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A Devine

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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)

by Suzanne Collins

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Reading for the 2nd time

read in December 2022

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A Devine said:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

" 3.5/4 stars

I was very wary about this book when I looked through some of the reviews. While I don't always take other reviews to heart (varying tastes, misinterpretations, etc.), I was nervous to see so many people finding The Ballad to be a kind of 3.5/4 stars

I was very wary about this book when I looked through some of the reviews. While I don't always take other reviews to heart (varying tastes, misinterpretations, etc.), I was nervous to see so many people finding The Ballad to be a kind of defense of President Snow. Now having finished the piece, I can't help but feel that those reviewers had a somewhat skewed interpretation of Collins's intention. However, before I get ahead of myself, I'd like to talk about some of the shortcomings that I saw within this book.

I can stand behind a slowburn story, but Collins starts the reader off at a snail's pace. I struggled through the first ~80 pages of The Ballad worried that it would never pick up. While the work eventually found a better grasp on pacing, I would have liked to see clearer development from the beginning. Collins's slow start correlated to a larger issue regarding the novel's tension. I am all for an unlikeable-unlikeable protagonist approach (a.k.a. you as the reader hate them in the book and you would hate them in real life), but the problem with Snow is that there's nothing for the reader to hold onto. Perhaps it was Collins's intention, but every time an opportunity presents to connect with Snow's character, Collins strips it away with one of his snide inner comments. At this point, I feel Snow borders somewhere in sociopathic territory, especially considering his willingness to shed blood and continue the legacy of the games at the end of the book. A large part of Collins's struggles with tension also corresponded to her choice in perspective. I'm not sure the reader benefitted much by being in a close third with Snow. His perspective on the world offered nothing new or surprising for the reader, as it only confirmed everything we could already glean from The Hunger Games. I can't help but feel that a close third told from Sejanus or Tigres would have been more compelling.

Collins cut-and-dry writing works in The Hunger Games trilogy because it is told from Katniss's first person perspective. Katniss is someone who says and sees things as they are, so it's no surprise that Collins drops the frill of figurative language throughout much of those books. However, The Ballad let me down as a reader because it didn't show a development of style. With nearly ten years between Mockingjay and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, I had hoped to see a shift in Collins's skill, especially when I realized it would not also be told from first-person. I didn't see any substantial development between those two books. In fact, it seems that Collins couldn't even choose how close she wanted to be to Snow throughout The Ballad. She swings between relative distance, with loose descriptions of actions that don't include Snow's inner feelings, to long strings of rhetorical questions that are (presumably) his immediate thoughts. This inconsistency makes it even more difficult for the reader to feel connected to the story, as they are constantly losing their footing in distractions from the writing.

I found myself really enjoying the second and third quarters of The Ballad, so I was all the more let down when I got to the ending. In all honesty, it felt like a cheap cop-out. "Snow always lands on top" was such an anti-climactic end. The level of satisfaction that Snow has in the end of his story shows little-to-no character development, and while I recognize that his stagnation is relevant to his future as the formidable President Snow of Panem, it makes it all the harder for the reader to really feel like they got anything significant from knowing his past. I wish Collins had done something to suggest that some form of fear continued to propel Snow; that he was still simply "playing his part," rather than just being an absolute snob. This would keep from excusing his actions, but still explain how he got to the point he was at. I had hoped that his fear around Dr. Gaul would follow him through adulthood, especially considering how much he pushes the idea of "playing a role" on Katniss in the later books.

Alright, that felt a little harsh considering my 3.5 star rating. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes wasn't all bad. In fact, I really enjoyed a lot of it. I ended up finishing the last 3/4 of the book in about a day and a half.

Collins did a wonderful job of giving backstory to pieces of The Hunger Games that I had no idea I wanted to know. From the origins of "The Hanging Tree," to the predecessors of some of the families we see in The Hunger Games (Cranes, Heavensbees, etc.), to the lake where Katniss swims as a child, to the theme of roses throughout the Snow lineage—I enjoyed understanding the origin of things. I thought it was also very clever that Collins spun in so many elements of evolution within the games. I really enjoyed watching where it all started. It was also fascinating to know a little bit more about the culture prior to Panem's development. I would love to hear more about the Covey community.

While I still think the story would have been stronger from another character's perspective, I'm still a sucker for an antagonist (or straight up villain) being reframed as the protagonist. I also appreciated that despite all of the Snow family hardship, Collins never tried to make her reader pity or forgive Snow. He grows into a homicidal maniac, and while some of his anger stems from the difficulties of his childhood, a lot of it is just because he's a terrible person. When pitted against foils like Sejanus and Lucy Grey, the evils of Snow's ways become even more glaring. I don't think it was ever Collins's goal for the reader to like Snow, and I admired that she didn't overstep in creating him into some kind of martyr.

In some negative reviews of The Ballad, I saw that reviewers were upset about following Snow's story. They didn't want to see him fall in love or find success. In my eyes, all of the "good things" in Snow's life work as plot devices to further the lowliness of his character. He never loves Lucy Grey—he sees her as a shiny possession. No wonder he abandons her so quickly in the end. Snow's only intention throughout the entirety of the story is to get ahead, to land on top, to find success. He has no sense of remorse or empathy, unless it involves self-pity, demonstrating his complete deterioration into a narcissist. While I feel Collins clarified exactly what her reader was getting into with this story built around Snow, I can understand feeling dissatisfied about his success; however, many of us have to keep in check that this prequel feeds directly toward the future of his presidency. He doesn't get his karma until the very end.

All in all, The Ballad of the Songbird and the Snake was an entertaining read. It satisfied my desire to better understand Panem history and clarified several cultural elements that I was excited to gain knowledge on. Many of the stylistic choices let me down, but I think Collins maintained her intention of providing a path through understanding Snow's twisted life leading up to where it converge's with Katniss's story. ...more "

Dec 15, 2022 01:46PM · see review