The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Wow! I'm jumping straight in. This book is so much better than the other books. The trilogy was so boring to me, but this was great in my opinion. We see Snow before he became the person we know him to be. Snow is a very determined young man, and yet he is still not what I expected. Tigris is back and we see her story well part of it anyway. Then there's the girl from 12, and she will surprise you I think. Pros. The writing was great, and the character development was excellent. I like the connections to the original trilogy as well. Good storyline Cons: Slow parts especially towards the end, but still enough to keep me interested. The way things happen is weird to me, but I understand why. All in all I definitely reccomend this book.

I love how we see the first games where they introduce many new things. I love snows pov, and how he becomes who we all knew in the original trilogy also. It just was well written and laid out overall.

The ending was confusing and open ended, is there going to be another book for this prequel novel as like a spin-off series.

I’m not sure I can even recommend this book. It was equal parts of boring and interesting. However, the one thing that really stood out was Snow (obviously). I hate him so much, but that’s the point, right? As soon as I started this book, I knew I’d have a problem with the evil that is Coriolanus Snow. He is loyal to no one but himself. Once he's met with an opportunity to attain power, he'll stop at nothing and will quickly discard anyone in his way, even the one person he claimed to have affection for. He's a very well written villain. His manipulative ways and rise to power were fascinating. The book wasn’t great, but Snow was definitely one of the highlights.Lucy Gray is one of the brighter spots in this book. She’s got so much personality, but I felt like her character was a bit underused. She’s the perfect contrast to Snow’s evilness, but I couldn’t help feeling like she deserved more depth. Still, I was invested in her story, even if Snow kept stealing the spotlight.Overall, this was an easy read. The writing wasn't epic or anything, so Snow's rise to power was the only thing that I was interested in.