Teen/YA Review: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

With so little time to myself these days for audiobooks, it took me more than a month to finally finish listening to my latest (and a Big Book), The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. It is a prequel to The Hunger Games trilogy, which takes place decades before that famous story. As with all of Collins' novels, it was suspenseful, surprising, and thoughtful.

As readers of the trilogy know, Coriolanus Snow ends up being President of Panem ... and he is pretty evil by then, fully committed to the barbaric Hunger Games and to keeping the Districts under the control of the Capital. But here in this novel, only ten years after the war, Coriolanus is just a teen-aged boy whose once-important family has fallen on hard times. There are only three of them left: Coriolanus, his teen cousin, Tigris, and their Grandmam. Everyone else was killed during the war (and his mother was killed in childbirth). They survived the war period on a diet of lima beans and cabbage, while Corilanus' father was a hero, off fighting the Districts, and they could very possibly lose their beloved family home, if the rumors about imposing a property tax in the Capital are true. Thanks to his family connections, Coriolanus attends the prestigious Academy, but he will have to win awards and scholarships in order to continue onto college. He works very hard to keep up appearances at school, and Tigris, who is a gifted seamstress and close friend to her cousin, helps him to look his best, to keep their poverty a secret.

Into this quiet, routine life of behind-the-scenes struggle comes the 10th Annual Hunger Games. For the first time ever, the Capital is assigning Academy students to mentor the tributes from the Districts. On Reaping Day, one tribute stands out: Lucy Gray from District 12. While initially disappointed he wasn't assigned a big, strong boy, Coriolanus quickly sees the positive aspects of his own tribute, in her outrageously cheery and colorful dress, with her beautiful singing voice and haunting song. At first, Coriolanus helps Lucy Gray in his own self-interest, so that he can get a scholarship for his role in helping her win the Games. Soon, though, he gets to know her as a real person, and the two become friends ... and maybe more. Coriolanus becomes confused and pulled in different directions: he's supposed to be a proud member of the Capital, but how can this be right, forcing sweet kids like Lucy Gray to fight to the death? The evil Game Master, his classmates, and his headmaster all play roles as Coriolanus fights internally to decide what to do and how far he will go to protect Lucy Gray.

As always, Collins has provided thought-provoking, morally-complex subject matter that is set in a wholly different world but somehow also reflects our own issues. I love this about her writing (we were huge fans of her Gregor the Overlander series long before The Hunger Games), and I thoroughly enjoyed this new novel, as well ... until the end. I struggled with the ending. I was thinking (as all readers will) throughout the book, "What will happen to Snow to make him turn him from this tormented teen into the evil President of Panem someday?" But when that moment came, it didn't feel quite believable to me. I had one of those moments where I thought I missed something on the audio and rewound a bit to listen again, but I hadn't missed anything. All that said, that sharp turn in Coriolanus' life comes in the very last chapters of this long book, and I very much enjoyed all the rest of it. Lucy Gray is a wonderful character, the other characters and setting are richly developed, and I enjoyed learning Snow's backstory.

528 pages, Scholastic Press

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

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Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, as Coriolanus talks to a friend and worries about the proposed tax, and/or download it from Audible.

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