For all of their faults, The Hunger Games books a decade ago became a pop culture phenomenon. The brutal premise in a YA book, the surly heroine with a backbone of steel, the motifs of manipulation vs truth, the moral ambiguity, the pain of survival, the lasting impact of trauma — yeah, I loved it shamelessly, warts and all .And then Collins writes a prequel about President Snow. Yeah, *that* Snow. The Emperor Palpatine of that universe (I’m a bit shaky on Star Wars stuff, but I think I got th...

Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || PinterestDNF @ p.101 Me going on a date with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Me: So what do you like to do for fun?TBoSaS: Cabbage soup.Me: Uh huh.TBoSaS: Roman names.Me: Uh huh. *signalling desperately to the waiter for a glass of wine* Those aren't really hobbies you know.TBoSaS: Hobbies?Me: You know, things that give your life meaning.TBoSaS: Oh.Me: Yeah.TBoSaS: Does hating on the poors and being surprised that they have feelings count?M

I feel absolutely drained by this book. Because I was such a big fan of The Hunger Games trilogy, I was determined to finish The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, but doing so took a LOT out of me. What a chore this book was! I now understand the disappointed and outraged reviews of others who read it first, but what I don't understand is how those people were still able to blast through this in a day or two. You guys are far tougher readers than I am.I have to confess that I was initially enthusi...

Only last 20 pages of this book managed to stir my interest. So, is this 1 or 2 stars? If I hate read the rest of it? Okay, I'll be generous. 1.5 stars it is, but there is no way I am rounding this up.The problem with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is that it doesn't know what it wants to be until the very, very end. It meanders here and there, bloated, unfocused, wordy, boring, misguided, treading the same water on and on and on, to the point of tedium. Just to get to the climax where Snow

- i did truly find the nods to the original trilogy fun. finally finding out the origin of the hanging tree song, why snow despised katniss so much from the get-go, how certain features of the games were implemented, etc. was really interesting. that being said, i've seen a number of reviews say that this read like fan fiction, and i honestly kind of agree. the way that every single loose end from the original story was tied up felt a lot like fan service to me, and while as a fan of the origina...

a lot of people are not going to like this book. it’s weirder and maybe a little...goofier? than the original hunger games. it’s also much more philosophical - almost part novel part contemplation on nature vs nurture and the base instincts of humanity. and it is not a villain origin story like you’ve read before. if you’ve come here looking for a story like the joker where you leave sympathetic to the villain and understanding what moment pushed them to being evil? well, you’ll likely be very d...

I really enjoyed the first half of the book and looked forward to how Snow's villain origin story would be pulled off. I was invested in his conflicted feelings about the Games and possessive affections towards his love interest - this set up a really interesting (and juicy!) dynamic, because there's a lot of potential to create a tragic, dramatic, and poignant story there. Unfortunately, the last third of the book bumped my rating down to 3 stars, as I felt very underwhelmed by the outcome and

*the perfect portrait of me, who waited for something meaningful to happen in this book till the end*sooooooo moral of the story: Snow was just going through late confusing raunchy Puberty all in all from the beginning I was in the oh and using the excuse "slow build/burn" for a book that has poor writing and plot is getting old, boy hoooooo boy the writing was BAD Ms. Collins! the developing was BAD Ms. Collins!And SO.MANY.CHARACTERS.AND.THEIR.NAMES.MY.GOSH.*during reading* *me waiting for s...

Listen, I hate President Snow as much as the next person.But SNOW. FUCKING. LANDS. ON. TOP.This is actually brilliant. Like genius. Critical, and scathing and thought provoking.Sprinkled with moments where your jaw just quietly drops in shock and pain but you can't do anything except keep on reading.This book is hypnotic. It had an unputdownable quality I'm still unable to quite put my finger on.Hats off, this is how you prequel.The only reason I took off a star was because of the rushed ending....

I went into this one being VERY SKEPTICAL and for the most part I enjoyed it. I still didn't really feel like we delved in too deep on how President Snow became the corrupt person he is in the hunger games trilogy, but we definitely saw a different layer to his character through this story. I found the first portion of the story to be the most engaging bit and the later half I found a bit underwhelming. In a lot of ways it felt like the story was being dragged out, but I was also still engaged w...

It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but for me it certainly was. If you’re someone who knows the original books super well, then I think you’ll get the most enjoyment out of it. There’s so many references and nods to the original books that made me so excited! I also thought Snow’s perspective was super interesting to be in and it gave us loads of information about the world of Panem. We learned so much in this book! Overall, I super enjoyed it and I flew through it because I simply couldn’t stop...

*whispers softly*: fuck*whispers louder*: this book releases tomorrow and if I see any of you posting even the mildest spoilers in your status updates you'll have a safe place in hell that looks exactly like the 74th Hunger Games*yawns*: 60% in and I can't make myself care so I'll just finish this some other time...or notFind more of my books on Instagram

Am I the only one excited to read more of Snow's brilliantly manipulative ways and dive into his past and (hopefully) rise to power? I mean, poisonsssssss *snake hissing*| 🐍 | • | 🐦 | • | 🐍 | • | 🐦 |I have a vital, life-changing question: why does this book have 14,680 ratings when IT'S NOT EVEN OUT YET!?UPDATE: it's out so you guys can finally have an excuse for RATING BOOKS YOU HAVEN'T READ.

So apparently this is about President Snow...“A teen born to privilege but searching for something more, a far cry from the man we know he will become. Here he’s friendly. He’s charming. For now he’s a hero.”Really?

When you patiently wait for this book too long and you find out this book's plot is about: President Snow's early times:

I really really really don't care about Snow's life.

I feel an old obsession coming back to life...

(B+) 77% | GoodNotes: Awfully banal, too many names to recall, the end carries weight, but too-little-too-late, revealing but not urgent at all.

A new BookTube Video is Up all about whether you should buy, borrow or burn 2020 YA books! Let me know what you think! The Written Review “Well, as they said, it's not over until the mockingjay sings.” Coriolanus Snow, future president of Panem, is just eighteen-years-old in this prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy.He is one of the Snows - a once mighty house in the Capitol but now is on the edge of desolation. He's desperate to preserve the image of his family and find a way to

Here's a link to my spoiler free video review: https://youtu.be/A2iM9AOosw4I mentioned in the review that I'd clarify what I meant by the ending feeling abrupt and convenient.  Here it is:(view spoiler)[ Snow was so sure that Lucy Grey was his gal.  They start to run away together, and then very quickly, he suddenly doesn't like rouging it and his attitude toward her changes abruptly, then conveniently finds exactly what he needs in order to go back to the capital and not be convicted, and - oh....

I've been avoiding all theories and predictions until I did my reread of THG. But since this is coming out tomorrow I'd like to leave my own theory here. I think it will be nice to be able to look back and see if it was correct (maybe?) [bear in mind that the only thing I know is that this is about Snow and a district 12 tribute he will be mentoring. I have not read any excerpts bc I like things to be a bit of a surprise and come up with my own crazy predictions]So I think we can all agree that

As much as the idea of a whole book dedicated to the mind of President Snow reviled me, I knew this book would be as excellent as it was!The most captivating piece of the book is in the early development and psychology behind The Hunger Games. It’s a fresh angle. We get to see Capitol citizens living in a post-war redevelopment stage, in which they’ve actually experienced starvation and fear. They have not yet been lulled into complacency regarding the depravity of the games. I loved reading the...

1.5 starsI went into this cautiously optimistic because although I was not pleased that we were following Snow... I thought Suzanne wouldn't do us dirty like that right? WRONG. She absolutely did. My biggest complaint with this story is simply that it didn't need to happen. I didn't care. I didn't want to know any of the information I was told in this story. Snow's backstory does not make him more interesting or compelling. In fact, it makes him less so. The story forces you to follow this chara...

”Being a hero at home had its limitations; he needed a larger audience.”So, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” made it into the “Goodreads Choice Awards 2020” and is probably one out of 3 books I actually managed to read this year. *lol* Taking a closer look at all the reviews that have been written about it, I have no idea how it ended up as a nominee in the awards but I suppose the main reason why it made its way in there is because it’s popular and provoked very conflicting emotions. I mean...

I enjoyed this well enough. It wasn’t as terrible as some of the reviews make it seem, neither did it blow me away. 3.5 ⭐️ Coriolanus Snow is from a noble Capitol family. His father was a war hero and his grandmother sings the Capitol anthem each morning. He and his cousin Tigris are both orphans, and since the war nearly all their fortunes were lost in shares in District 13. When the 10th Hunger Games comes around the students are offered the chance to work as mentors to the tributes, with a sc...

From what I have seen from early reviews, I'm in the minority for this one - but I really enjoyed this. I can understand the criticism, and perhaps the argument that this isn't particularly necessary, but there's just something about this world and its set up that manages to suck me in every time.Following Snow as a main character was always going to be a bold choice. He's not likeable or redeeming in anyway, and I think many people will be put off by this as he's often hard to connect with on a...

im so confused. was this supposed to make me like snow?? because it really didnt. can we make it a rule that if authors do a spin-off, it needs to be about a character worth reading about?im just really not sure what the point of this is, because its definitely not a redemption story and theres hardly anything that directly ties it into the main series. i just… i dunno what to do with this.the thing is, i had a really good time being back in panem. i also thought SCs writing has really improved

| | blog | tumblr | ko-fi | | It's a yikes from me.Did the world really need The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes? I think not. Full of unnecessary exposition and weighed down by self-indulgent fanservice, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a train-wreck of a novel. The story lacks rhyme or reason, things happen only to advance the plot (regardless of whether they make sense because what is even logic?), there are no stakes (Coriolanus having to eat cabbage soup and not being able to pay taxe...

always trust your gut.review to come / 1.5 stars--------------------tbr reviewdo i want to read this book?no.well, i don't think so.okay i'm going to leave this here just in case