The Hunger Games Saga written by Suzanne Collins is arguably one of the most entertaining dystopian fiction reads of all time. The saga consists of four books: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay.
The first book (The Hunger Games) was written in 2008 and tells the story of a 16-year-old girl named Katniss Everdeen born in a place called District 12. The Districts are sort of like states in one big country called Panem.
There are Districts 1-12 and then the Capitol. There was once a District 13 but we aren’t told of this District until the later books. The people of the Districts have to go through what’s called a “reaping” once a year, where one girl and one boy from the ages of 12 to 18 get randomly chosen from each District to fight to the death in an arena.
The winner of this arena each year gets to live in wealth and infamy for the rest of their life, or so they say. The Capitol created these awful annual “games” to remind the Districts of the power the Capitol holds and to entertain viewers. The movie regarding the first book was released in March of 2012 and still continues to be one of the greatest dystopian movies to date.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the prequel to the original trilogy that was released in 2020. This prequel tells the avid readers how the “games” originally started, how the president of the Capitol became the disgusting villain he is in the trilogy, and the girl who practically started the rebellion.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a prequel to The Hunger Games that is based on President Snow of Panem and his villain origin. Snow is given a girl called Lucy Gray to mentor for the 10th Annual Hunger Games. If Lucy Gray won The 10th Hunger Games, he would receive prize money for future education.
As the storyline goes deeper, Snow begins to care for Lucy Gray and isn’t necessarily just in it for the money any longer. These feelings shared between the two of them are the building blocks for much of the unfortunate happenings in the story.
With the release of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (or TBOSBAS) that occurred November 17th, 2023, there were and still are many mixed reviews. The film currently has a 64% Rotten Tomatoes rating and a 54% Metacritic rating. When I went to see the movie myself, I noticed that the storyline and attention to detail were very well thought out, hence Collins’ excellent literature.
The reviews from fans say that the book was definitely much better than the film. However, some things were a bit more clear in the film than in the book. Some scenes seemed rushed and unfinished, and didn’t really display what should have been occurring over weeks rather than days. There also noticeably was some character development that was missed in the movie, which resulted in the viewer not really getting a lot of information about Snow and when he was losing his mind.
Because the trilogy was made and filmed so long ago, that could be another contributor to TBOSBAS and its unavoidable hollowness. Overall, it was a good watch but more so an excellent read and to form your own opinions I recommend watching the trilogy before finally seeing the prequel.
