The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

90/100

Throughout the whole thing I was consistently pleasantly surprised. I really think this is up there with Mockingjay as one of, if not the best Hunger Games book. This thing is really long, five hundred pages, and it does drag in some parts— however, it always stops dragging and when it picks up it's very hard to put down, so it wasn't a huge issue to me. I loved Lucy Gray, seriously one of my favorite Hunger Games characters ever. She just radiated so much swag and energy. Since she is the love interest of the book and a singer, there are many passages of song in this novel, and I'm a fan of most of them. They get better as it goes on, I think, so while the lyrics kind of variy in writing quality, it barely matters, especially considering the glimpses of really nice lyrics that are present at times.
Now, it's no secret that the main character of this book is a young President Snow, so I think I can claim without it being a spoiler that Coriolanus is a horrible person. What's surprising, though, is that he comes from not only humble beginnings, but is actually a pretty good person. His father, now dead, was an honored general in Panem's first civil war, and he feels like he has to personally continue the glory that the Snow name holds. This, likely along with his nature, causes him to view human beings as tools for success rather than real people with inherent value. This is apparent early on if you pay attention, but this quality really starts to come out when he is presented with opportunities for power. I won't spoil the insanity that happens in the last couple chapters of this book, but it's fucked up, and I genuinely just hate this guy lol. The thing is, though, it's such a realistic feeling depiction of sociopaths and how they view themselves. His ego grows and grows to a nauseating degree, he uses everyone he knows, and he has a blatant disregard for human life. The more he justifies these things internally, the worse he becomes, and ultimately— you may consider this a spoiler— he throws away the opportunity for love, instead pursuing his own arbitrary standard for success.