Lets talk about The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

The prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy follows the future president of Panem ,Coriolanus Snow in his 18th year and which is also the 10th year of the Hunger Games.The Capitol selects students from the Academy as the mentors for the tributes and Snow is one of them.He belongs to a prestigious family but the wealth of the name has come to shambles after the War. Driven by ambition and fueled by power,he must aim high .He is given District 12 and Lucy Graybaird is the tribute.What follows is a series of events that give the readers of the original trilogy an insight as to what may have led him to become the villain we have come to love and hate..

To be honest,its difficult for me to write a review of the book without divulging the plot and giving up potential spoilers. This is one of those rare books that will stay with you for a long time once you finish reading it and will provide for some critical thinking once the last page is turned.It rakes up your brain to the core with the way our protagonist thinks and acts.I did not sympathize with Snow but surely I tried to understand what happened.. Snow was a child when the war and the rebellion raged throughout Panem. He maynot have seen the conditions of the other districts but being brought up in the Capitol he has gone through his fair share of difficulties that followed in the aftermath of the war.(disclaimer -I am not at all justifying the way he behaves in the trilogy but trying to know for his backdrop and why he behaved so)..We have Sejanus Plinth as one of the other main characters who Snow believes to be a threat to his world and the beliefs he holds about power and dominion.Surprisingly our future villain always manages to save him and think for him though something drastic happens in the end.We have Lucy Graybaird from district 12 who is mentored by Snow. Although Snow knows (as he is made to believe) that the people of the other districts are inferior to those of the Capitol,he tries to convince himself that Lucy is not actually from Disctrict 12 as she with her group roams from one district to the other singing melodies .This is how Suzanne Collins makes her readers think that maybe Snow tries to cover up his basic human instincts with another excuse. Apart from Snow and Sejanus, Lucy Graybaird is the star of the book with her immense self preservation capacities .Its no wonder why along with Snow ,the whole Capitol and reader will fall for her. We have another character from the trilogy who is quite present in the book and though her story is not fully told I hope Collins may write a novella for her.,(I was surprised to know how the character is related to Snow)..

The book ponders over some serious questions whether self destruction is a natural tendency of human beings and are we all drawn to it like a moth to a flame.The events of the book changes Snow though it is not an excuse and apology for the way he behaves and acts in the trilogy.The dynamics between power vs chaos is present everywhere just like Snow comes to believe that if there is no power and no control left ,what will follow?Will there be total chaos everywhere? Will the order of the world be in ruins?

We also get some answers to the way the things are in the trilogy and much more.For starters we learn about who started the Hunger games ? Why is Snow so attached to his roses? Why is the Capitol especially the future president Snow threatened by Katniss's song about the hanging man.?why does he despise love so much?The prequel not only expanded the world of the hunger games but made a bridge to it which provided for some unanswered questions in the trilogy.I would have really loved to talk more about the book but I would be risking the chances of spoiling. It is a very powerful read and demands to be one with its philosophical questions..The only thing that I wished was better was the pacing.The book spanned across 517 pages . If you havent read the trilogy ,I urge you to first read it otherwise the book will feel bland and boring. Obviously it can be read as a standalone but i doubt if it will shake up your interests.Overall the book deserves attention and is a solid 9/10 from me. Goodreads rating and link -3.95/5 Check out this book on Goodreads: The Hunger Games 0: The Ballard of Songbirds and Snakes http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53463024-the-hunger-games-0 Amazon link-The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel) https://www.amazon.in/dp/1338671162/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Ol32Eb95RFVQ9 Happy reading:)