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Unabridged Digital Audiobook
Runtime: 16 hours, 16 minutes
Read by Santino Fontana
When Suzanne Collins published The Hunger Games in 2008, readers were immediately drawn into the action and drama of Katniss Everdeen’s fight for survival. Now, a decade after finishing the Hunger Games trilogy, the author returns to Panem for an equally captivating prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
The story takes place decades before the original Hunger Games trilogy. It’s the day of the reaping—and, for 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow, so much is riding on the tenth Hunger Games. The once-great Snow family has crumbled, he and his cousin and grandmother are barely surviving—but as a mentor for the Hunger Games, he has the chance to improve his family’s situation. Unfortunately, Coriolanus has been assigned to mentor the girl from District 12, which doesn’t offer much hope of victory. But there’s something about his tribute, musical and mysterious Lucy Gray Baird, that could just shake up the Games.
The early Hunger Games of Coriolanus Snow’s youth are far from the spectacle of Katniss Everdeen’s Games. They’re gritty and raw, held in a run-down arena with none of the fanfare seen decades later. And both the action in the arena and the lessons in the classrooms offer a look at the Games’ eventual transformation.
One thing that isn’t much different, however, is the main character. The young man who grows up to become the villainous President Snow is never really a truly likable character. He’s smarmy and scheming, manipulating every situation with a slick smile or an insincere compliment. To him, the tributes whose lives are at stake in the Hunger Games don’t matter; what matters is that his role as a mentor in the Games can give him what he needs to provide for his family and return the Snow name to its former greatness. Outside his small, struggling family, he’ll only give his precious time and attention to those who have something valuable to offer him—namely: food, money, or power.
Still, there’s something about Coriolanus that offers just a glimmer of hope: his love for his family, his growing feelings for Lucy Gray. And in those moments when he acts out of something other than his own selfishness, he becomes more than just the purely villainous character of the trilogy. And while you’ll never really like the character, the action and drama around him definitely make him an intriguing character with a gripping story.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes isn’t the same Hunger Games novel. It features different characters from a different time in a very different Panem. But one thing hasn’t changed: it’s still the kind of thrilling, thought-provoking read that will keep you captivated.
Listen to the review on Shelf Discovery:
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