Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - Balada șerpilor și a păsărilor cântătoare

this was a brilliant sequel. perfect length, it really gave you time to delve in to the story. suzanne did a brilliant job of putting us in snow’s mind. the way she started off making you feel sorry for him because he has real hardships and goes through many genuine emotions you find yourself kind of rooting for him and *almost* forgetting what he was to become

the complexity, yet simplicity, and eventually tragedy, of his love story with lucy gray was so well written, you weren’t sure if you could trust her and the way it spoke her ballad in to existence at the end was chilling

. the attention to detail was incredible; so many nods to, and easter eggs from the original trilogy. and not only those, but also the fact that we see the creation of the world that katniss is brought up in, and connect so many dots.

the songs origins brought from the original trilogy, as well as the other songs sung were haunting, as well as it being incredible to see their origin and true meaning behind them. the symbolism of it all was poetic. seeing snow’s mindset already being brainwashed by his society, the superiority he feels from his tile and status being further twisted and deepened to become the man who we meet in the original trilogy.

the depravity and brutality of the treatment of the districts in this earlier setting was astounding, after reading the original books you don’t imagine things be much worse in the past but it is, despite the wicked and twisted things yet to come, along with snow’s power. overall, it was a brilliantly thought-out and crafted novel, perfectly tying in to the original trilogy; whilst being its own twisted, compelling story.

Content Warnings

kaylaswhitmore's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Suzanne Collins has done it again. Even knowing exactly how Snow turns out….it was still all too easy to be sucked into his POV. Which is exactly the point Collins is trying to make, I suppose. She inserted just enough little tidbits of questionable internal dialogue moments to keep me skeptical of his thought process and morality, but even with those moments I found myself wishing against all odds that he would make the "right" choices. That, combined with the truly nauseating cruelty of the Capitol was enough for me to eagerly await the eventual revolution. Collins’ pacing was near perfect imho, with perhaps a bit of slowness in the beginning as she set her tale up for its ultimate conclusion. And by the end, I found myself even wishing for more information about how Snow becomes President, how he eventually betrays Tigris, what happens to the Covey, etc.

Even as I was left longing to know what happened to Lucy Gray, I simultaneously was intrigued by the mystery of it all and how poetically it sets the stage for Katniss' introduction.

All in all, any critiques I have for the book pale in comparison to how thoroughly I enjoyed this foray into Snow's past. Hoping she continues to expand this world with perhaps a book on Hatmitch or even Joanna! We shall see!

Content Warnings

theaceofpages's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.0

Let me preface this by saying that I listened to the audiobook. I suspect that this has a negative effect in my reading experience and I have attempted to adjust my rating bases on this. I switched between being okay with the narrator and being very frustrated. There are a lot of songs and while I don't expect them to come up with a whole score for an audiobook, some kind of tone, enthusiasm, energy (you get the idea) would have been a massive improvement. The Gem of Panem sounds almost AI generated and his female "singing" voice is just frustrating. Other than that the narrator was okay, but nothing special either.

Set not too long after the war against the rebels, this book explores the Capitol and the early Hunger Games through the eyes of Snow (yes, that Snow). He is assigned as a mentor and plans to exploit this to ensure a good future for himself. Unfortunately for him, he is assigned the underdog of the underdogs - Lucy Gray Baird the district 12 female tribute. But she is not your usual district 13 citizen and Snow works with her to try ensure her survival and his future.

It's been a while since I've read the original trilogy (maybe I should reread them actually...) but I remember what reading it was like. I enjoyed the prequel but it reads a lot like fanfiction. And I don't necessarily mean this in a bad way. There are a lot of what feel like *see, see* moments (e.g. several references to the katniss plant, songs, I'm sure there are several others I'm missing). There were parts I absolutely loved and others that... Yeah. I think parts could have been better/explained more/etc. The book maybe tries to fit a bit too much story in. I'd say it maybe contains content equal to about two of the original trilogy. There were also parts of the end that I just didn't like, but others were interesting

It's quite a lot more violent than the original books. It gets quite disturbing at times. You get to see into parts of just how messed up the Capitol is. I absolutely loved the world building and the insight into the Capitol it provided. I think this was my favourite part of the book. Honestly, I'd be interested in reading more about it, particularly the

genetics lab

(not really a spoiler but a thing that exists). It was inter sting to see into the aftermath of the war and at least at this point that not everyone lives the same glamorous lifestyle. Being able to see how things started growing into the world we saw in the last book was great. The games (still relatively new) are quite different to what we see then.

I wasn't a big fan of the main characters. I know other liked her but Lucy annoyed me, although I don't know how much of that is because of Snow's views. Snow... Well, I didn't like him. Not because of who he becomes but because who he is in this book. I know he's young but he's kind of all over the place. I think it might be an attempt to make him complex, but it just didn't work for me. It is an interesting look into how mind works though and his thought processes and reasoning.

Was it worth reading? Yes. Just be prepared for something far darker than the original trilogy that somehow managed to be the same and nothing like it at the same time. I think it delves into a lot of interesting ideas and expands on the world

Some notes on some of the content warnings (all are individually spoilered)

Child death:

Obviously these would occur, bit I thought it's Worth mentioning that these are more on page than I remember the original trilogy being

Child abuse:

Let's just say that the cushy conditiobs the tributes live in weren't a thing in the past

Murder:

Includes execution

War:

In the past. Lot's of mentions of the aftermath

Gaslighting:

Propaganda

Content Warnings

andyandnormski's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Suzanne Collins never fails to disappoint me. Each book in The Hunger Games series is well thought out, carefully planned, and has some of the best world building I've seen in years. I found it difficult to put the book down and read late into the night more than once.

The story follows Snow as a young teenager on the cusp of adulthood and shows you just how irredeemable he was from the very beginning. The narrative is haunting from his perspective. What you gain is a deeper understanding of how the games and Panem itself evolved into what we see during Katniss's time. Without giving too much away, all I can say is you'll likely find yourself wanting to personally punch Snow by the time the story is finished.

Content Warnings

trashcanmoose's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

theuncannydani's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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