The novel also has a weak sense of place. The Capitol is barely delineated. The Academy is a building, Coriolanus lives in an apartment, and the Hunger Games take place in an arena. The architecture of these places is obviously irrelevant. Who even cares about descriptions of the characters and their environment? (I do). Lots of drinking by those about to graduate and go to university. They drink posca at school functions, something described as fairly weak wine. Soldiers do the heavy drinking, trying moonshine and whiskey when they go out and spending weekends hung over. A teacher is addicted to something called "morphling," which sounds like it's morphine. He and his cousin Tigris are both orphans, and since the war nearly all their fortunes were lost in shares in District 13. I also hated and loved Snow. There's no doubt that he's an AWFUL being. Like completely and utterly terrible.

I think the problem here is that it feels so impersonal and boring. The first three books were all narrated in first person and had tautly written action scenes so everything felt very in the moment and urgent. We see the Capitol from Katniss's eyes as this glittering bacchanalia of conspicuous consumption while she and her people are literally starving and she is horrified that she has to compete to the death for the entertainment of these awful people who don't care whether she lives or dies as long as she puts on a good show. Children, for these people, are just another commodity. The third person narration didn't do the novel any favours. Most of Coriolanus' thoughts and feelings aren't articulated so that his character is given no new depths. Collins' shies away from portraying him as a truly morally corrupt yet self-delusional person, making him into a not very convincing 'he's not that bad' kind of guy. He's an orphan who is tired of eating cabbage soup and not having money. Boo-hoo. His personality is just so tepid...he's sort of ambitious, sort of a liar, a 'sort of' kind of person. Look, I wasn't expecting the next Ripley or Humbert Humbert but Coriolanus is such a non-entity. While the narrative makes it seem as if he's this cunning and charming guy, Coriolanus' no Machiavelli. His elitist views are exaggeratedly rendered, so much so that they make him into a caricature of the contemptuous heir. Even those scenes in his family apartment or the ones where he's with Tigris or Lucy Gray did not make Coriolanus any more believable or sympathetic. His 'arc' as such was merely motivated by his desire for wealth. As the descendant of a powerful yet crumbling Aristocratic family he believes he's entitled to more than just cabbage soup for dinner. And of course, he hates Sejanus because 'new money'. Bobbin is the male tribute from District Eight; Juno Phipps is his mentor. He’s a small boy who initially doesn’t attract much attention—until his interview, when he details all the ways he could kill someone… B]y introducing a new cast of teenagers, Collins is able to raise questions about privilege, the uses of violence, and the futility of war." -- PeopleSnow’s snake-like charm made it difficult to love Lucy Gray by association. She was a very unique character that I found well-developed, but had a hard time identifying with. I think having insight to Snow’s character makes it hard to support any girl that finds him lovable. It makes her seem naive and foolish, although she was being played like Master of Puppets. I appreciated that she values trust more than love, and that realizing Coriolanus’ lie is what caused their fallout. I like to believe she was clever enough to get away from Snow and escape to the north! Since the book is from Snow’s perspective, he has to believe that she’s most likely dead, and we get to believe that she’s now a hopefully less dystopian, Canadian free bird. You’re not alone.” He took her hand. “And you won’t be alone in the arena; we’ll be together. I’ll be there every moment. I won’t take my eyes off of you. We’ll win this thing together, Lucy Gray. I promise.” The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes delivers a mesmerizing look into the life of Coriolanus Snow and the root causes of his villainous behavior. Collins once again proves that she is a master of building a fascinating world around complex characters who must grapple with the complications of chaos and control and their effects on human nature." -- The Associated Press Dr. Wane is a doctor at one of the Capitol hospitals; he oversees care for Coriolanus, Clemensia, Gaius, and the other mentors hurt during the bombing of the arena. Coriolanus distrusts him… The mentor for the District 11 male tribute. A popular student who dramatically falls afoul of Volumnia Gaul.

Book Genre: Adventure, Dystopia, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Teen, Young Adult, Young Adult Fantasy Mayor Lipp is the mayor of District 12. He has one daughter, Mayfair. At the reaping, he hits Lucy Gray across the face after Lucy Gray puts a snake down Mayfair’s dress. He… Whenever Coriolanus frets over the possibility Lucy, or Tigris, aren't as chaste as he naively presumed, I hear Britney Spears singing: "I'm not so innocent!"Without Coriolanus Snow, we would only have been able to read about this time through a newly made-up character. As loathsome as Panem’s president is, it was a brilliant and logical choice to write from his perspective. a lot of people are not going to like this book. it’s weirder and maybe a little...goofier? than the original hunger games. it’s also much more philosophical - almost part novel part contemplation on nature vs nurture and the base instincts of humanity. and it is not a villain origin story like you’ve read before. if you’ve come here looking for a story like the joker where you leave sympathetic to the villain and understanding what moment pushed them to being evil? well, you’ll likely be very disappointed. but if you, like me, have grown frustrated with the narrative that destructive and horrible white men are just victims of society? you might love this one like i do. honestly, i think with this work suzanne is subverting and critiquing the entire narrative of the “villain origin.” house of cards could be a much better comparison to this novel than any villain origin story you’ve watched or read before.

Galuppo, Mia (2022-06-15). " 'Hunger Games' Prequel Enlists 'West Side Story' Star Josh Andrés Rivera". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 2022-06-15. Italie, Hillel (May 17, 2020). " 'Hunger Games' prequel 'Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes' to receive virtual launch". Spokesman-Review . Retrieved May 19, 2020.In August 2021, Lionsgate chairman Joe Drake revealed that the film was in pre-production with filming expected to begin in early 2022 for a targeted release of "either late fiscal 2023 or early 2024." [14] On April 28, 2022, it was announced that the film will release on November 17, 2023. [15] Hunger Games' Prequel Novel From Suzanne Collins Coming in 2020, Lionsgate in Talks For Movie". Deadline. June 17, 2019 . Retrieved August 15, 2019.

In June 2019, Joe Drake, Chairman of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, announced that the company was working with Collins with regards to an adaptation of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. [12] By April 2020, Collins and Lionsgate confirmed that plans were underway for the film's development. Casting had not yet begun, but director Francis Lawrence has been confirmed to return after his success with The Hunger Games trilogy. The film’s writer will be Michael Arndt, with Nina Jacobson and author Suzanne Collins as producers. [13] Me: Uh huh. *signalling desperately to the waiter for a glass of wine* Those aren't really hobbies you know. Am I the only one excited to read more of Snow's brilliantly manipulative ways and dive into his past and (hopefully) rise to power? I mean, poisonsssssss * snake hissing* D'Alessandro, Anthony (April 28, 2022). " 'Hunger Games' Prequel 'The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes' Gets 2023 Release Date – CinemaCon". Deadline . Retrieved April 29, 2022.Livia is one of Coriolanus’s classmates. She’s assigned the District One boy and, to Coriolanus’s disgust, she openly gloats about it—District One tributes are usually favored to win. She pouts later when her tribute… Lucy Gray was just so ridiculous. She seems one of the few random characters to have a normal name, and yet there was something comical about the way a 'distressed' Coriolanus would shout out her name. While the narrative did seem now and again aware that she was treated as an object, the way she’s depicted seems to corroborate this. She just didn't convince me as an actual human being. At times she seemed a twelve year old Marie Sue, at times she seemed to have walked off the stage of a musical, and yet we are meant to find her intriguing? While working on a Kids WB show called Generation O! she met children’s author James Proimos, who talked her into giving children’s books a try. Not as tightly woven as the original series, this prequel showing the notorious President Snow as a teen will still intrigue fans of dystopian novels. The whole story is from Coriolanus Snow's perspective, which gives The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes a more sinister, hopeless feel. The few redeeming qualities Coriolanus possesses at the beginning of the story erode at each desperate turn he takes. He betrays the few people who trust him, and it's disappointing even though we really should have seen it coming. The future Panem president works out new ways to make the Hunger Games "better" in the process, giving readers a glimpse of how the squalid 10th annual games turned into the theatrical and high-tech marvel of decades later.