Best-selling author of The Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins, has recently released her newest addition to the series, A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Taking place almost sixty-five years previous to the story in The Hunger Games’ first installment, the prequel novel sheds light on the saga’s main villain, the infamous President Coriolanus Snow.
Set ten years after the “Dark Days” rebellion of Panem in a dystopian North America, A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follows a teenage Coriolanus Snow as he tries to obtain his goals of going to University and making something of himself. Mentoring in the tenth annual Hunger Games is the last assignment Snow needs to complete in order to graduate, but the events he and his tribute face leave their lives changed in a way no one could have predicted.
Snow is a sinister, savage character in the main trilogy, so when the book was announced, fans were intrigued to find out more of his backstory and to learn how he grew into the monster he is in The Hunger Games.
"Introducing Snow as a teen in this book was slightly shocking," recounts Carin Cruz, a reader who has been a fan of Suzanne Collins' since The Hunger Games trilogy was first released. "Definitely a different perspective than what many knew about him in the Hunger Games trilogy."
When the novel was finally released on May 19, 2020, fans eagerly dove into the book, resurfacing with opinions that differed greatly from one another.
In comparison to the original trilogy, many fans have shared their beliefs that the new story is too slow, in regards to the pacing of the action. While some readers didn’t mind this, others were bored throughout the book, arguing that the only great scene of importance occurred in the last fifty pages.
Still, other readers have read the novel, and have applauded its philosophical side, picking out deeper themes in the book relating to the nature of mankind, and even drawing parallels to our country’s own government at present. The novel certainly has brought to mind many questions that are important in today’s society, whether or not readers have enjoyed the book as a whole.
In regards to the characters and their development in The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes, there’s no unanimous opinion. As far as the character of young Coriolanus Snow goes, readers have complained that he remains a flat, whiny teenager throughout the entirety of the novel. However, some appreciate how Collins wrote the character as a young boy who never did realize how privileged he was, or how twisted his values and beliefs had always been.
Many readers speculate that while depicting Snow, Collins attempts to send a powerful message regarding current societal issues. It's easy to be automatically drawn to this character as his morals land in a gray area, though as the story progresses the reader sees how a morally gray person can escalate into an evil dictator. With this interpretation, the reader can infer that it is acceptable to question where one’s morals stand, so long as one takes action to ensure they don’t follow a harmful path.
Throughout the entirety of the book, if there is one thing readers have agreed upon, it’s that the main female character, Lucy Gray Baird, is a great protagonist, and an overall intriguing person. The same goes for Coriolanus Snow’s childhood ‘friend,’ Sejanus Plinth, who is a sort of moral compass throughout the novel.
A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes handles its protagonists in an interesting way, as it never tries to make the reader feel sympathetic towards Snow, while highlighting the good in other characters.
"The reader is not meant to feel love for Snow as the main character," states Angela Lutz, another long-time supporter of Collins, when asked her opinion on the new novel. "However, as you read the book, the author does a good job of making you desensitized to Snow's way of thinking, so that as a reader you have to stop and remember what your own beliefs and morals are."
While some have read the book with the lens of ‘Collins is going to make me fall in love with Coriolanus,’ the more effective way to see the novel, and the way that will leave a reader much more satisfied when finished, is to see it as a story with neat tie-ins to its source material, and a look into a fictional world that could lead to changes being made in our own reality. In A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Suzanne Collins challenges her readers to start bringing about those changes.
In an interview with Scholastic after the release of her final Hunger Games novel, Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins was asked what had initially drawn her to writing. In response to the inquiry, Collins responded, "Telling a story in a futuristic world gives you this freedom to explore things that bother you in contemporary times." This belief is represented immensely in A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, as readers can pick up on, due to Collins' camouflaged scrutiny of the government and ideals in her novels.
The common theme in both this novel and her previous Hunger Games trilogy can be summed up as ‘Never believe a system or law is correct until it is questioned and proven to be so’. Through writing her fictional stories, Collins implores her readers to seek truth in their own societies and to never take anything at face value.
Reviewed by: Hannah Lutz
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