The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Let me begin this review by saying that I really liked the Hunger Games. At the time this book came out in 2008, the YA world seemed to be filled with Bella Swan look-alikes, which is to say that they were girls who were passive in their demeanor, and often would want men to fight over her rather than fight for herself. Katniss, on the other hand, felt like a breath of fresh air. She was a girl who was proactive and fought to protect not just herself, but her family too, both at home, hunting for food in the woods, and in the area, hunting other tributes. The first book was an excellent introduction into the world that she lived in and how she had to work the crowd in the 34th Hunger Games to survive. The 2nd book, while not quite as good as the first, was still well done, as we see that the government seeks to control any sign of rebellion by wanting to control the future of Katniss and Peta in the 35th Hunger Games. While I thought the 3rd, book was not as good, this was mostly down to the decisions that Katniss had made. She chooses to lie to her friends about her real motivations for moving into the capital and this gets many people killed. This made her somewhat unlikeable in my eyes. Then again, I don't think I was supposed to like her. She had been taken advantage of so many times in this series that by the 3rd book she was emotionally, physically, and psychologically scarred by her time spent fighting in the rebellion. This trauma blinded her to all but the obsession to kill the one man truly responsible for all this. One gets the sense that, by the end of the series, that she can never have a normal, loving relationship with either her husband, nor her children because she has seen and been through too much. Now we get a prequel dedicated to the man who was the cause of all that pain and suffering: President Snow.

As far as a character is concerned, 18-year-old Snow is a product of his environment. He is cunning, constantly wondering how far people can take him politically, or how much he can gain from a certain situation. This is because his once proud family name has now fallen on hard times, and risks being considered irrelevant. He also stands to lose his family home, and they may have to actually GASP work for a living. Though some may see this as hard to sympathize with, I thought this was a good way to show how Snow would eventually develop into the man he would become. It also shows the reader how the Capital will eventually become so detached from the Districts, as it is only a few steps from what we see here to the odd looking, vapid people we meet in Katniss' time. Also, Snow's turn from this spoiled-but-fallen-on-hard-times-capital-boy to dictator is one that is made gradually. We see him making these small decisions that we the reader know would only herald the evil man to come, and it is a nice, gradual change. These small steps to villainy make him one of the more memorable characters here.

The same cannot be said of the side characters. Many of them are simply there to make Snow look good by comparison. Those that do not, simply annoy me with how much they tend to make life accidentally difficult for Snow. One example of this would be Sir Janis. Sir Janis is a character that represents the honorable and good in the Capital. His family made a fortune in the war ten years ago, working in District 2. Moving his family into the Capital, his father uses his money to get Sir Janis into a prominent school with Snow. Yet, Sir Janis remains the most outspoken against the Hunger Games, making speeches and spontaneous demonstrations against the practice. These outbursts often drag Snow down with him, causing Snow to grow resentful of Janis' actions. As the story went on, Sir Janis kept making promises that he would watch what he said and did, and I found myself agreeing with Snow, believing Janis' assurances less and less. I am not sure if this is a sign that I got into Snow's head while I was reading, as we see the story from only his POV, or if it was a sign of Collins' writing, but this is something of a positive, as far as a reaction that I can have with a side character.

Another bright spot in this story is the District 12 tribute, Lucy Grey. She is a person who is clearly Snow's opposite. She has no alternative agenda for the games, and often surpasses Snow in terms of a positive, chipper personality one would expect of a performer who moves from District to District, singing for money. She worked, if only to remind the reader that there are still people who try and make the best of this world using whatever strengths they have. She is a bit of a flirt, but she is willing to stand up and fight for herself in the arena, which reminds the reader that the underdog can often be the winner, against all odds.

As for the rest of the book, it does not bode well. The worst element is the pacing, which is the worst I've ever...seen. Scenes will either move too fast for the reader, where things will be moving so quickly, I'm thinking I've missed something, or they will be so slow as to drag on in ages what should have taken minutes. Transitions are a particular issue, with jumps between scenes so fast that the reader can lose all context of not just why the scenes have shifted, but how it is significant for the character.

The concept for the story also bleeds into the pacing issue, with Snow being a mentor in the games. At first, it seems like this would be an interesting dichotomy to explore, as we see how the games have evolved, and what it is like being an early mentor, something we never saw in the original trilogy. Yet, this idea stays out its welcome, as it quickly devolves into characters watching a giant jumbo screen, waiting for something to happen. Collin's tries to placate the reader by making it seem boring to both the characters, and, by extension the reader, but this seems like a missed opportunity. I'll come back to why later.

Then, there is the romance in this book between Snow and Lucy. Yes, you heard that right, the mentor, and tribute fall in love together. Thankfully, it only really serves as a way for the audience to know what a jerk Snow is when it comes to his relationships as well. He continuously thinks of Lucy as his girl, to the point where it becomes an obsession. Lucy also seems to fall for him as well, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out why. A good romance should have both partners working off each other, with each of their traits balancing each other out. That is why I liked seeing the romances in Avatar: The Last Airbender, with Katara and Ang, but not Harry Potter, with Ron and Hermione. Yet, we get little of that here. It is written as though its must be there, and, maybe this is unfair coming from an older reader's perspective, but it did not seem the least bit convincing to me.
So that leaves me with a book that is more of a main character study than a story, but it is not a character I like, even when it comes to a kind of villain origin story. With a boring main plot, pacing that is very inconsistent, and only a few decent side characters, this book leaves little to love. This begs me to ask, why not have this book use multiple perspectives, switching between Lucy and Snow? This way we get the Snow origin story we wanted, but we also have Lucy to balance things out in terms of attitude and perspective during the Hunger Games. Regardless, I have to rate this book based on what it is, rather than what it could be, and this book about Snow is going to melt away from my mind by the end of the Summer. I give it a two out of five.