Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

the ballad of songbirds and snakes is a challenging tale of war, death, and sacrifice. 🐍🐦🌟

we follow the story of coriolanus snow, a young boy born into the prestigious snow dynasty which fell in panem's dark war days with the death of most of the snow family.

SPOILER WARNING!

the story starts by introducing us to a young coriolanus, who's sole purpose is to thrive and excel in the academy in order to ensure a stable financial future for himself and his family, which consists of his cousin tigris and his grandmother. after learning of his opportunity to win a prize entrance into university by excelling as a mentor in the 10th annual hunger games, he makes it his goal to make lucy gray baird, an unimpressive young girl from district 12, as desirable to the public as possible. coriolanus introduces the concept of sponsorships into the hunger games, which further increase his chances of winning with his district 12 tribute by making her as interesting as possible with the use of her singing. coriolanus has to balance his school life and being a mentor in the hunger games, all the while maintaining his family's reputation and gaining lucy gray's trust in order for him to utilize her talents for the public's pleasure.

long story short, this story is divided into three acts; the first act tells the story of the reaping, coriolanus's mentorship to lucy gray, his family's monetary struggles, the development of a budding romantic relationship between coryo and lucy, and finally leads up to the start of the hunger games. the second act relates everything that is the actual games, with lucy gray participating within the arena as her opponents are eliminated and she eventually wins with the help of coriolanus's and her own cheating. lastly, the third and final act is coriolanus's punishment for cheating in the arena as he is sent to be a peacekeeper in district 12 and reunites with lucy gray, only to eventually lose her to his own greed for power and prestige.

SPOILER ENDS!

this is an intricate tale that shows us the true origins of the infamous president snow from the original hunger games trilogy. i found that it was a very interesting tale that gave us a look into how snow's dark mind worked in contrast to sejanus or lucy's pure minds. i also found that placing two undeniably good characters in relation to snow's complex one made us understand that snow was always twisted in his own way, but he only contained himself at the early stages of his life because of different key factors such as wanting to make tigris proud, wanting to fit in with his classmates, or even wanting to impress lucy gray. 10/10 would recommend! ✨️

Content Warnings

turidt's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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mirithyl's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

In eerste instantie vond ik het boek erg langdradig (19 uur voor een audio boek), maar toen eenmaal de Hongerspelen bezig waren werd het voor mij lastiger om het boek stop te zetten! Dit boek laat je inzien hoe Snow is geworden zoals hij is in de boekenreeks met Katniss. Vooral aan het einde komt dit heel goed naar voren. In het boek krijg je echt de character arc mee van Snow. Zeker een aanrader! Het kan alleen zijn dat je even door een zure appel moet bijten om de smaak te pakken te krijgen.

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wild_rabbits's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

lacyleereads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

abbimmorgan's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

3.0

I decided to reread the Hunger Games trilogy after 10 years and was pleasantly surprised by how well the books held up, especially being YA. I hadn’t read this prequel yet, so I was excited to give it a go. And how entirely underwhelmed and disappointed I was.

This book was boring. In the THG, Collins doesn’t waste a single word or sentence. Here, the book dragged out forever. I almost didn’t finish it. There were so many pointless details, long, unnecessary songs, and characters that could’ve been completely removed. It was interesting to learn more about the beginning of the games and how they evolved over time, and how the war affected the Capitol citizens, but this story could’ve been done in less than 300 pages. There was very little action, but when it did happen it felt very rushed. We had to hear details about every meal Snow ate, but the actual exciting parts were breezed by?

And as another reviewer put it, some of the Easter eggs for the original trilogy felt too “nudge nudge wink wink.” They were too in your face and overplayed.

I feel like overall this book was a waste of my time and I’m annoyed how many hours I spent reading it since it was so long. If it would’ve wrapped up after 250 pages, this could’ve been a 5 star book. But I’m left feeling very disappointed.

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