The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Collins uses third person narration for Snow, whereas Katniss Everdeen narrated her own story. Most of the book was predictable. The ending was better than Snow deserved, and frankly better than I ever reasonably could have hoped. So, while I will not rave over the book, I won't dismiss it either.

The most predictable things about the book are the fact that Snow started out both poor and compassionate. Of course he did. There is no Evil Origin Story worth telling here if he didn't. Him being made a Peacekeeper was a genuine surprise though. I also was surprised Lucy Gray WON The Hunger Games. I expected her death to be the thing that drove him to the dark side. In fact, her fate is unknown instead. I find it EXTREMELY unlikely she died, and she almost certainly made it to District 13. And I LIKE that. That as Snow is talking himself into accepting corruption, she is (probably) not penalized for loving and trusting him. To be the cautionary tale in a world that Collins had portrayed as positively miserable by Mockingjay.

You ever see the movie "The Game"? The "happy" ending shocks you because it's Fincher. You never saw it coming. The measured and ambiguous ending shocks me here because it's "The Hunger Games". And it's especially unusual because it's the origin story for that trilogy's greatest and most evil villain. What I find most refreshing about Snow's humble beginnings, and the fact that his wants and desires are completely naive, is that it makes his later evil actions his own decisions. Him talking himself into betraying Lucy Gray did not happen because a tragedy befell him that made him permanently vengeful and bitter. He just doesn't like digging up worms. And I love that Collins eschews the tragic origin for Snow because she refuses to give his later actions in both the original books and even the Epilogue the slightest benefit of the doubt. He could have been an all right dude. But he decided a cushy life was easier.

Third person or not, I found Snow's naivete a bit annoying compared to Katniss Everdeen's world weary wisdom. I don't think Katniss was ever as wise about people as she thought she was (I actually think she was on the autism spectrum) but when it came to sizing situations and politics up, her cunning is a definite contrast to Snow's indecisions and questioning of his role in all this. Katniss is a survivor. Snow is a whiner.

My favorite part of the book was the notion that Snow immediately and irrationally hates the Mockingjays. No good reason for it here, but it does give a good reason in hindsight why he was ALWAYS on Katniss Everdeen's case, when even a SLIGHTLY lighter touch in their encounters probably would have quelled any rebellious ideas surrounding her. It's the Mockingjay thing. He can't think rationally about it and it makes him go bananas and overboard. And I love that.

I think Collins was given an impossible task in writing a prequel to explain Snow's evil and ambition. And I don't think she fully succeeded. But she succeeded far better than anyone else in her position would have. Another person who wrote a similar trilogy in tone, and then tried this EXACT kind of prequel would have totally whiffed it instead. Not bad. 3 1/2 stars.