The Hunger Games - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes product reviews

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a prequel to Suzanne Collins's hugely successful Hunger Games trilogy set in a dystopian world. This original novel is an origin story for The Hunger Games and tells us how and why they came to be in the first place. The Ballard of Songbirds and Snakes follows the early years of Coriolanus Snow, the future president of Panem and his backstory. The once-powerful Snows live a precarious existence in a penthouse apartment and battle to conceal their poverty from the rest of the city's aristocracy.

The Capitol has emerged triumphant from civil war and are in the 10th year of the Games. With a dwindling audience, the Capitol decides to pair the 24 tributes (a boy and a girl from each of the 12 impoverished districts) with mentors; students from upstanding families in the Capitol. Snow is given Lucy Gray, a young girl from district 12 that makes a big impact at the reaping. With the effects of the war still evident, the games are relatively minimalist and are held in a battle-scarred arena with only the stands to hide. Betting and giving gifts to the tributes has just been introduced and there is none of the technology that we are used to in the previous books. Against the odds, Snow's job is to keep Lucy Gray alive and make her the victor.

In her usual style, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is easy to read and extremely descriptive. She conjures up bleak arenas, scenic woods and successfully brings each character to life. Although not as action-packed as the previous novels, and containing nowhere near as much violence, this novel is still entertaining. Some may complain that it's not as adrenaline-fuelled as The Hunger Games, but I don't think it needs to be. It provides an enjoyable prelude to what we know happens next.