The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (Hunger Games Prequel)

[Smithy]

Has anyone read this yet?

I’m about 200 pages in so far and I’m enjoying it, it’s interesting to see how the games developed from what they were then to what they are when Katniss enters them.

[Mokka]

Well now I need to but it and read it. I heard there was a movie coming but I assumed it was just a screenplay and not a book

[Marsh.]

Is it written better than the Hunger Games first book?

[Mokka]

Is it written better than the Hunger Games first book?

Are you saying the first book was badly written??

I enjoyed the trilogy

[Marsh.]

Are you saying the first book was badly written??

I enjoyed the trilogy

Yes I am. :smug:

The story was good but I thought the writing was off putting.

[Smithy]

Well now I need to but it and read it. I heard there was a movie coming but I assumed it was just a screenplay and not a book
A film is being made yes, but based on the book
Is it written better than the Hunger Games first book?

I’m enjoying it and I didn’t think THG was badly written :shrug:

[Smithy]

Small spoilers so far (nothing re the plot but just how the hunger games were back then)

Tributes were shipped in animal crates to the capital and aren’t pampered like they were in the later books - they’re not even fed :skull:

This is the first time tributes are paired with mentors who are students at the Academy in the Capitol

This is the first time they’re given sponsors and gambling is introduced

Snow and Tigres are cousins

The arena is the old ampitheatre in the capitol, they dumb the tributes in there and leave them to fight, they just remove the bodies after it’s done there’s no clean up

[Black Dagger]

I am about 140 pages in myself and loving it!

[Mokka]

I'm very strongly considering buying on kindle this afternoon because of this thread

[Smithy]

Go for it loov! Treat yourself!

[Smithy]

The way Lucy Grey is described/how she sings makes her voice like Lurleen Lumpkin from the Simpson’s in my head :skull:

[Smithy]

Got about 20 pages left but it feels like there’s too much left to happen to wrap it up so quickly :worry:

[Smithy]

Well

https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2016/01/11/17/tiffany-cbb.jpg?w968

[Smithy]

Right I’ll just do thoughts as they come to me, I’m not one for writing a proper review

I really enjoyed it but the last 20 pages... wtf?! Once Lucy won the games I thought that she’d end up being killed by the Capitol or perhaps even in district 12 which would harden Snow and make him the person you see in THG, but no??

He’s kind and caring throughout the whole thing and then the last 20 pages, for absolutely no reason turns on the woman he loves (who also for no reason turns on him, DISAPPEARS and then you don’t even find out what happens to her either?!?!) he tries to kill her and then returns to the peacekeepers.

It’s just ugh, it’s so frustrating because it could have been done well, but it’s just makes no sense, it’s literally serving Daenerys Mad Queen.

Also if he was going to return to the peacekeepers so easily (because he finds and destroys the weapons) surely his motivation for running away with Lucy isn’t that strong anyway? I just don’t get it :fist: Also would have liked to have had more of an epilogue to see what happened between him and Tigris for her to end up where she does and clearly so distant from him.

[Mokka]

Right I’ll just do thoughts as they come to me, I’m not one for writing a proper review

I really enjoyed it but the last 20 pages... wtf?! Once Lucy won the games I thought that she’d end up being killed by the Capitol or perhaps even in district 12 which would harden Snow and make him the person you see in THG, but no??

He’s kind and caring throughout the whole thing and then the last 20 pages, for absolutely no reason turns on the woman he loves (who also for no reason turns on him, DISAPPEARS and then you don’t even find out what happens to her either?!?!) he tries to kill her and then returns to the peacekeepers.

It’s just ugh, it’s so frustrating because it could have been done well, but it’s just makes no sense, it’s literally serving Daenerys Mad Queen.

Also if he was going to return to the peacekeepers so easily (because he finds and destroys the weapons) surely his motivation for running away with Lucy isn’t that strong anyway? I just don’t get it :fist: Also would have liked to have had more of an epilogue to see what happened between him and Tigris for her to end up where she does and clearly so distant from him.

Read this on my holiday while laying at the beach last week. My thoughts as they relate to yours...

I thought it was pretty evident that he was conflicted about his humanity and self preservation/self promotion. The author did a decent job of making the reader feel conflicted about this seemingly lovely young man's ideology leading him astray. It really speaks to the logic of capitalism over socialism in a way. How the justification for the Capitol, which all the followers of the trilogy see as evil, is indoctrinated in their youth. It's amplified by Snow's relationship with the Plinth boy and his own conflict over district and capitol. But we see Snow's decline down the "wrong" path as he he provides friendship only to the extent that it serves his own purpose.

Over all a very interesting read. Well written? Idk. It was simplistically written but that is due to it being written for young adults... which is why it was readable in just a few days.

I wonder how much of Snow's backstory was planned prior to the writing of the trilogy. Or, did the author take the loose strings and tie them up so efficiently after the fact. It makes me curious