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

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

“Are you, are you 
Coming to the tree 
Where they strung up a man they say murdered three 
Strange things did happen here 
No stranger would it be 
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree” 
 
I loved returning to District 12, and this book explained so much. Snow is well-educated in this backstory, but his inner evil still shines through. Although his small family has fallen upon hard times since the war between the rebels and the Capitol, Snow is doing his best. When Snow is given an assignment to “upgrade” the Games, we learn about the betting by the Panem inhabitants and the feeding of the tributes. Snow is the mentor for Lucy Gray Baird, the District 12 tribute, she’s a songbird, and doesn’t have a violent bone in her body, so it seems. 
 
TBH, I saw the movie before I read this book. They did a rather good job sticking to the story, some minor changes to make the drama bigger, but I’m impressed. The pace of the story is a little slow, but there is a lot of information that we previously didn’t know. I liked learning about all the experiments Panem and its doctors did with the local flora & fauna, and the Mockinjays & Jabberjays were a really interesting development. If you are a fan of these stories this one should be a given. 
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