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

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was not a bad book, I just don’t know if I’m the best audience for it. I went into this pretty blind discounting the fact that I know Snow turns out to be a villain in the Hunger Games and that this is essentially his origin story. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t really like any of the characters. I felt as though Lucy Gray wasn’t a well-rounded character and her and Coriolanus’ relationship felt very forced and almost impersonal as the reader. 

And I personally hated that it was all from his perspective (even though obviously it’s his story) because he as dull and I was barely even rooting for him. 

I kind of worked out the majority of what was going to happen around 60% in and after that I was just waiting for the hammer to drop and something to happen. But, even that felt fairly anticlimactic once it was said and done.

Now, I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy this at all because it wasn’t terrible! It wasn’t a good romance and it wasn’t even a great villain origin story but… it was cool to be in the world again and to see what the world was like so soon after the war rather than decades after it. 

I’m still and forever putting my vote in the “tell Haymitch’s story” box. 
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