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Cover of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Suzanne Collins

  • 528 pages · about 9 hours
  • First published 2020
  • 34 editions
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1 About this book

Ambition will fuel him. Competition will drive him. But power has its price.

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined — every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute . . . and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.

  • Young adult fiction, action & adventure
  • Dystopian fiction
  • Science fiction
  • Survival
  • Relationships
  • Television programs
  • Contests
  • Insurgency

2 What to expect

A Hunger Games prequel set sixty-four years earlier, following eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow, the future president, as he mentors a District 12 girl in the tenth Games. It is a villain's origin story, told closely from his side, and more interested in ambition, control and how a person justifies himself than in arena action. It is long and slower than the trilogy, with songs woven through, and its lead is hard to like by design.

Good for readers who want: a villain's origin story, more of the Hunger Games world, and a darker, more thoughtful story.

3 About Suzanne Collins

Born 1962

Suzanne Collins (born August 10, 1962) is an American author and television writer who is best known as the author of the young adult dystopian fiction book series The Hunger Games. She is also the author of the children's fantasy series The Underland Chronicles.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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