A review by vreyna20_2004
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Coriolanus is fucking insane. The things he would come up to rationalize his actions or the feelings he was having were mind boggling. There was times that I thought maybe he would change that he was going to finally give up the whole Hunger Games thing and forget/to free everyone from the Capitol and join forces with Sejanus as if hoping would change the outcome.
I cried when he had betrayed Sejanus after he was excited to see him when he was sent to become a Peacekeeper and that he recorded Sejanus confided to him about his plans before tossing everything so that Dr. Gaul could hear. The one person that had Coriolanus shivering in his boots, that was the person he wanted to hear the confession as well save him. Then the spiral Coryo had when he escaped with Lucy Gray made me pray that even if she was alive that she would never step foot near the small house they stayed in. And then Coriolanus poisoning Casca Highbottom (which I kept reading as Caca Highbottom cause I’m mature like that) broke me. He wanted the Hunger Games to never exist and now is drinking and doping himself to death just like Haymitch and that hurt me. Fuck Dr. Gaul and fuck Coriolanus Snow (I still like those edits).
My only real complaint is how little impact the tributes had or at least how Suzanne just wrote something quick about them to then fully expand on Lucy Gray which I get it’s because it’s in Coriolanus’ point of view and he only cares about Lucy Gray but it’s just a me thing that’s all.

It was different from the series following Katniss and the beginning of the second rebellion. I was going to dnf the book cause I felt so annoyed with Coriolanus bitching and moaning but I trekked through it and I’m happy I did cause now I don’t know how to feel about the book. It wasn’t bad obviously since I gave it a good rating but it’s the fact that he went through all this and then became the horrendous person that he is during the 74th to 76th Hunger Games. And I liked that Suzanne Collins didn’t write a sad story for him excusing his actions and instead wrote a story about how he was never going to change despite him questioning himself about changing it was fitting for him. But I also don’t think the book was necessary to read or be written but it was enjoyable nonetheless.
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