The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The Prequel to the Hunger Games Trilogy
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.
“It’s the pull between Coryo’s head and heart — and the realization that he actually has a beating heart, not just a rose-scented lump of coal — that makes the future President Snow very worthy of a 517-page prequel.”–The Washington Post
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
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“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes…confirms Collins as a master of dystopian YA, able to spin engaging tales around deeply flawed characters and societies.”
–New York Journal of Books
“A gripping mix of whipsaw plot twists and propulsive writing make this story’s complex issues—vulnerability and abuse, personal responsibility, and institutionalized power dynamics—vivid and personal.”
—Publishers Weekly
“It is a steep challenge to write a book whose hero is, everyone knows, destined to become deeply evil. Do we want to hear — now, after we know the endgame — that the young Voldemort was unfairly saddled with a demerit in class or that the adolescent Sauron fretted because he had to wear hand-me-down clothes? Yes, please.”
–The New York Times, Sarah Lyall