Suzanne Collins's The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Suzanne Collins is an amazeballs author. I mean that seriously. It took me longer than it should have to start reading the books (Not my fault. By the time they were on my radar, I had heard that they were just like Twilight. I tried Twilight. I can't do it. Bella is everything I teach my daughters not to be and I can't read a series with a MC that I have no respect for.) but I saw the first movie with a girl that I knew and I was hooked. The books are even better. Some people will hate on Ms. Collins because she writes in first person present tense. Some people can kiss my butt. I get so sucked into Collin's writing that I forget to eat. I'm a three hundred and seventy pound man. I NEVER forget to eat. I often eat when I shouldn't. But when I get locked into one of this woman's books, as they say on the streets of New York, "Fugetaboudit." She has kept me up all night a few times too. That probably makes her evil on some level, but this is the kind of evil that I fully condone.

I was, however, kind of hesitant with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.Why? Because it's the story of President Snow from the original trilogy and that guy was a villain's villain. I mean, who wants to read about a dude who slaughters children as part of his job? But then, I mean, it was Suzanne Collins and my oldest daughter did love it and...

Well...

I caved, okay? I'm not proud of it but I totally gave up my inhibitions and through myself face first into the book. I'm glad I did though, because I had been acting like a total turdface. Listen, this is a good book if you just like... read it. It also helps if you think of the character by the name Coriolanus Snow (his full name as given in Ballad) as opposed to President Snow.

What Collins has done here is two things:

1.) She kept in mind the single most ubiquitous thing about every human being and their mindset: We are all the hero of our own story. From the outside looking in, what Snow will do later (and, indeed, some of what he does in Ballad) is evil. But to him, it's a necessary evil. The Hunger Games trilogy depicts Snow as an evil man, doing what he wants. Ballad not so much. Here we see a young man (or maybe boy is a better title) doing what he has to do because he has to do it.

and 

2.) The Greatest Harm is Often Done with the Best Intentions. Seriously, the Hunger Games terrorized twelve Districts full of people. It's how they're kept in line. It's how society continues and, honestly, what are the rights of people as compared to the rights of society? Snow is, in short, a believer in the Social Contract. And like many other followers of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (that's the guy who wrote the actual book called The Social Contract for those of you who don't have degrees in history) he simply believes that killing people is an acceptable way to enforce it. I mean it worked for Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot right? And, I mean, seventy five years of The Hunger Games killed a lot less people than the Reign of Terror in France, right? And that was, after all, the first massacre conducted due to Rousseau's teachings.

At any rate, in his own mind Coriolanus is working for the good of all and to prevent another war like the one that ruined his family, destroyed his country and killed his father. I mean, it was a really bad time not just for Panem but for Coriolanus personally. He went from seeing his father on TV and leading parades to being raised by his grandmother. It couldn't have been easy. 

And that's the magic of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Collins has taken a man that I hated and turned him into a sympathetic character that I could root for. I never would have believed it possible but she did it. The Snow in this book is really a guy you can root for. Once you understand his intentions, what he's doing becomes, well, not admirable but at least understandable. After all, as badly as life sucked in the Capitol during the war, the Districts got it worse. Of course, it helps that she shows Corio as being capable of loving another human being. That's not the impression I got from the original trilogy.

Of course there's more to Ballad than just that. The story revolves around the Tenth Hunger Games, long before Katniss Everdeen and her time in the arena, or even her birth. And it's weird to say this, but it's kind of cool to see how small the games were when they started. The arena is small and not all that well equipped. Muttations are not really a thing yet. The same arena is used every year and it is not in good shape at all. The Games are not very popular and there are no such things as sponsors or betting yet.  These Games are similar to the Games that Katniss played in some ways, but they're so much smaller. It's almost eerie.

There is plenty of good, old fashioned violence to keep a fan of the original trilogy engaged as well.  There is action both in the arena and outside of it. It wouldn't be a Hunger Games story if someone didn't get it in the neck at some point and that's what happens here. I mean, we all know that only one of the Tributes is going to make it back to their District. I'm not going to reveal who it was, but that remains, well...

Not the same because this time it actually is only one.

But that's neither here nor there. Seriously, go buy the book and read it. Then come back and thank me for recommending it. This is some seriously good stuff.

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Worrisome Essays

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Press, 2020

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