#1 Book Review - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Faradisa Lailil Mukaromah
July 29, 2020
0 Comments
Prepare yourself guys!! cause we're about to go down to our very first book review📚
maybe a cup of ice coffee could really be a help while reading this... ENJOY!!!
"May the Odds Be Ever In Your Favor"
If you're not so familiar with that catchline, you must be living under a rock. Seriously..it's even in one of the biggest movie franchise beside Harry Potter (any Potterhead here?) of course. Hunger Games is what I'm talking about here. The journey and struggle of Katniss Everdeen doing whatever she can to survive from annually Hunger Games.
NO... I'm not gonna review that book now. I'm gonna do it with this book titled The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Giving that catchphrase above, you could tell that it's still related to that world created by a genius author who's actually 4 years older than my mom, Suzanne Collins.
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| Green? Snakes? What..Slytherin? Oh my Potterhead mind🗲 |
Rating
💜💜💜💜/ 5💜
Title : The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Author : Suzanne Collins
Date of Published : May 19th 2020
Publisher : Scholastic, Inc
Format : E-Book, 528 Pages
Language : English
Glimpse :
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. (Sc: Goodreads)
To be exact, this is the prequel to former trilogy of Hunger Games books (Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay). Don't ever expect to encounter Katniss here. She has not even born yet. It's like 64 years before we met her in 74th Hunger Games. In here, we've got a look on the lives of Coriolanus Snow before he becomes the president who rules all across Panem and of course the main villain in Hunger Games.
I'm not going to suggest you to read the sequel first before you go to this piece of art to remind you how cruel and evil he is. You don't have to. Cause...yeah you'll know it for sure after you read this. You're not gonna be sympathetic for him like what happened with Joker. 🤡 NOT EVEN THE SLIGHTEST CHANCE.
I got confused at the moment I knew Collins gonna release another Hunger Games book. Yes of course I'm super happy bout the news but...
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| Donald Sutherland as Coriolanus Snow in Hunger Games movies |
"Why Collins wanna make a background story of him? How bout other victors tribute, please?"
We know how we feel about a certain villain character in every movies or books. But in most of them, there's not a chance that this kind of character could be the protagonist who will lead the audience throughout the end of the story. But Collins said no to that statement. No matter how I think, I will never love his character. But wait a minute..I need to step aside that kind of mind a bit.
There's always a backstory of why they act like that. A bad guy doesn't build their fiends just one night. Who, What, Why, When, Where, and How it triggered him to be that cruel. And later I found that it doesn't hurt to understanding what's inside their head. I decide to read it no matter how much any surprises Collins prepared in her book this time. And I just love reading her book. Duh.. can't help being a nerd of this.
Different from the sequel, Collins put a third-person point of view this time. I don't have any problem with that though. The thing is, it has so much promising background story of some people whose name is so familiar in the sequel. She put the excerpt of it on the official website a couple weeks before the book released. Makes me think, ''Bring this book right this instant !!!''. A name like Cardew, Heavensbee has been mentioned here. And don't make me start again by knowing Snow was a mentor to the female tribute from District 12 at that period, or even a cousin of Tigris?!!!. I'm sorry if you consider this as a spoiler, I found it before the release date too like everyone else who's also waiting for this book. And Suzanne Collins was the spoiler culprit here if you wanna blame me. Plus, she even read the first glimpse for us too.
Last time she released Mockingjay book it was back in 2010. A decade after that, now we have The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I had a sudden random conversation with my bestie who's also a fan of Hunger Games. Shout out to my Gio. If I need someone to talk about this whole book or movie fangirl-ing things, it must be her. We talked a lot of things in the middle of the night through the chat, and she's an intuitive kind of a human too.
Somehow we're guessing some stuff like, "Who is this girl tribute? is there any chances that she's the other victor from District 12 who's been mentioned in the first book (Hunger Games)?". There are only 3 victors from 12 who's ever win the game. But Collins is genius. She didn't give it away the exact gender of this one other than Katniss Everdeen and Haymitch Abernathy. So we don't know whether this girl will ever made it the 10th hunger games or not at that point.
But non-other than that, the title itself gave me a constant puzzled feeling. Honestly, I keep being stumbled by whether to mention 'Songbirds' or 'Snakes' first. I guess Collins lost her touch at giving a book title if we compared it to the sequel. Sorry ma'am, gotta admit it.
Judging by its title, I could totally know that 'Snakes' will be referred to Snow, and the 'Songbirds' one? undoubtedly that girl from 12, Lucy Gray. An unordinary charming girl. She's just so special the moment I read about her. All I can say is.. they're connected with "this and that" in every possible way but strangely bound a complicated relationship. I don't know if I'm thirst to know Snow's love story. Of course Collins would involve a romance and politics here just like the sequel. And in this one, hmm how do I put it? unnecessarily a little annoying.
Talking about other characters, I'm desperately curious at how Collins comes up with their name. She definitely loves giving an uncommon name to every single person in here. Find it quite hard to pronounce it though. I made Google Translate doing that job every time I'm struggling with that, as I prefer to read it aloud sometimes for a better understanding.
For Tigris, apparently not the name I would give to my child if I have one in future (why, so random of me)😂. It's cute like her personality in here but, I'm sorry still not a great name for a baby. Let's take a look from Mockingjay, shall we?. She made an appearance as some Capitol citizen who once ever being one of the stylists in hunger games period before Katniss era. Living in such poor condition, unlike the others living in a glamour Capitol's life. She's helping Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Cressida, and Pollux in their rebellion movements. Keeping them in her house after being chased by an unstoppable booby trap from Snow. She's also an acquaintance of Plutarch Heavensbee and Cressida.
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| Katnis encountered Tigris for the first time |
THAT... Tigris's statement about Snow. Although she never said it in the book though. While the movie showed it like that, in the book, Katniss said that she'll kill Snow... and Tigris reaction described as something like a weak smile. Tells us which side she chose during the war. Reassuring Katniss squad they're safe in her place.
Now back with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I guess it's safe to say,
"We need more Tigris in here !!!"
Come on... we need to know more why she acted like that. That's why I give 4 love out of 5 for this book. Everything in general is great, Collins did a great job at keeping my focus on things that happened in the story during my quarantine period. Except that we don't get to know more about Tigris story. Its ended up too fast, leaving me in a cliff hanger mode and think about this topic the whole day.
Well, let's hope the film adaptation gives it best to fill that emptiness. Yeap that's true. Francis Lawrence and Nina Jacobson will work together again in here as a Director and Producer of the movie. I don't know if Collins will make another prequel series after this one. Since I got the feeling she won't, then all we gotta hope is they could make the movie as dope as what they did with Hunger Games trilogy.
Finally, I've got to say this book pictured how beautiful Snow's character developed till this far. He didn't climb the mountain alone. I've learned to understand the hatred seed from his entire surroundings. People could be our biggest support or even a threat to us. Don't let them make you lose in believing what you really meant to be. They're not worth it. Choose what's best for you. Always hold your great pals in a warm hug. Give it away the one who doesn't deserve you.
We don't wanna get the "snake in our house", right?
*hosh...hosh... It's not easy to review a book without giving away a spoiler. To all of you who reach this far, I love you and Thank you. I'm gonna give my best to keep this blog updated. Ciao. 💜😊
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