The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Creo que lo primero que debo aclarar es que yo no soy realmente fan de THG, me gustaron en su momento, pero de ahí en más mis gustos literarios se guiaron hacia otros rumbos.

Ahora bien.

No iba con expectativas de ningún tipo cuando empecé la lectura, de hecho ya había escuchado críticas divididas de “es genial” y “me hubiese evitado leerlo”, en varios casos de fans por ambas parte, así que me sentía en medio de un misterio con lo que me iba a encontrar, pero me hacía ideas de qué era lo que podía ocurrir, y debo decir... Varias cosas que me imaginé iban a pasar, pasaron.

El libro se divide exponencialmente en tres partes, y cada una maneja un ritmo muy diferente; la primera parte fue sin duda mi “preferida” en medio de toda la trama, y es que lleva buen ritmo, hace una presentación extraordinaria de los personajes y el entorno, así como las claras divisiones sociales, de identidad, y de importancia en lo que vendría siendo el conjunto de la historia en adelante. Logras empatizar con algunos personajes, detestar sobremanera a otros (casi todos) y algunos se te vuelven un misterio.

Sin embargo acabado esta parte y entrados en la siguiente todo va casi que en picada, y es muy difícil mantenerle el ritmo a la lectura sin estresarte o aburrirte en varias zonas donde, considero yo, estaban más bien de rellenos, algunas cosas que te habían logrado gustar en la primera, en esta flaquean para cambiar ese rumbo, o de plano se vuelven demasiado repetitivas hasta el punto de molestarte mucho y desear saltarlo.

Y entonces llegamos a la parte tres, luego de anunciar el ganador de los juegos del hambre.

Debo admitirlo, el cierre de la segunda parte te deja en modo “WAIT WHAT?” casi que te despierta y vas de corrida a leer la tercera parte, solo para toparte con una montaña rusa de capítulos donde unos son bastante interesantes e intrigantes, mientras que otros te provoca decirles “thank you, next”. Hubo exceso de fanservice en esta última parte, juegan con tus emociones respecto a lo que mencionan como guiños a la historia original de Collins, y aunque al inicio parecía algo “lindo”, luego de un punto casi te hacen pedir que paren ya con tanto y se centren en lo importante.

Para nada, porque el final te lo meten de golpe, sin anestesia, y dejando consigo un sinsabor en la boca.

Creo que finalmente te dejan muchos huecos sin resolver, hay incongruencias en ideas, no solo dentro de este mismo libro, sino respecto al futuro que nos muestran en THG, cosas que no cuadran, y se abren incognitas a algunas que seguramente nunca se resolverán.

Y respecto a Snow, que es la principal razón por la que quise leer esto desde un inicio... Creo que le dieron inicialmente un buen desarrollo de personaje, casi diría que lo que más interesaba era encontrar esos puntos claves en la vida del temible presidente para saber como llegó a convertirse en el ser tan despreciable que conocimos desde un principio, y en parte se logra capturar esa idea, pero hay quiebres metidos en clichés aburridos, absurdos, y que creo no cuadraban mucho realmente con él, que los pusieron solo porque “tenían que justificar tal”, y aunque es molesto, tampoco fue un terrible desarrollo de personaje.

En conclusiones, al no ir con expectativas muy altas, la verdad me sorprendió en buena manera al inicio, pero tampoco me encantó, y siento que era una lectura de la que se podía pasar y aún así vivir feliz con los tres primeros libros.

Aún así se agradece el “regalo” por parte de la autora al darnos un poquito más de una trilogía que marcó a muchos en una generación lectora.

2nd time reading: I loved this even more than I did the first time

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I loved the parts where I could see where the things in the trilogy originated from (the hanging tree song and countless others) and I loved seeing how the whole world has changed since Snow was young until Katniss came into the story.



Anyways... now where is the haymitch prequel book. I just want to see the inside details of haymitchs games and the sad details of what his life was after he won the games :((( I love haymitch and the dude deserves his own book :((

I wasn't expecting to give this 5 stars. But I ended up really enjoying it!

I only read the original Hunger Games trilogy about 2 months ago, so I don't have the perspective of someone who's loved those books since they were released. I don't know if that had any impact on my reaction to the prequel or not.

Regardless, while this book is not as good as the original trilogy, it made me appreciate the original trilogy even more. In my opinion, Suzanne Collins did a great job with Snow's story. This is now one of my favorite series of all time!

I suppose for a prequel, this wasn't terrible. It was kind of interesting learning more about the war and the early days of the Hunger Games and what made President Snow what he is... but I have a hard time with books where the protagonist is hard to root for. I also thought the relationships were weakly established, so I wasn't drawn in by that, either. And it was about a third too long. But it was still enjoyable to be transported back to that world.

Monsters aren't born - they're made.
They are the sum total of all that happened to them.

Now we know where President Snow's journey into monster-dom began.

We first meet Snow as a more or less typical kid concerned with school, friends, getting into college ... he may not be entirely likable, but he is just a kid. A kid who already has his eye set on becoming President.

What happens in the pages of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes are the first few steps into what created the monster who eventually ruled Panem.

Collins tried to do an interesting thing with this one, and I'm not sure she entirely succeeded or how I feel about it, but it did make me think and the ending surprised me.

People are being way too hard on this book. I honestly loved it and it was the perfect origin story for a villain. You start out hating him, then you like him, then you HATE him again. The ending was great, the rising action and climax was great, I'm a fan.

People are being way too hard on this book. I honestly loved it and it was the perfect origin story for a villain. You start out hating him, then you like him, then you HATE him again. The ending was great, the rising action and climax was great, I'm a fan.

It was an absolutely disgusting and disturbing book; I loved it.

Snow lands on top.

This book is during some parts almost ‘boring'
There's no glamour or grand entrance. There is just a city broken by a war and whose hunger games are really not that big yet.
Snow, just eighteen here, and his classmates are assigned to be mentors to the tributes and from the start its clear these are not the hunger games like we know them.
Tributes are dead before they even get to the arena. Tributes are locked away in a zoo and no one to care about them. No one is actually watching the games and classmates talk about how the bad the games are actually, a lot.
But while Snow agrees, it's clear he actually thinks the games are fine. He likes control, wants it, most importantly: needs it and the hunger games give control to the capitol. Make it so, chaos will never ensue. And when chaos does break out: snow doesn't like it one bit. He doesn't like the mockingjays (who are mocking nature by his own words) and basically he doesn't like things he can't understand and in the end: he leaves them.
He takes control, make it so he is the one in control. Killed his friend. Left his lover (who left him? betrayed him? where did she go? where is she now?)
This book is philosophical and rhetorical about the means of war, violence and control. It's a lot about control. The creator of the hunger games confesses he hated the idea and had wanted to rip it, but by means out of his control his idea was put to action.
A lot of the action is near the end of the book and the first 300 pages can be a bit boring or less interesting if you're more into action packed books but if you enjoy character studies and lore it's a very interesting books and gives you another view onto the hunger games.

I always squirm when a writer puts out a new tale in a finished series. I think, what, do you need the money Suzanne Collins? For crying out loud, write something new (I'm looking at you [a:Ransom Riggs 3046613 Ransom Riggs https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png]). I usually go out of my way to avoid these new titles. For example, I'm not reading any new Harry Potter books. Nope. To me, it's about being in a reading bubble. I have found a series and want to live in that world forever and ever and ever....are words I will never say. But I went into this thinking maybe I could pull a library program idea or two out of it and I have to say, for the first 75% of this book, I was hooked. I had forgotten how well Collins can spin a story. It didn't feel like the Hunger Games, the world is so very different than the Katniss Everdeen arc. So very different! The Ballad gets 4 stars from me, but only because I loved MOST of this book. It tanked (and hard) at the back bit and I'm sorry to say I started counting the pages until ended. I figure it's going to be part of another trilogy. It's not that I hated the ending (Snow's character is well developed and I saw what happened completely being within character for him). It's the non-ending. I'm sure I'll catch some flack for this but the songs got on my nerves. I also dislike the title, and have the worst time remembering it. I just refer to this as the “new” Hunger Games book.

Precise rating: 2.5 ⭐

I wasn't necessarily bored reading this book, but it felt very bland and shallow. My opinion on President Snow didn't change and it rather felt like a fanfiction. The characters, including Snow, were pretty stereotypical and boring, which didn't help making the lovestory feel believable.

I liked part 3 more, though, and thought the ending was alright. All in all, I still enjoyed diving back into Collins's universe, I just hoped the book would show more of Snows path to the point where the rebellion around Katniss starts, not just the start of his career. But of course that's my personal expectations and not everyone's expectations can be met.

Ok. This was just meh? I really did not like it. It made no sense

A lot, yes, a lot of people are gonna dislike the book and that's quite understandable. Having to read about President Snow's earlier days of life, isn't gonna be easy.
Do I wanna see him as the protagonist of this novel? Or would I feel bad for him at some point?
I suppose he will always be an antagonist in my opinion and I'm glad I feel the same even as I'm done reading this.

I felt like a lot of people about this book going into it: I did not want to read Snow's hard childhood sob story, designed to have the reader sympathize with the poor misunderstood villain.

Coriolanus Snow, son of a once rich and influential family that was left penniless by the war, is not an awful evil person, but he is also not a nice person turned bad by his circumstances. He is a self-absorbed, selfish boy too focused on his own problems to consider the feelings and lives of the people around him. He has small inklings of guilt but is ultimately too comfortable to do anything about it. This makes him a very realistic and gripping character and I enjoyed witnessing his personality subtly change over the course of the story a lot.

The book is not for everyone though. The actual games (usually my favorite part) were underwhelming to me, watching them from the outside through Snow is just not as gripping.
The book is also paced very oddly, and I had a hard time actually investing myself in the story, the plot mostly just sort of chugs along with very little tension.

I didn't hate it; I think Snow is characterized very well and getting to know more about the origins of the hunger games was cool but didn't enjoy it very much either.

ok I know when this was announced I saw a big wave of backlash that was like, “A prequel about President Snow? Ugh so tired of these villain redemption arcs for white men” and like on one hand, yes for sure in general sick of that. On the other hand though it felt reductive to me to expect that Suzanne Collins would write that story when she's shown herself so capable of nuance.

Anyway I don't think this book in any way attempts to excuse the shitty adult human Coriolanus Snow became, even as it shows the culture and family that created him–it also shows other people who were raised in that same culture who chose to do better. Like if anyone actually reads this book and thinks “ugh another villain redemption story” I'm worried about them tbh.

Again I just love the worldbuilding of this series and how clearly well thought-out it is and how much you can extrapolate from the bits and pieces we get.

A few spoiler-y thoughts:- omg where is the TIGRIS book tho!! - the whole thing with the snakes was like...... contrived enough to make me squint but then IDK maybe from the start it was somehow an elaborate trap set by Dr. Gaul who was legit terrifying?- maybe those are my only thoughts, IDK I thought I had more

well bye I read this book all in one day because I couldn't put it down!!

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2023 re-read for the podcast
https://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-230-the-ballad-of-songbirds-and-snakes/

guess what, I loved this even more when I re-read it and I am now upgrading it from 4 to 5 stars because of things I appreciated more when I re-read and knew what was to come

It took me a little while to reflect on this book since I'm a big fan of The Hunger Games trilogy. I believe it was a welcomed addition to the series. I enjoyed all its thought-provoking questions about the true nature of being human and why there is war. It provides great insight on Coriolanus Snow and the foundation of how we know him today as the tyrannical President of Panem. The biggest strength would have to be that Coriolanus Snow himself is a very dimensional and interesting character in the way that he is very fluid. One moment, you're cheering him on but then the next you realize he's a manipulative prick. I do admit the book has boring moments and slight pacing issues towards the beginning. But all in all, an enjoyable read and a fantastic introduction to Coriolanus Snow.

cool motive, still murder. lots of this reads like it was written by an incel which i get was the point but it was unpleasant and very hard to get through.