The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020)
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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Book Review
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a 2020 dystopian action-adventure novel written by Suzanne Collins. It is a very effective and engaging prequel.
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“Snow lands on top“
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This novel was published in 2020 and it was a big hit. It serves as a prequel to the original Hunger Games trilogy of books. It was a success because it functioned as both great fan service and a legitimately strong story that stood on its own. Unlike the previous books, this one has a male protagonist that is also quite unlikable and the games themselves take up only around a third of the narrative, which made for a different story.
Coriolanus Snow is a fantastic protagonist. Suzanne Collins could have excused his behavior or made him overly sympathetic, but thankfully she didn’t and instead she portrayed him as problematic from the very beginning. However, she also depicted that various situations and horrible life occasions can shape a person, which is certainly what happened to Snow.
Coriolanus is ruthless, ambitious and cunning, qualities that made him quite unsympathetic but fascinating to follow in this story. Through him, the novel explored how authority and power shape and/or change people to become desensitized and almost inhuman in some instances. The class divide and authoritarian government were always the main themes in these books, but here they were even better explored, propelled by an urgent, almost politically activist tone that really worked.
The novel also depicted truthfully how propaganda works and how spectacles are not easy to organize, but if done correctly, they can influence the masses potently. But the most interesting and thought-provoking question that the novel poses is the one about humanity or lack thereof as we are constantly reminded that in the worst life or death circumstances humans would just revert to animals in their pure instinct to survive. Then, all pretense is gone and animalistic impulses take over.
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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is such an effective, memorable read also thanks to its terrific characterization. Not just our protagonist is well developed and/or interesting, but many others too, including our eventual winner of the games – Lucy Gray. Although originating from District 12, she is very different from Katniss Everdeen. What she lacks in physical strength, she compensates with cunning intelligence and great survival instincts.
The Hunger Games themselves were thrilling per usual. Yes, the decision to cut them to only around a third of the book’s length did backfire to a degree as it made the final third of the book almost feel like a defused afterthought, but still this structure worked as so many powerful plot points happened in those final stretches with the ending itself being pleasantly ambiguous and intriguing. It’s the type of ending that isn’t for everybody, but for me it fully worked and it made the novel more unique.
But going back to the games, they were vicious and quite memorable. How Lucy managed to survive was done in a grounded manner, which was important having in mind that she was among the weakest tributes physically. Everything made sense, which is crucial for this type of narrative. Lucy’s singing ability is also mined for great emotion and it even led to some quite powerful introspective moments for the reader and Snow himself. Their romantic relationship is actually very memorable and interesting, though somewhat rushed at the end of the day.
The villains are excellent here with Dr. Gaul being particularly twisted and diabolical. Highbottom and his relationship with Snow are also very well developed. The highlight among the supporting characters is Sejanus, a very idealistic and rebellious guy who would stop at nothing to fight for the right thing. How he contrasted Snow was intriguing. They remained friends until the very end and their friendship was very well explored.
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The novel is wonderfully paced, so that it flies by. It’s such an engaging read, which is always the case for this franchise. The structure is different and somewhat experimental, but it mostly worked within the context of this particular narrative. The thematic resonance was solid, the emotional engagement was also evident and the book benefits from a lot of memorable imagery included as well as a superb exploration of its world, symbols and ideas with the mockingjays being particularly striking. Suzanne Collins wrote this work so well, though I do contend that she was too ambitious in the themes, scope and character study at the center of the story, which led to often overly simplified dialogue and a rushed nature to the main conflicts and arcs that a more competent author could have handled better.
