The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
by Suzanne Collins
A much slower novel from the original trilogy, Collins new foray into Panem’s world narrates President Snow’s formative years, his beginning.
I had hoped, but perhaps it was a fool’s hope, that this novel would deal with the years leading to becoming Panem’s President with Snow, a young politician, growing into his role. Instead we are presented with a much younger Snow whose life isn’t as priviledged as one might have thought and is riddled with trauma. The author definitely digs deeper into his making.
Snow ends up in District 12, a District I had hoped we were done with, after all there are another 11 to discover and explore. That is when I gradually started loosing some interest in the story.
The book is not bad. I prefer it to the original trilogy. It is well written and has very interesting (though ghastly) background information about the birds, about the people and thinking behind the creation and evolution of the Hunger Games themselves that sheds more light to the events that led to the Hunger Games.
It would be grand if the author added more to this, perhaps a full Snow trilogy ending when the first Hunger Games novel starts.