The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games #0), by Suzanne Collins

Hey guys, this is Abi here,

And I finished The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes today.

So I'm writing a review about it.

Enjoy.

Title: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Author: Suzanne Collins

Genre: Dystopian.

Status: Standalone

Pages: 517

Blurb: "It is the morning of the reaping that will kick

off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the

Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow

is preparing for his one shot at glory as a

mentor in the Games. The once-mighty

house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its

fate hanging on the slender chance that

Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit,

and outmanoeuvre his fellow students to

mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He's been

given the humiliating assignment of

mentoring the female tribute from District

12, the lowest of the low. The fates are

now completely intertwined- every choice

Coriolanus makes could lead to favour or

failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it

will be a fight to the death. Outside the

arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his

doomed tribute... and must weigh his need

to follow the rules against his desire to

survive no matter what it takes."

My Thoughts

I have positive and negative thoughts on this. Some of you will hate these opinions I'm guessing, but they're merely opinions. You're welcome to your opinions, so don't hate on mine.

Okay, here we go.

I didn't love this book, like some people. I also didn't hate this book, like a whole lot of people did. It was just kind of meh.

My favourite part was probably the writing style. It felt very much like the original trilogy, and it made me want to keep going, to find out what happened next, which is what it feels like, reading the Hunger Games.

However, the pacing was all over the place. Most of it was very slow, like it was trying to create intrigue, and then there would be a moment when it got really fast paced, and then, as if that moment hadn't even happened, it would get really slow again. I didn't have a huge problem with it overall, but it could have been better honestly.

Other than that, some of the parts felt really rushed, like they just showed up out of nowhere, with no warning, no clues whatsoever. Especially the ending. It all kind of ended abruptly, with barely any lead up to it.

When it comes to the characters, there left a lot to be desired. There wasn't enough detail to get attached to the tributes for me to feel anything when they were killed in the arena, there wasn't even enough to distinguish which ones where from which district. The mentors weren't much better, only a few stood out, but again, I didn't really feel anything for them either. There were one or two characters that felt like real people, (those characters bumped up the overall rating), but they weren't enough to give this book a higher rating that 3 stars (and even that's being generous.)

Now, Snow. *Sigh.*

Snow kind of felt like a spectator in his own story. It just felt like he was totally accepting of everything that happened. Yes, he saw the struggles the tributes were having in the Capitols, yet he did nothing to change their situation that wasn't prompted by someone else. He didn't seem to have much problem with what the Capitol was instructing, other than what would happen to his reputation if he was seen to be thinking or acting differently.

World-wise, I was expecting it to be more polished than what it was. Like, I get it, this book takes place 64 years before the events of the original trilogy, so it's not going to have the same feel, but it just felt flat.

Also, I feel like there could have been a more interesting way for Snow to question things other than the way it was laid out. (Not giving any spoilers.)

 And I wish The Hunger Games were longer. Going into this, I knew it wasn't going to be much of an emphasis on them in this, because of the spoiler free reviews I'd seen beforehand, but I still wish they had been longer than they were, or at least more of a build-up throughout. The Hunger Games were sub par to me.

Looking back at this review, I'm wondering why I didn't rate this lower. The reason is probably because, despite all it's flaws, it's not terrible. The writing, and the first couple of parts was enough for me to give it an average rating. And it creates a hope that if Suzanne Collins can write a sub par book about a character that we all hate in the original trilogy, what will she be able to do with a character we all love? I'm holding onto the hope that this will kick of a spin-off series of all the characters I wanted this book to be about: Mags, Johanna, Finnick, Haymitch, Cinna, or even Effie.

Will it happen? Probably not. But I can still hope.

Overall, I don't think The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes contributed a whole lot. (Other than wanting to re-read the original trilogy of course.) But I'm rating it 3 stars. An average read.

And I'm done.

Okay! That's my review, and as always, you're free to post your own opinions in the comments below (though I'll be deleting hate comments, mark my words.)

I hope you have a good weekend, and I'll see you all on Monday.

Byeeeeee!

-Abi xxxxx