I Finally Read The Hunger Games Prequel
Spoilers ahead in my brief analysis and review of Suzanne Collins’ latest novel
Just about everyone I know read The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins and went on to see the four blockbuster feature films starring Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutchinson. Collins built a tragic and melancholic dystopian future that destined America to conform into Panem.
Twelve Districts that were essentially slaves of the Capitol, headed by the sinister President Snow, that were forced into a post-apocalyptic gladiator event annually called the Hunger Games. Children between ages eleven and eighteen are randomly chosen to fight to the death in an arena that is broadcast on TV until one tribute remains.
Collins’ three books and the franchise’s four films leave audiences with a feeling of hope and inspiration to change. We too could overthrow the dangers of our government and stand up for what was right. All at the mere age of sixteen.
Background
This past summer, Collins published a prequel to her hit series titled The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. On first glance, it feels out of place compared to the original trilogy, all of which boast a short and snappy title (i.e. Catching Fire, Mockingjay). While the title is a tad wordy for my taste, it certainly catches one’s attention. The summary reads:
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 outmaneuver 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. Their fates are now completely intertwined — every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor 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.
I purchased the book for my dad for his birthday in June. He and I shared a love for the original trilogy, which we read in quick succession one week when my youngest sister was hospitalized for pneumonia. I felt inspired and driven by Katniss’s love for her sister and dedication to doing what’s right. My dad liked having a distraction, I think. Regardless, we devoured Collins’ words and looked forward to seeing the films.
The final book in the original series was released in 2010, which means it has been ten years without anything new in print about the Games. Collins dropped her book at the best time: Right smack dab in the middle of quarantine when everyone was begging for stuff to do.
My dad read the novel quickly and let me borrow it after the fact. While that was at the end of June, I only picked up the book the other day. It had been sitting on my coffee table, begging to be opened, but I was concerned. The same way I was nervous about reading The Cursed Child (the on stage future world from the Harry Potter franchise).
I didn’t want to be disappointed.
Summary
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes tells the story of a teenage future President of Panem, Coriolanus (Coryo to his friends and to us, as his name is a pain to type). The book opens with Coryo getting ready for the reaping, trying to decide what to wear. His cousin, Tigris, is a fashion student and promised to make him something great to wear so he wouldn’t be embarrassed. The Snow family only appears to be wealthy, but are actually financially struggling just as much as citizens in the Districts despite living in a huge penthouse in the center of the city. Coryo lives with his cousin and the Grandma’am (grandmother) in a penthouse in the Capitol. His father a war hero, his mother died during the childbirth of who should have been his sibling.
It’s ten years after the end of the rebel war, and ten years into the Hunger Games. Seeing as it is an important anniversary, the Head Gamemaker, Dr. Gaul, decides to include some Capitol children as mentors to district tributes. She, along with the others involved in creating the Games, hopes to get more people involved and watching. No one wants to witness something so depressing every year; this seemed like a good way to get the Capitol involved.
Coryo along with 23 of his classmates embark on a journey to improve the Games and increase viewership throughout Panem. Between his friend Sejanus breaking into the arena, becoming infatuated with his tribute, and classmate Clemensia getting attacked by mutant snakes, Coryo is all but relieved when his tribute comes out victorious. However, Coryo manipulates the Games in a way to advantage Lucy Gray, his tribute. Because of his cheating, Coryo is forced to join the military force in Panem, the Peacekeepers.
Coryo requests District 12 in hopes that he can meet up with his beloved victor, and much to his surprise, Sejanus ends up being his bunkmate in the barracks. While he is relieved to have a familiar face, Sejanus proves to be a difficult housemate as a rebel sympathizer.
While in District 12, the Peacekeepers participate in hangings, help collect data for the Capitol on jabberjays and mockingjays in the woods, and attend music shows at the Hob. Coryo matures quickly in the few months he lives in District 12 and falls even more madly in love with Lucy Gray Baird.
The shift in Coryo’s mindset doesn’t become clear until the very end of the book, where he sabotage’s Sejanus’s plan to escape District 12 and head up North to be free. Sejanus is sentenced to be hanged for treason and Coryo can’t help but feel directly responsible for the death of his friend, a friend who thought of Coryo as a brother.
Coryo and Lucy Gray decide to follow through with Sejanus’s plan and run away together to make a life for themselves away from Panem entirely, but Coryo backs out at the last minute because his fate changes. He gets accepted into an elite officer’s school and abandons Lucy Gray in the rain out by the lake. Coryo goes back to his barracks and gets on the aircraft that is set to take him to District 2 for school. However, it is intercepted by Dr. Gaul and Coryo finds himself back home at the Capitol and enrolled in University.
In the epilogue, reader’s find out that Coryo has all but been adopted by Sejanus’s parents and is fully taking advantage of them despite basically killing their son. He’s a student in the Capitol’s University and works directly under Dr. Gaul as a Gamemaker intern.
Critique and major flaws
One of the most important elements of a novel is that of surprise. While the first half of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is full of twists and turns, emotional events, and important foreshadowing clues, the latter half feels dull in comparison.
My initial thoughts upon finishing the epilogue were that it felt unfinished. I was, sadly, disappointed by the ending. It felt rushed. I didn’t believe in the ending; I didn’t believe that Snow would snap as quickly as he did. It didn’t feel right. There wasn’t enough build up to it. I texted my dad when I had about 100 pages left, asking him what the hell could possibly happen in 100 pages when the action was over. All he said was “He hasn’t gotten truly despicable yet. Lots still to happen.”
While he wasn’t wrong, I think I was expecting too much. I had high hopes for Coryo’s shift and unfortunately I felt it was too subtle to convince me that this eighteen year old kid was capable of becoming the tyrant we know him to be in The Hunger Games.
My thought immediately after was that it was way too long. The novel is whopping 517 pages including the epilogue. Now when I was in middle school, I could have finished that in a single day. But as a full time teacher who has errands to run and groceries to put away, it took me about four days to finish. Part of that was due to having to take a break around the 350 page mark. The action had all but halted to a stop and I didn’t want to keep reading.
I hardly did anything except read in my free time for two whole days before I started feeling bored. I said out loud to my husband, “I wish it had been two books instead of one.” The story both moves too slow and too fast, and I think this could have been solved by being two novels or even three novellas.
I saw the story in two sections: The Games, and After the Games. And if we are being honest with each other, we could even separate The Games into two sections, Mentoring and The Arena. I mean, Collins even breaks the book up into three “parts” and I think it would have been a greater service to be three separate pieces rather than one long book.
I love a good long book chock-full of descriptive imagery and rich figurative language. Right up until the Games are over and a victor has won, I was completely engulfed in the story. I didn’t want it to end. I couldn’t put it down. But once Coryo is on the train headed to the Peacekeeper base in District 12, I had a hard time not skimming the pages just to get to some action.
Collins spends too much time with the build up to action. The book spans several months of time and Collins writes it day by day, which can get really dull after the fourth or fifth day. She writes in such great detail but it’s doing her story a disservice because I was skimming halfway down the pages until I saw dialogue or a different scene.
Another one of my main complaints with this novel is that there are way too many characters. Coriolanus, Lucy Gray, Sejanus, Dean Highbottom, Dr. Gaul, Clemensia, Satyria, Tigris, Pluribus, Maude Ivory, Arachne, just to name a handful. While this might seem like nit-picking, I don’t love the idea of having to keep a list of all the characters handy just to understand what’s going on.
In the beginning third of the book, readers have to remember not only the 24 tributes, but also the 24 Capitol student mentors. Many of them are very significant to the rest of the story and it was frustrating to have to keep a log of them in the back of my head to remember why each of them was significant. Coryo’s classmates like Lysistrata, Livia, Clemensia, and Festus are all mentioned multiple times throughout the games and their roles are important to Coryo’s tale. And Sejanus ends up being a major secondary character up to the very end of the book.
It’s too many. Take the Harry Potter franchise, for example. There are a lot of characters over seven books. But seven books is a hell of a lot more than just one. Plus, many of the secondary characters and even third-tier characters grow and change with the Golden Trio as the series continues. There’s not enough room for that much character development in one 500 page novel.
Final thoughts
I did genuinely enjoy reading this book. I have already recommended it to a few friends. While I do believe the novel lacked in some areas, it was an involved story that gave readers a little bit of insight into how President Snow became the way that he is in the original series.
It wasn’t a particularly hard read — unless you count the numerous bizarre character names — and I breezed through it relatively quickly. It’s certainly more gruesome and dark than its three older sisters, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth a read. Just be mindful that I did audibly gasp and groan several times throughout, and was nearly sick to my stomach upon reading some of the more gory details regarding the mutts in Dr. Gaul’s lab.
I wish I had read it sooner, actually. I’m angry with myself for waiting so long after my dad finished it to give the book a shot. We can still talk about it of course but it’s not as fresh in his memory as it is in mine. Whether you buy or borrow, I highly recommend The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes to learn a little more about the terrors of the Captiol and get a little bit of history into the Hunger Games as a tool for control.
