The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – Suzanne Collins
Young adult, dystopian, fiction.
Rating 10/10
Coriolanus Snow wanted to get into the university and provide for his cousin and his grandma. Being a mentor of a winning tribute to the 10th Hunger Games would guarantee that prize money. After having faced hardships throughout his life, this was one hurdle he has to cross to ensure no more struggles. He is assigned District 12 female tribute by the name of Lucy Gray, who proved to be quite intriguing at the Reaping and he planned for her to win the games. Or attempt to. Some incidences happen before the Hunger Games start leaving only so many tributes left. Coriolanus does not have much a strategy other than for her to use the compact he gives her and tells her to provide her own poison. The Games start and it becomes quite gruesome. Coriolanus is on edge until the point that it is certain that Lucy had won. Winning the Hunger Games with his Tribute was one thing but him trusting the Capitol and Lucy proved to be a deadly mixture that led to him regretting his decisions.
I had not read any Hunger Games stuff in years and when this author came out with this book, I was excited. The premise was weird but after reading, the series makes more sense. I can’t disclose why it makes sense. I loved this novel a lot. I could not put it down at all. However, this novel was dark. There are scenes that I could not handle, and others were like what. The plot was very thought through and planned with such detail. This book is a great prequel to the Hunger Games series. I will have to hunt down the series and reread the series for sure because after reading this novel made me want to reread the series. It has been a while and forgot how the Hunger Games were panned out. I highly suggest giving this book a read and the Hunger Games Series.
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