The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

As a member of one of the wealthiest families in the Capitol, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow is destined for greatness. At the top of his class, Coriolanus excels in his studies at the Academy, charming students and faculty alike. But underneath this guise of wealth and class, Coriolanus hides a shocking secret. The Snows are broke; their fortune lost due to the war that plagued Coriolanus’s childhood. If anyone discovered the Snows’s true financial situation, they would be disgraced. But Coriolanus sees a path to success. The 10th annual Hunger Games, a televised competition in which children from the twelve districts that serve the Capitol are selected to fight to the death, is approaching. If Coriolanus successfully mentors the winning tribute in the Games, he will win a prize great enough to pay his university tuition.  

When Coriolanus is assigned to mentor the female tribute from District 12, his hopes of winning the prize diminish. Nobody from District 12, the poorest and most downtrodden of the districts, has ever won the Games. But when Coriolanus’s tribute, Lucy Gray, enthralls the audience by serenading them shortly after being selected to compete in the Games, Coriolanus holds out hope that he can put her on a path to victory. As affections grow between Lucy Gray and Coriolanus, Coriolanus must decide how far he is willing to go to protect her and win the prize. Despite the bloodshed and brutality, will the Hunger Games offer Coriolanus a chance at power, wealth, and love? Or will the pressure send Coriolanus down a path of destruction? 

Coriolanus is a deeply complex character that will have readers rooting for him against their better judgment, as fans know that this character will grow up to be the main villain in the Hunger Games trilogy. Initially, Coriolanus is motivated by a desire to provide for his family and have a successful career. He is shown as being caring toward his cousin and grandmother, although there are hints that a darker side to him lurks beneath the surface. As the story progresses, this darkness becomes more apparent as Coriolanus reveals himself to be callous, calculated, and manipulative. Behind his generous acts lies a calculated effort to cultivate his public persona and climb the ladder of success. Eventually, Coriolanus has fallen so far that he kills and betrays his own loved ones to benefit himself. Readers will find themselves disturbed by Coriolanus but will be interested in seeing this gifted boy with great potential transform into a corrupt and cruel man. 

The story of Coriolanus’s fall from grace and rise to power is driven by interesting supporting characters. Coriolanus is drawn to Lucy Gray, who looms large at the center of this tale, showcasing her talents, wit, and will to survive through her actions both within and outside the Hunger Games arena. Lucy Gray serves as a foil to Coriolanus, as her free spirit and creativity contrast with his rigidity and reliance on order. Coriolanus’s treatment of Lucy Gray reveals flaws within his character, such as how he treats her as a means to an end and believes that he can control her. Much like the fictional audiences within the book, readers will be charmed by Lucy Gray. 

Coriolanus is often irritated by his classmate Sejanus Plinth, a rebellious and emotional boy who, much to Coriolanus’s dismay, is characterized by his sympathy for the tributes and the districts, and his anti-Capitol ideals. At the Academy, Coriolanus is tormented by the jaded Dean Highbottom, who seems to be the only faculty member not to have fallen for Coriolanus’s charms, and the sinister Dr. Gaul, who delights in creating mutated animals. These characters help to drive Coriolanus’s decisions and behavior, while serving as a unique contrast to Coriolanus himself.   

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is centered around human nature and asks if humanity is inherently good or inherently evil. Opposing viewpoints are presented, as Sejanus believes that the tributes behave brutally in the arena due to their circumstances, while Dr. Gaul insists that mankind is inherently violent. Coriolanus’s opinion on this matter shifts as Dr. Gaul mentors him. This debate relates to questions about whether the Capitol should exercise the amount of power it currently holds. Sejanus believes that the Capitol is cruel and oppressive to the districts, while Dr. Gaul believes the people living in the districts are naturally brutal and must be controlled. While reading this novel, readers will consider both viewpoints and explore why each character has certain beliefs.  

While The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes can be read independently, fans of The Hunger Games trilogy will appreciate familiar surnames and settings like the Capitol and District 12. Set 64 years before the original series, this prequel introduces new characters while maintaining Suzanne Collins’s distinctive style—though uniquely written in third person rather than first. Unlike the survival-focused original trilogy, this novel centers on power and perception as Coriolanus obsesses over his family’s reputation and control. The book matches the trilogy’s tone and maturity level, though its large cast of characters may challenge some readers.  

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is an entertaining and shocking novel that promotes introspection. The moral and philosophical questions raised in this novel will stick with readers, as will the engaging plot and characters. Longtime fans will be interested to see the nefarious President Snow, portrayed as a young protagonist, rise to power. At the same time, new readers will be enthralled with this fast-paced plunge into the Hunger Games universe. This is a must-read novel that teaches important lessons about the dangers of complicity, violence, and selfishness. It encourages readers to think outside their comfort zone and consider new perspectives. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is an interesting, memorable, and important installment in the Hunger Games series. 

Sexual Content  

• Before Lucy Gray goes into the arena, Coriolanus and Lucy Gray say goodbye. They share a kiss. Coriolanus describes it as “a real kiss on the lips, with hints of peaches and powder. The feel of her mouth, soft and warm against his own, sent sensations surging through his body.” 
• After Coriolanus and Lucy Gray reunite in District 12, they kiss. “Then, almost shyly, she kissed him, sending shock waves through his body.”
• Lucy Gray and Coriolanus kiss a few more times during scenes they share together. The kisses are described simply. For example, “She greeted him at the back door with a kiss.”

Violence  

• The mayor of District 12 hits Lucy Gray in the face after she slips a snake down his daughter’s dress. The mayor “made a beeline for [Lucy Gray], and struck her in the face so powerfully that she was knocked to her knees.” The mayor attempts to hit her again, but is stopped, and Lucy Gray recovers. 
• During the war, Coriolanus witnessed his neighbor cut the leg off a maid’s corpse. Coriolanus watched as his neighbor “carved the leg from the maid, sawing back and forth with a terrifying knife until the limb came free. He wrapped it in the skirt he ripped from her waist and then bolted down the street that led to the back of his townhouse.” The neighbor and his family ate the leg. 
• Coriolanus gets into a fight with a boy as they are riding in a truck together. “The boy’s hands came up fast, encircling Coriolanus’s throat with his long, scarred fingers and slamming him back. His forearms pinned Coriolanus’s body against the bars. Overpowered, Coriolanus resorted to the one move that had yet to fail him in schoolyard scuffles, driving his knee up hard into his opponent’s crotch.” The boy releases Coriolanus, and the fight stops. Both boys are unharmed.   
• Coriolanus’s classmate, Arachne, taunts the tribute with food, so the tribute kills her. “Coriolanus could see the tribute’s face darkening, the muscles tightening in her neck. He could see something else, too. Her fingers sliding down the bar, darting out, circling the handle of the knife . . . In one movement, the tribute yanked Arachne forward and slit her throat.”  
• After a tribute kills Arachne, Peacekeepers shoot the tribute. “The bullets pierced her body, slamming her into the bars. She slipped into a heap as her blood commingled with Arachne’s.” 
• Coriolanus’s friend, Clemensia, is bitten many times after she is asked to retrieve papers from a tank full of snakes. Clemensia “yanked her hand from the tank, but not before half a dozen neon snakes sank their fangs into her flesh.” The venom from the snakes makes Clemensia very ill, but after several weeks, she recovers. 
• While the mentors and tributes are touring the arena where the Hunger Games will take place, bombs go off. “Burning debris rained down on [Coriolanus]. Something struck his head hard, and the heavy weight of the beam landed diagonally across his back, pinning him to the ground.” Lucy Gray helps free Coriolanus from under the beam, and he recovers from his injuries.  The bombs kill several people. 
• Marcus, a tribute who escaped from captivity before the Hunger Games began, is recaptured and beaten. He is chained to a beam in the arena, visible to viewers before the start of the Games. “At the center of the structure, Marcus hung from manacled wrists, so battered and bloody that at first Coriolanus thought they were displaying his corpse. Then Marcus’s swollen lips began to move, showing his broken teeth and leaving little doubt he was still alive.” He remains chained to the beam as the Games begin.  
• A tribute named Lamina kills Marcus, presumably out of mercy. Lamina “swung down, and drove the ax blade into the curved side of Marcus’s neck. Once. Twice. And on the third time, in a spray of blood, she succeeded in killing him.”  
• A tribute named Dill dies of tuberculosis. “Dill’s body convulsed with a final, violent bout of coughing, and a gush of blood soaked her filthy dress.” 
• Sejanus, upset with Marcus’s death, goes into the arena. Coriolanus is sent in to retrieve Sejanus. While in the arena, Bobbin, a tribute, attacks Coriolanus. Coriolanus “spun around just in time to see Bobbin bringing down his knife. The blade glanced off his body armor and sliced his left upper arm.” Coriolanus retaliates: “Coriolanus’s fingers closed around a two-by-four, and he brought it up, catching Bobbin in the temple hard, sending him to his knees. And then he was on his feet, using the board like a club, bringing it down again and again without being sure where it made contact.” Coriolanus beats Bobbin to death with the board, and he and Sejanus escape the arena. 
• A tribute named Coral kills another tribute with a trident. “After a brief chase along the bleachers . . . Coral killed her with a trident to the throat.” 
• A tribute named Jessup contracts rabies and attacks Lucy Gray. To deter him, Coriolanus and his friend send bottles of water into the arena using drones. “Jessup froze, and his eyes bulged with fear. As the drones closed in on him, he pawed at them but failed to connect. When they started releasing the bottles of water, he lost all control. Explosive devices could not have elicited a stronger response, and the impact of the bottles smacking into the seats whipped him into a frenzy.” As Jessup tries to evade the bottles, he falls over the edge of a wall. “The sound of snapping bones that accompanied his landing surprised the audience, as Jessup had landed in a rare pocket of the arena with good audio.” The fall kills Jessup. 
• Coral kills Lamina during a fight. “After Lamina managed to block the first few jabs with her ax, Coral wove the trident in a twisting move that distracted the eye before it plunged into her opponent’s abdomen.”  
• Coral kills a tribute by stabbing him in the back with a trident. “Coral drove the second trident into his back.” 
• A tribute named Wovey dies after drinking a poisoned bottle of water. “After a few gulps she sank back against the wall and gave a small belch. A thin stream of silverish liquid trickled out the side of her mouth and then she went still.  
• Venomous snakes bite a tribute named Circ. “Circ stumbled over a rusty, old spear and the snakes overtook him. A dozen pairs of fangs pierced his body. . . Circ struggled to breathe for about ten seconds before he died.” 
• A tribute named Mizzen is swarmed by malfunctioning drones while he stands on a beam high above the ground. Because of this, “he lost his balance and plummeted toward the ground, snapping his neck sideways on contact.” Mizzen dies from the fall. 
• A tribute named Teslee is killed by another tribute that sneaks up on her with an ax. Teslee’s attacker “seemed to appear out of thin air, making a gigantic leap into the frame and bringing his ax down on Teslee in one fell swoop. She had barely taken a step when the blade connected with her skull, splitting it open and killing her instantly.” 

• A tribute attacks Lucy Gray with an ax, and she defends herself by putting a venomous snake on him. When the tribute noticed the snake, he “tore something from the back of his neck. His hand shot into the air, fingers gripped tightly around the bright pink snake. Then he collapsed to his knees and smashed it into the ground, again and again, until he fell dead in the dirt, the lifeless snake still clutched in his fist.” Lucy Gray escapes unharmed. The tribute and the snake die.    
• A man named Arlo was hanged because he killed three people. “The clap of the trapdoor release and subsequent twang of the rope cut him off mid-word, drawing a gasp from the crowd. Arlo dropped fifteen feet and seemed to die instantly.” 
• The mayor of District 12’s daughter, Mayfair, overhears a group of people conspiring to run away with stolen weapons. Thinking that she will turn the group in, Coriolanus shoots and kills Mayfair. “Coriolanus reflexively reached for the Peacekeeper rifle and fired toward Mayfair’s voice. She gave a cry, and there was the sound of her collapsing to the floor.” 
• After Mayfair is killed, her boyfriend, Billy Taupe, becomes violent. . . “Without hesitating, Spruce shot Billy Taupe through the chest. The blast carried him backward, and he crumpled to the floor.” 
• It is discovered that Sejanus was conspiring to free a woman from prison. “As the drumroll began, Coriolanus squeezed his eyes shut, wishing he could block out the sound as well. But he heard it all. Sejanus’s cry, the bang of the trapdoors, and the [birds] picking up Sejanus’s last word, screaming it over and over into the dazzling sun.” 
• Snakes bite Coriolanus. “He’d just registered the snake when it struck, uncoiling like a spring and digging its teeth into [his] forearm.” Coriolanus recovers from the snakebite. 
• Coriolanus, thinking that Lucy Gray is going to kill him, tries to shoot her. “He estimated her to be about ten yards away, lifted the rifle to his shoulder, and released a spray of bullets in her direction.” Her fate is left ambiguous, and both the reader and Coriolanus are unsure if she is alive or dead after this attack. 
• Coriolanus kills Dean Highbottom by mixing rat poison in a painkiller called morphling and leaving it for Highbottom to use. “There was nothing to make Dean Highbottom suspicious of [the morphling] when he pulled it from the trash and slipped it into his pocket. Nothing when he unscrewed the dropper and dripped the morphling onto his tongue.”    

Drugs and Alcohol  

• Coriolanus drinks a sip of posca at a school banquet. Posca is “a concoction of watery wine laced with honey and herbs.”  
• Dean Highbottom is addicted to morphling. Coriolanus notices that Highbottom is under the influence of the drug at a school banquet. Coriolanus says Highbottom “presented himself to the students with all the verve of a sleepwalker, dreamy-eyed and, as usual, doped up with morphling.” 
• Coriolanus and his friends trade baked goods for a bottle of moonshine. “They ended up in possession of a quart bottle of clear liquid so potent the stuff made their eyes water.” 
• Lucy Gray and her band play in the market, and the audience is described as “companionably drunk.” 

Language    

• After she is selected to compete in the Hunger Games, Lucy Gray sings a song that includes the line “you can kiss my ass.” 

Supernatural  

• Lucy Gray and her band perform a song about a girl, and it is ambiguous if the girl is alive, dead, or a ghost. After Coriolanus hears this song, he thinks, “Oh, a ghost story.”

Spiritual Content  

• None

by Kelly Barker