The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins

In the Capital, 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. (link)

Review: 5/5

PREPARE TO BE SICK OF ME! If you know me personally at all, you know I want to marry Tom Blyth. SO when it came to this movie, I saw it in theaters three times. Then, I reread the original Hunger Games trilogy (as you should know by now). THEN, I read this book. It was really interesting to see how much was left out of the movie (as always), how many parallels were made between Lucy Gray and Katniss, and even the growth of Ms. Suzanne Collin’s writing. The first thing I thought when reading the original trilogy was “wow, this is really simply written and extremely easy to read '' and I immediately noticed the time and growth taken between writing the originals and BOSAS. The intricacy of this book was immediately noticeable and appreciated. Thanks Suzanne!

Not going to lie, this review will be LONG and mostly things I noticed in the books I didn’t see in the movie. They’re still my thoughts, but it’ll probably be short reflections due to me having SO much to say.

If you need a song to give you the vibe of this book, simply listen to Eat Your Young and De Selby part 2, both by Hozier. TELL ME these songs aren’t perfect for BOSAS!? I just want to make it clear how much I loved Coryo because he was CRAZY, and reading from his perspective made me love him more. I feel like everyone can relate to his back and forth between standing for himself and his pride, and trying to impress others and wanting to do well for his family name.

I thought it was interesting how it wasn’t originally Coryo’s idea to feed the tributes, and it was Sejanus who gave food to every tribute! Coryo sits with Lucy and gives her as much food as he can, but Sejanus gives all of the tributes food at every opportunity he gets. I think this heavily parallels how Ms. Plinth feeds Coryo later, kind of comparing him to a tribute in his own game, and that her monetary power will always rule over him. When Lucy TELLS the people of the Capital they can, and should, bring food to the cages the tributes were in, I saw this as the first act of defiance from her; the Game Makers wanted the kids weak to show how “weak” the districts were. She simply asked for food and MANY people delivered it personally.

I also loved when Lucy sang the love song to Coryo, it shows how he already has to choose between the Capital and his ego and loving Lucy Gray. I also liked how we got Coryo’s mother’s backstory when he’s opening up to Lucy Gray. She died in childbirth, if I remember correctly, and it was a big deal (since Coryo was still traumatized from it) to tell Lucy.

I also thought about how the forecaster (Lepidus Clemsey) was different from the character Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman. In the book, they both have their own spotlight and I felt it showed the plentiful job opportunity and abundance of the Capital in its own way. Although, I did love in the movie how Lucky was shown as a jack of all trades, and he had his hands FULL with everything that happened.

The moment when Coryo and Sejanus ALMOST switched was big, too. It shows Coryo’s devotion and attachment to Lucy, even though he stood a better chance of winning the games if he had the District 2 boy (sue me, I can’t remember his name).

The party/carnival/festival event that was held at the cage was interesting to me as well, since it showed the mockery of the Capital to the tributes. And THAT is when the one classmate of Coryo’s throat is slashed by a tribute. I mean, she deserved it, sorry! I LOVED that her throat got slashed in half instead of being shanked with a broken bottle (like in the movie) because it showed the already animalistic behavior of the tributes being caged. Then Coryo compared his being a mentor to a different kind of Games… And since we got to know his thoughts, we could read how affected he was by his classmate dying. He was actually really affected!?

I also loved how he actually cared about Clemmie after she was bitten by Dr. Gaul’s snakes. He visits her in the hospital, and he sees her often after. I also loved how he told Tigris the truth about Dr. Gaul and her experiments, it showed how much he trusted her and how he was willing not to keep secrets.

He spoke to Lucy about quitting being a mentor because it was “too much” for him, oh brother… IMAGINE HOW SHE FEELS? The man will always be the victim sigh. Lucy also got the rat poison idea from Jessup being bitten by rats, and Coryo never told her explicitly to use his mother’s compact for that, so he really could have feigned innocence (unlike the movie).

Arachne’s (slit throat girl) funeral was WHEW! Coryo singing the national anthem (and sounding apparently not good), and dragging the district girl who killed her through the streets was CRAZY. I know this was probably unnecessary to the producers, but it was one of my favorite parts of the book. It showed how TRULY crazy the capital was about punishment. And you just KNEW it was Dr. Gaul’s idea.

Dr. Gaul’s experiment making Clemmie snake-like was also so interesting, although I understand the lack of needing it in the movie. I just kept wondering “how many other students/people were experimented on?” and “did Gaul know that was going to be ‘curable’?”

I think Corio asking around for a guitar for Lucy’s tv performance was important for his development as well, because it showed him becoming more selfless and more involved with her. Him being unashamed to ask was important to note. Also, where was the entire character of Pluribus and that story line? Pluribus was the only person who truly looked out for Coryo as a kid and even up to now, and he just gets cut out. Was it to make Corio look more alone in his efforts? More of the “rely on himself” type? And then at the TV interview, he WENT ON STAGE WITH HER! HUH?! Okay, lovebirds!

They kissed before the games. They kissed and said goodbye before she went into the arena.

The students slowly become involved in their tributes and start to become adverse to the Hunger Games. Like Lysistrata being so openly intrigued by her tribute, seeing the character development was SO sad.

There were no cameras in the tunnels/underground of the arena! No one knew what was going on while Lucy and Jessup (and all the other tributes) were under there! No tributes died in the first few minutes of the Games, unlike the bloodbath in the movie. The movie had GREAT film fighting choreography though, so I don’t have a preference for the version.

Coryo knew about losing the penthouse before it happened. Coryo also visited the Plinth’s house when Sejanus was recovering from his visit to the arena… and I wish we saw that.

The snakes weren’t the final call for the tributes! A few tributes lived through that stunt, which I find interesting. I think it was easier to make the big final act of the games the snake drop in the movie, but I think showing the perseverance of the tributes meant more to me, in the long haul.

When becoming Peacekeepers, it was REALLY interesting how Coryo and Sejanus were so closely friends with their bunk mates in District 12. Coryo also wrote a letter to Dr. Gaul while in District 12? Very interesting to see how everyone turned against him and he still laid loyalties to them.

The foreshadowing of the spy on base when the woman is describing the jabberjays to Coryo. Also, the whole rounding up project that Coryo started regarding the Jabberjays was also foreshadowing to him trying to kill Lucy, methinks!

I was frustrated because I saw a Reel that said if you read the books, you find out what happened to Lucy Gray at the end, but you DON’T! I guess I shouldn’t trust Reels/TikTok for my sources anyways… boo.

The end when Coryo says he’ll marry someone who he could never possibly fall in love with, so they can’t manipulate him like Lucy did? OHHHHHH baby I was cackling, because why do I relate?

So yeah, not much to say… sorry. Anyways, the movie has a lot of folk music influence, which you KNOW I excel at using! So this playlist is some manipulative, lovesick folk! Have at it :)

Spotify: LINK