Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I'm going to be another book review. Since I haven't read Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, this review won't be Twilight related (that's a first).
For today's book review, I'm going to be reviewing The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which was a novel released by Suzanne Collins in May 2020 as a prequel to The Hunger Games. This novel takes place 64 years before The Hunger Games.
It follows Coriolanus Snow as he's a teenager, which may seem like any other villain sympathizer novel, but to me, it didn't read that way.
Let's get into the review!
As I mentioned in the introduction, this story follows Coriolanus Snow, whom (if you've read The Hunger Games) you know is President Snow in the original novels. When this book came out, the protagonist (Snow) is why people elected to shy away from it.
A popular trope recently in both books and movies is the villain story, which tends to be a prequel to the original work that usually results in the "villain sympathizer" plot, where the villain is in a lot of cases redeemed or rooted for.
While I understand why people would dislike this concept, it actually didn't turn out that way. I don't recall ever reading a villain sympathizer novel, but I did watch the first Maleficent movie that Disney released and I didn't much care for it. I liked the original Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, which followed more faithfully to the original work written by the Grimm Brothers.
While I do understand that by now many liberties are taken on fairytale adaptations because of how short the majority of them are, I just wasn't a fan of that movie. I have read and watched fairytale adaptations that I enjoy, so obviously it isn't that.
But I digress. This review is about The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
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I don't want to go in-depth plot wise, because that's not the main thing I want to discuss.
As far as plot goes, the main thing is that Coriolanus Snow is chosen to be a mentor for the 12th district female tribute in the 10th annual Hunger Games. That tribute's name is Lucy Gray Baird, a girl who lives with the Covey, a singing troupe that travels throughout Panem to perform. She isn't from District 12, but she and the Covey became trapped there after the rebellion.
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To begin, this book isn't in Snow's head. While The Hunger Games was first-person from Katniss' point-of-view, this is told in third-person.
There are many things that make this not a villain sympathizer novel. One is that Coriolanus (for the most part), is a jerk to begin with. At this point, President Snow is a eighteen year old boy living in the Capitol. He isn't a 100% villain yet, but he isn't a hero, or even someone you root for.
In this novel, he's an antihero, but not the kind you root for like Sherlock Holmes, Han Solo, Jack Sparrow, the Crows from Six of Crows, or even to some degree Severus Snape.
Coriolanus is a teenager who makes a lot of bad decisions, which lead him down his path of tyranny. All the signs are there at age eighteen. He may sympathize with the tributes, but at heart, his loyalties still lie with the Capitol, and that never changes. From the first few chapters, you can tell that he's selfish.
When he meets Lucy Gray, he states that he loves her. However, while it may seem as if he loves her romantically at first sight, he doesn't. He never loves Lucy Gray because of her personality. He only ever loved her because of personal gain and what fame and money she would get him during and after the Games, especially if she won. He realizes after that he has 'feelings' for her, but by the end of the novel, his loyalties lie with the Capitol.
His loyalties never fully change at any point in the novel. He sways the tiniest bit, but the Capitol is his one true home. He betrays the only person who called him his only friend (Sejanus) because of his loyalties with the Capitol, which leads to Sejanus being hanged.
I fail to see how we're supposed to be sympathetic. Besides that he's also incredibly jealous, to the point of being abusive and possessive.
Regardless of third-person writing, he essentially calls Mrs. Plinth (Sejanus' mother) pathetic for her collection of things from District Two. While he did sympathize with the tributes and their situation, he always thought of Sejanus as being pathetic for still siding with the districts (despite knowing Sejanus grew up there).
These points are proof that Coriolanus is not a hero, nor a really good person. After Sejanus' death, Snow lets his parents still believe that the two of them were close friends, which leads them to accept him as the heir of their fortune, which he later uses to finance his life. They also paid for his enrollment at the University.
Do I understand why Snow hates the rebels? Yes. Do I see why he became who he is? Yes. However, I don't think this book is supposed to make us like him more. This book, to me, seems more like it's meant for us to understand President Snow and seeing how messed up Panem is prior to him leading. I didn't sympathize with him. I empathized.
Sympathy and empathy are not the same thing, let me make that clear. Sympathy is feeling sorry for someone's misfortune and sharing the feelings of another, while empathy is understanding another's actions and feelings, but not necessarily sharing them (in the case of highly empathetic people, they can feel another's emotions as if they are their own, even if those feelings are never brought up).
Unlike sympathy, empathy cannot be faked. Empathy is life-long (regardless of how empathetic you are), while in a lot of cases, sympathy is temporary, because it tends to be situational.
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While many people also say that this novel adds nothing to the original trilogy, I disagree. Whether or not this book was written after is irrelevant. I enjoyed the references to the "Hanging Tree" and "Down in the Meadow," even though was written after. It doesn't matter to me when this book came out.
To me, this book makes me dislike Coriolanus even more. He had a choice to side with the districts and turn his back on the Capitol, but he didn't. This book shows that he, like all of us, is human. He is capable of having feelings. For me, that makes him even scarier. I'm not scared of a person who is incapable of emotions and feelings. I'm scared of a person who can feel, but chooses not to. That's why President Snow is a scary villain to me, even more now. He can feel emotions like all of us, but he opts not to, while we do the opposite.
While he did decide to keep doing the Hunger Games, it can't be denied that he made the living conditions more humane. Even though he makes the transport and housing for the tributes more humane, you can tell he also romanticizes the Games as a way to downplay the danger. Kind of like, "You're seeing children fight to the death on television, but it's all fun and games. It's a grand spectacle." It reminds me of gladiator fights in Rome (which was an inspiration for Suzanne Collins), but while many of those were voluntary, the Games are not.
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The problem with Coriolanus is he trusts the Capitol too much. He is swayed very easily in some regard (I understand teenagers are impressionable, but Snow takes it too far). I still believe he would've become a tyrant, but Dr. Gaul probably influenced him as well. After all, he wouldn't have been in the arena without her telling him to be there.
To make matters worse, he's quick to play the blame game and holds grudges. He says it was Sejanus' fault that he was there, not Dr. Gaul, even though she's the one who called him (honestly, how stupid and inconsiderate can you be).
When he was doubting the Games' efficiency, Dr. Gaul quickly made him question the morality and nature of humans. She clearly had a hand in his tyranny, even if he was a pretty twisted character to begin with.
Also, I don't understand why he's surprised Bobbin attacked him. Who wouldn't dislike the Capitol? They're corrupt, unfair, and cruel. They have the Hunger Games after all, a fight to the death for kids who weren't even involved in the rebellion. I'd say Bobbin was angry for a reason. I'm not a fan of using death as an automatic first option, but I understand why Bobbin was upset.
I didn't see any point in this novel where Coriolanus was a good person. He's a liar, cheater, and a hypocrite. I don't care if he sympathized with the tributes. They don't want his sympathy. They want the Games to come to an end, and he continued them. They want to stop being unfairly murdered, while the only thing Snow wants is power and fame.
Coriolanus only ever wanted the "free ride" to the University. He didn't care about Lucy. He didn't care about Sejanus. He wasn't even very close with his own father (regardless of it he died when he was little or not). He only ever wanted power. He wanted things as long as it benefited him. He only wanted the personal gain. If he had truly loved Lucy as he claimed, then he would've turned his back on the Capitol instead of his back on her. He can't get behind the fact that the Capitol is cruel and controlling.
Just the fact that the 10th Hunger Games is pretty much erased from history shows how corrupt and controlling the Capitol is. The 10th Hunger Games is so memorable, so important, and yet, it's destroyed. This is the first Hunger Games in which District 12 has a victor. This is the first (potentially only) time that a tribute murders a mentor. This is the first time mentors are used, and Coriolanus is one of them.
Even the media's slogan is a giveaway that Panem is controlling. "If you didn't see it here, it didn't happen." Therefore, if they deny the 10th Hunger Games happened, then it didn't happen. There's no questioning the media (Capitol News). What they say is fact and their word is supposed to be trusted.
The 23 tributes involved who died before and during the 10th Hunger Games were essentially erased from history, which is cruel and unfair to their families.
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The day of the reaping shocked me as well. Personally, I think what makes a dystopian novel really good is when you can imagine the events actually happening, whether it's your own country, or someone else's. I could see a group of people revolting on July 4th. After all, it's only Independence Day.
I could see a group revolting against the government (whatever government there is, along with whatever leader), and the highest powers taking revenge on them by making these games on the same day to remind them that they are lesser.
I can see that happening, which is why I think that this book does add something to the original trilogy, regardless if people like it or not (not everyone is going to like a book). It makes Panem more terrifying. It makes Panem more unfair. It makes Panem a really messed up society, and it makes Panem more real, even though it felt real from the beginning.
Besides, it isn't like this Hunger Games came out of nowhere. If I remember correctly (I reread The Hunger Games [first book] in preparation for this prequel, though I haven't read the other two in about 2 years), Katniss watches the previous Hunger Games and there's an empty space where the tenth might be (it's never said that it's the tenth, but it could be implied now that this book is out). I could be wrong, but I'm fairly certain this happens.
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To conclude, I don't believe The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a villain sympathizer novel, even if dozens of people disagree.
I liked the references to future books and it also kind of explains why President Snow hates Katniss so much, seeing how much she parallels Lucy Gray. It was also interesting to find out why Snow likes roses so much. We also got to read about the connection Tigris has to President Snow, being his older cousin, so I found that intriguing.
All in all, I really enjoyed this prequel and arguably liked it more than I liked Mockingjay, though I'll have to reread Mockingjay to be sure. It was very thought provoking and I would definitely reread it. Even though it was over 500 pages, I read it in roughly 10 hours. On Goodreads, I rated it a 4 out of 5 stars.
