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

4.0

"You’ve no right to starve people, to punish them for no reason. No right to take away their life and freedom. Those are things everyone is born with, and they’re not yours for the taking. Winning a war doesn’t give you that right. Having more weapons doesn’t give you that right. Being from the Capitol doesn’t give you that right. Nothing does."

I wasn't sure at first, but I ended up really pleased with the way the author built this prequel. It's not easy writing a story that revolves around the antagonist from the other books without falling into a series of clichés. I felt the consistency in Coriolanus' true personality and beliefs throughout the book. He's a self-centered, possessive opportunist with a strong superiority complex, and every single one of his actions reflected just that. If he dared showing an ounce of morality, that was quickly proven to be nothing but an attempt at serving his own selfish interests.

It was also really interesting getting to see how the Hunger Games were at the very beginning. But mostly the way they gradually became the Games that we, as readers, knew from the previous books. Dr. Gaul is absolutely unhinged but I never doubted for a second that she would help bringing out the future President Snow that we were familiar with.

Quite enjoyed the snow metaphors and few references to the previous books. I'm pretty excited to watch the film adaptation!