantastic books and story and I am sure that as I proceed through this ones pages there will be yet more insights into Snow and the rest of the characters that spawned Katnis.
Amazon Customer –
A very cool insight into the villain of the Hunger Games trilogy
Recommended to me by a friend after she began reading it and loved it, we were both big hunger game fans so I figured this would be a cool insight into Snow’s rise to power. It’s not, not exactly. It’s something so much more exciting to read.A real insight into the early evolution of the hunger games and the capitol, the effects of the war between the capitol and rebels, and a real deep look into the mind of a teen that becomes this cruel heartless figure we see in the Main trilogy. It’s not a book about a good person, it’s not trying to trick you into loving Snow or seeing him as right or anything – its a book about someone really who is just trying to survive and climb out of this ‘survival’ mode by aiming for power above all else. And it really shows.
Ancsarunner –
Fantastic book, catching from the first sentence.
I read the previous books after I watched all the movies. I wanted to read them as I heard they give you a little bit more details. I understand the story better. The books however weren’t near as good as the movies. I didn’t like the style. When I heard a new book coming out I knew that means a new movie. I waited until the book came out paperback but few days after I purchased the book I bought a kindle and I read the book in kindle version. From the first page it was very catching. It nailed it. I had to hurry as its coming out in the cinema today and wanted to finish it before I watch it. I read 80%of the book in 2 days. I hope they done a good job with the movie too.
Alice • Lune Selvatiche –
A great prequel to the Hunger Games saga
I waited for ages before deciding to read this book because the reviews put me off.Then I saw the trailer for the movie that is coming out in November and it intrigued me, so decided to read it. How wrong I was in trusting the negative reviews!This book is great and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It explains why President Snow is such a horrible person in the Hunger Games saga, why he hates Katniss so much and it gives you hints about Katniss’s lineage.WARNING – MINOR SPOILERS from now on:When I started reading I was confused, as Coriolanus Snow at the beginning seems a nice guy. We learn he grew up during the war, that he lost his parents and lives with his “Grandma’m” and his cousin Tigris (whom we find again in Mockingjay) and he seems to love them.We see a kid that has known fear and hunger and we see someone that fears the Capitol and to a point he’s rebellious against it, especially when it comes to helping Lucy Gray in the Games (such a great character, we need a book about her!!).At the same time we clearly see that he IS a Capitol kid and is not able to distance himself from certain ideologies.BUT one could think it’s normal as he’s only 18 and hasn’t developed his ideals yet. The first part of the book almost makes you wonder how on Earth he became the President Snow we all know… but I obviously knew since the beginning that something would start to go wrong at some point.And yes, while the story goes on, we see his inner dialogue become more and more unhinged and we start seeing his true colours. Coriolanus snow is a narcissist and probably a sociopath and although he tries to fit in and make himself believe he is capable of emotions, he indeed is not. He thinks he loves Lucy Gray but as soon as he understands how different they are and that she can be a threat to him, she doesn’t mean anything anymore to him, showing that he really doesn’t feel anything except hunger for power. I also started to distrust him greatly for his hate for music and birds: I mean, who of sound mind can hate music and birds??Anyway, I loved everything about this book and although I didn’t talk about Lucy Gray in this review (unfortunately she is a secondary character which is why I think she deserves her own story) I truly loved her and the Covey. The ending was spot on as it’s clearly thought to be exactly like the end of the Lucy Gray poem by Wordsworth. Although to be honest I would love to know what happened to her!Anyway… don’t listen to the negative reviews, read the book and decide for yourself! 🙂
Brenda C. –
Informative. Slow. Did not fullfill my expectations.
Informative. Slow. Did not fullfill my expectations.With these words I summarize the book that, at least for me, was the most awaited of the year.Published on May 19th, this was the book that all Hunger Games fans expected and that promised to bring news and more action focused on the still-unknown world of HG.Who created the HG? Have it always had this format? Was Snow always the tyrant we knew in the trilogy? Or rather, is this an attempt to humanize this villain?I honestly felt that the book was far below expectations. Despite the amount of information and clues given to us, I felt that the book was boring most of the time.The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is divided into three parts and at a certain time occurs the 10th edition of the Hunger Games. And that’s when we realized the big difference of these first editions relatively to the 74th edition in which Katniss and Peeta participated.And we understand why Snow hates Katniss so much …These are the first HG in which there are mentors and they are trying to create ways to attract public to watch this sick spectacle. And one of the most interesting parts was precisely this: realizing how even Snow himself was shaped and helped to shape the Hunger Games up to what they became, even though at first he didn’t even know the real purpose of the Hunger Games.The book is boring on the one hand, because, of course, we are not reading the narrative told by a life-threatening tribute in the arena, but from the perspective of a mentor, a privileged Capitol boy who has nothing more to lose than the its reputation and, therefore, history advances at a different pace from the trilogy.For a book that promised a phenomenal return from this world and for which there is confirmation of a film adaptation, it should have included scenes that made us fear for the characters and it should have shown us a more evident evolution of Snow. From what I realized there wasn’t exactly a turning point for this character, he was evil from his core.A good part of the initial book tries to convince us that his situation is understandable, with all the problems of his family and his history, but there is no mistaking it. You can see perfectly, by his inconsistent attitudes, that he was always a little psychopath and only needed a few shakes to start to inflate his ego and evolve into the tyrant he became.This book only confirmed my anger towards Snow. He manages not to have a heart and at the same time pretend to have it (but for those who have read HG, we are not deceived by his sweet atitudes). At a certain point he has an attitude that moved me … with anger, ANGER! I already expected him to be “all Capitol boy”, but it hurts to see that he only cares about himself all the way. And I think that was exactly the Suzanne Collins’s goal: to epically fail to humanize this villain, because there is no way to justify his actions. Cornelius Snow does everything thinking about himself and his family name.If only you knew the drama that was the first 10 pages because of a t-shirt he was going to wear at the mentoring assignment ceremony… That was when I realized that the attempts to humanize and understand him were going to be unsuccessful.The worst part of this book is that you have to read it from the perspective of a character you don’t connect with and expect to die (but you know he will not die because this is a prequel and the demon lasts a few more decades). What made me go forward in the book were the little things that are being told and that, as a Hunger Games fan, feed my curiosity (and the result was a lot of post-its spent).About Lucy Gray, the girl he mentored, I confess that my first impression was not the best, but after discovering her story and why she acted like that at Reapping, I became a fan of her! I really liked the evolution of this character (as I liked the consistent evolution of Sejanus, another young man who was a mentor).Don’t get me wrong, if you are a fan of the Hunger Games trilogy you will love the little things that are given to you in this book and you can associate them with key moments in the trilogy, but start reading the book without high expectations.And this end ?? I was amazed at the ending, completely shocked, but it continued without changing my opinion of the whole book …!