The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes, by Suzanne Collins

Although I was a fond reader of the dystopian Panem portrayed in Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy and the four movies that were made from it, I had not heard of this book until I heard advance news about the release of its film adaptation. Wishing to see the film and to be familiar with the text beforehand, I thought it would be good to read this book before seeking to see the film. I am not sure to what extent that this book and the movie made from it are falling through the cracks, but after reading this book I can comfortably say that it fulfills and even exceeds my expectations as the origin story of the oily and complex villain Coriolanus Snow from the original trilogy. When you understand where President Snow ends up, as a powerful but essentially lonely person confronting the destruction of all he holds dear, namely order and the preservation of the capital and its position of superiority relative to the districts, it makes this book all the more compelling for the interest in seeing how those views were shaped. Collins’ portrayal of Snow in the original trilogy was complex, and such a complex characterization is certainly shown here as Snow is shaped by his own family origins and a long record of service that is endangered by postwar poverty and social decline, his own ambitions and obsessive personality, and also by the powers that be that seek to mold his character and tease him with the chance of academic advancement or ruin.

The book is, in the version I read it, a bit more than 500 pages in length but it reads pretty quick for its size, at least for me. The events of the novel take place over a few key months that are a bit more than sixty years before Snow’s death (spoiler alert) at the end of Mockingjay, and wouldn’t you have it, mockingjays form an important part of the plot here, especially when Snow finds his way as a Peacekeeper in District 12 after his successful efforts to rig the tenth Hunger Games for the District 12 female tribute, one Lucy Baird Gray, are discovered. We see Snow’s family trying to hold on to their home and social status in genteel poverty, while Snow’s cousin Tigris works to support the family and Snow seeks admission to university through a scholarship and through brilliance in helping to run the Tenth Hunger Games as a mentor for the charming and appealing Lucy. While we see most of the events of the story through Snow’s complex perspective, we also see his resourcefulness and the way that he is manipulated by Dr. Gaul, the chief gamesmaker, to come to a firm and elevated understanding of the need to control the resentment of the Districts and show the power of the capital through the periodic killing of District youths for the enjoyment and edification of the nation as a whole.

Those who enjoyed the Hunger Games trilogy and found Snow an intriguing figure will find much to enjoy here as well. Snow is portrayed as a complex person, with a firm identity as a defender of order rather than chaos, but as someone not devoid of human emotions like loyalty and compassion, though also sprinkled with a high degree of paranoia and even raw fear. Snow is able to make friends and also seek revenge to those who have thwarted his efforts, which lead him to become a bit of a serial murderer over the course of this novel, as he kills several people (the count is not exactly certain, but it seems like it could be as many as five people by his own direct actions that we are shown in the book). Of particular interest is Snow’s relationship with his family, with Sejannus Plinth, an idealistic but ultimately doomed “friend” of Snow, with Dr. Gaul and the head of the Academy, who is given credit for the idea of the Hunger Games in a way that haunts him, and also with Lucy Gray and the rest of the Covey, whose desire for freedom and mobility have been hindered by their being forced to work in District 12. The working out of the story and its context allows Collins the freedom to explore more of the world in the future, as well as provides more information to fill in the world of Panem as a whole for readers who are still interested in it.