The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

This review is probably my most opinionated by far, which I think is just a result of my disappointment more than anything else.  I’ve read some books that were bad and ones I just didn’t care for.  Unfortunately, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins is at the top of the list.  When I cracked open the cover, I was so looking forward to enjoying another Hunger Games story and immersing myself into the world she had created.  Now, I’m questioning myself from sixteen years ago reading the first Hunger Games and subsequent novels in the series.  I feel as though I need to go back and reread them, questioning if the character development and writing was at least decent.  Where this novel fell flat was the pacing and character development.  It was the first book in a while that was a chore to finish just because the writing was bad.  

There is so much I noted and didn’t care for in this book, but I’ve already devoted much time to reading it and to point out every part I didn’t care for would be tedious and tiresome for all.  I will simply try to give a bird’s eye view and highlight particular things I didn’t care for.  

If you are unfamiliar with the premise of the book, the focus is on Coriolanus Snow and his backstory as he finishes his “academy” years and prepares to attend a university in the Capitol.  Coriolanus and 23 other classmates are the mentors for the tributes in the 10th Hunger Games.  A full-ride scholarship is on the line for the Capitol winner.  The story is meant, I’m assuming, to give Snow’s background and what led him to be the person he was in the Hunger Games Trilogy.  However, things are awkward from the beginning…

To start, the book opens with Coriolanus’s poverty and preparation for the reaping in the districts, which will lead to the tribute assigned to him.  He lives with his grandmother and cousin, as their parents are no longer living.  They live in an opulent apartment devoid of much furniture and comforts as every bit of money earned is used for food.  Tigris is Snow’s cousin and she is primarily the caretaker of Coriolanus despite their close age.  Page 2 of the novel, he is essentially questioning whether or not she has sold her body for the food they have to eat.  That certainly struck me as an odd thing to start the story with.  Additionally, the same idea continues throughout the book at certain intervals.  Tigris even hints at times that she may have done things disgraceful or dishonorable inorder for them to survive.  Coriolanus seems caught off guard by the idea when they have a conversation, which is clearly a discrepancy from the opening of the book where he considers it even though he doesn’t want to think about it.  Additionally, as the novel progresses throughout the 10th Hunger Games, their meals get better without any apparent cause.  It isn’t clear if this is to hint at Tigris doing more disgraceful things to survive or if the extra food is a gift due to Coriolanus’s friendship with another student or his role as a mentor.  

Coriolanus ends up mentoring the female tribute from district 12, which is meant to be a slight from Dean Highbottom.  Lucy Gray, the female tribute from district 12, is an eccentric lady with a talent for music.  Oddly, a budding romance develops between the two - Lucy and Coriolanus.  There is so much wrong with this relationship and the reality of such a thing happening within the world of the novel just doesn’t seem to line up.  Despite this odd aspect of the story, Coriolanus as a character regarding it is so inconsistent and bizarre.  The only way I can reason it out is that he must suffer from a mental disorder even if that was not Collins intention to write in.  One moment in the novel he is feeling alive and invigorated by her, the next he hates how she makes him feel, then we move on to extreme jealousy, and a desire to ultimately kill her.  That is not a steady progression by the way.  It jumps between all of those at various points in the novel.  

The novel doesn’t even actually get interesting until the last 100 pages of a 500 page book.  Even then, when there is finally something interesting to write about, Collins rushes through the closing events in the last 20 pages with Lucy potential dead from Coriolanus shooting in her general vicinity, but nothing is clear, and he never takes time to find out as he is afraid he will die from a snake bite.  I don’t know who was more maniacal - Dr. Gaul or Coriolanus.  

Now, you may be wondering who Dr. Gaul is.  She is the Gamemaker of the 10th Hunger Games and she is pretty crazy with a focus to push her idea that people are inherently evil and government is what keeps people in check.  Certainly a worldview that many hold to.  She takes it to an extreme.  At various points in the novel Coriolanus is repulsed by her, but as the novel closes he is basically her understudy.  There is some progression of him arriving to this point, but it doesn’t happen organically.  

Everything in this novel felt so contrite and forced - with references to jabberjays, mocking jays, katniss that are harvested, Lucy Gray writing the song about the hanging tree…ugh, it was too much.  

There are several instances of profanity and at least two mentions of a homosexual relationship.  Nothing is graphic or described, it is a simple mention.  What does seem more graphic or disturbing were the events of the hunger game deaths, discussions of cannibalism, and incidents where people were harmed prior to the start of the game - throats slit, carnage from a bomb, repercussions of a snake bite to name a few.  Maybe I am just too far removed from the original novels, but this book seemed more graphic than the earlier ones.  

I feel as though I have said too much already, but I just want to end with my final thoughts on Coriolanus.  He is the real reason I did not like the book.  He was a poor character because of poor writing.  I love a good villain story - Heathcliff is one of my favorite characters, but Suzanne Collins was disappointing on so many levels when it came to this character.  He was selfish and insecure through the whole book, that is about the only thing consistent.  Every other outside factor took his development in different ways - this is seen through his relationship with Tigris, Sejanus, Lucy, and even his dead father.  Throughout most of the book his memories and thoughts of his father were negative, but in the last 20 pages of the book it was his father’s spirit that kept him safe.  WHAT!  The whole book was like this.  So many inconsistencies.  There is no way I could go through them all and no desire to.  There was literally something every few pages that gave me a pause.  

If there was one thing the book had going for it, it was the focus on and proliferation of the idea that humankind will naturally reveal the innate evil, especially when self-preservation is paramount.  The Bible tells us that no one is good, Romans 3: 10 -18 states “As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one:  There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.  Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.”  Every facet of this truth is present throughout the novel and if you are looking for an opportunity to explore this with your reader, then maybe this is a novel worth reading - or at least sections of it.  However, while I can recognize the truth in this one aspect of the novel’s exploration, the answer to this inclination to evil/sin is answered with government control as the answer, and that is essentially where the novel leads the reader and lands.  It is important for readers to explore ideas, such as this in reading, but it is likewise important for adults to guide students in discernment and thinking through such ideas.  Ultimately, as believers, we know that government, any form of government, is not going to save humanity.  It is the finishing work on the cross that does that for us and it is through the indwelling and work of the Holy Spirit in us that produces the fruits of the spirit.  Without God and Christ’s finished work on the cross, we are the depraved people seen in this book.