Book Review: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Lindsey Botkin | November 8, 2023
When I discovered that Suzanne Collins had written a prologue to “The Hunger Games” the middle schooler in me almost burst into tears of joy. “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” was published during the pandemic and provided me with a much-needed escape from what had become a very stressful time. Shortly after the book was released it was confirmed that there would be a movie released in 2023. At the time, this seemed much too far away. Now, sitting in my dorm, I’m pre-ordering tickets for opening night.
“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” will have any Hunger Games fan connecting the dots and reevaluating everything they thought they knew about the series. The book itself is a prologue to the iconic series published in the 2000s.
“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” follows President Coriolanus Snow, the main antagonist in the original series. He is a sort of anti-hero in Collins’ new book. Covering the events of the 10th annual Hunger Games, a much different story is told. Snow struggles with the psychological components of the Hunger Games, the reason why the officials in the Capitol chose to use it as a means to punish the districts, how to make the games successful long term, and his family's financial struggles, all while he is trying to keep his tribute — the District 12 female, and Snow’s love interest — Lucy Gray Baird alive. Ultimately Snow's investment in the games and in Lucy Gray are self-serving and are a means to propel him into the upper-class Capitol and eventually Capitol politics.
The parallels between Lucy Gray Baird and Katniss Everdeen should not be overlooked. Lucy Gray is a performer. She immediately captivates the audience in the Capitol and in the districts and brings a new sort of excitement to the games, making it a show rather than a punishment for the district's rebellion against the Capitol. Katniss does something similar in the games. Volunteering for her sister Prim gave the games a sort of depth and, at that point, excitement paralleling the feeling that Lucy Gray brought to the games. As the story progresses, more and more parallels are drawn between Katniss and Lucy Gray: the deep connection to music, the outspoken ideas about the morals behind The Games and the want to leave the districts and the Games behind. These two characters are truly cut from the same cloth.
When all is said and done, at the end of this book it becomes clear that Lucy Gray was meant to haunt Snow for the remainder of his life. She of course succeeds in this. Her memory lives on in District 12, in Katniss Everdeen, and in the rebellion as the original series shows us. Her ballad, “The Hanging Tree”, is the sound of the rebellion and the thing that Katniss uses to ignite the spark of revolution in the districts.
Overall I was incredibly impressed by this book. The way that Collins was able to connect so many concepts, tie up loose ends, and weave an elaborate and moving storyline for a character that is universally hated in the first series deserves some recognition. If you were a fan of “The Hunger Games”, whether it was the book series or the movies, I would highly recommend picking up this book and immersing yourself in this world that asks deep questions about trying to understand the rules of humanity, how we perceive each other, ourselves, and how everything we think we know is subject to change.
“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” movie comes out on Nov. 17, 2023.