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

Following the trailer for the movie, I had decent hopes for this book, and unfortunately, it didn’t live up to them for me. The first two parts of the book move way too fast, I could barely keep up with what was happening at times. Very important plot moments would occur not only in the middle of chapters, but in the middle of paragraphs. It felt like I was constantly being rushed to the next plot point. Then, for a decent chunk the third and final part, the story crawls—or rather, moves at a normal pace that feels slow compared to the breakneck speed from the first two parts. Then, it speeds up again at the end. I would have liked to linger more on Coriolanus’s thoughts and emotions.

The biggest issue I had with plot besides the pacing was The Hunger Games. Just getting a recount of what was happening in there was pretty dull; I’d much rather be seeing the action. I’m not sure what the best thing would have been to remedy this; maybe the story should have seitched between Coriolanus’s POV and Lucy Gray’s?

In terms of character, the only very memorable character to me was Lucy Gray (Sejanus was fun too), and even her character feels like it could have used more work

Spoiler

(Her deciding to run off with Coriolanus, for example, felt unrealistic to me because I didn’t buy that she’d leave the Covey behind)

The plot was too rushed for me to care about any of the classmates, and I was intrigued by the Covey but never got quite enough time with them.

As for Coriolanus himself…I’m confused as to whether or not Collins wanted the reader to sympathize with him. It seems like it at times, as we see him being vulnerable, caring about his family, those sort of things—but his rich boy ideals and, you know, knowing who he ends up being makes it very hard to sympathize with him. But that’s okay. I’m fine not sympathizing with him. I’m just curious as to whether or not Collins wanted the reader to.

Another issue I had was how telling the book was; I felt like there was basically no trust for the reader to pick up on things themselves. Any time a character has done something secretive or is plotting something (which is pretty often), the reader is told exactly what’s planned—and worse, it often goes exactly as expected, so there’s no surprise for the reader. There was almost a very good moment in which I thought the reader was being entrusted to figure out the truth,

Spoiler

(when Coriolanus gives Lucy Gray the compact for storing the rat poison)

but then two pages later, the reader is told exactly what Coriolanus had been thinking. Not only is it unfair to assume the reader won’t figure it out on their own, it feels out of character for cunning and secretive Coriolanus.

Finally, the ending.

Spoiler

I’ll have to ruminate on this longer, but it felt rushed and anti-climactic to me. I realize they were foreshadowing Lucy Gray’s unknown fate with the story about the ghost girl, but 1. they should have introduced that way earlier, and 2. it still felt…meh, to me. I was relieved she didn’t get brutally murdered, but it just sort of felt like a letdown after the wild ride. Especially since the book’s greatest strength for me was the tension—I needed to know how it ended. Also I do not buy that Coriolanus was truly in love with Lucy Gray and then turned on her that quickly. Also also, I was really hoping for an epilogue in which Coriolanus observes something from the original trilogy and is reminded of Lucy Gray—Katniss’s dress reveal in Catching Fire and Katniss singing “The Hanging Tree” in Mockingjay come to mind.

The one redeeming quality for this book, as I mentioned in that last spoiler part, is the tension—specifically the tension created by the concept. That’s what’s always kept me going with Hunger Games books—I don’t love them, but I need to know how it ends, and I need to experience it for myself.

Content Warnings