Sejanus, Tigris, his friends, the faculty, all of them had been dead wrong about him. He'd never been motivated by love or ambition, only a desire to get his prize...
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
by Suzanne Collins
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
About: The Snow family have fallen on hard times, but Coriolanus has a chance to bring the name glory once more. He just needs his tribute, a girl from District 12, to win the tenth Hunger Games. But even after the games are over, he finds the world has turned into his own personal arena and each choice he makes takes him closer and closer to tyranny.
Thoughts
I really was not expecting to enjoy this one so much. I love the original trilogy and couldn't believe Suzanne Collins - master of fast-paced storytelling - had written a Hunger Games book that was over 500 pages long... But while Coriolanus does have a tendency to waffle somewhat, the story instantly gripped me and I fell back in love with the world.
Truly if you're a fan of the series, then you'll love the amount of world-building this book has to offer. It feels immersive, familiar, and I just loved the experience of reading this. There are quite a lot of characters, and not many of them memorable, but the key players were really well developed. Sejanus, Dr Gaul, Highbottom, Lucy and Coriolanus all had their intrigues and never felt flat. The build up to the Games and the Games themselves were perhaps not as urgent as in the original series, but definitely had a lot of drama and cliffhanging moments. There's a sinister tone throughout that matches completely with the entire series and I think being in Coriolanus's head, rather than Lucy Gray, definitely helped to emphasise how such a dystopian world could be made.
The final third of this book was probably the weakest part as I personally would have preferred to have remained in the Capitol. Both Sejanus and Lucy have very different views on the Capitol to Coriolanus and I think that divide would have been easier to show if Lucy had been forced to stay as a glorified prize. The feeling of Coriolanus viewing her as his slips away in District 12 and is completely gone by the end. I would have also liked to have seen more of a friendship between Sejanus and Lucy as this could have played up to Coriolanus's jealousy rather than introducing new characters in for the final third. I enjoyed seeing Coriolanus's character arc and thought it suited his future journey, but it did feel rushed and I think we could have had more time if the Peacekeeping section hadn't happened.
Overall, the experience of reading this was certainly different from the original trilogy but no less enjoyable. The world, characters, and Suzanne Collin's writing style had me hooked and it really did feel like a necessary addition to the series.
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