The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

BY SUZANNE COLLINS

CW: Murder, cannibalism, guns.

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A masterpiece. Truly. There aren't enough words in the dictionary to describe how I feel about this book. This is the second time I have read this book, and I picked it up again in preparation for the next iteration, "Sunrise on the Reaping." First of all, given that it is a prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy, about the young life of the main villain in the original story, it already has a strong foundation and guaranteed interest from Hunger Games fans. In another sense, though, Suzanne Collins may have felt additional pressure because of the success of the original books, so major props are due because this is pure gold.

First, despite what it may seem, this is not a love story.

"What! How? Of course it is!" You might be thinking, but come along with me on this journey, and you'll see what I mean.

It's about control.

I remember eagerly waiting for months after finishing the book for the movie's release, talking about it weekly. Finally, my partner and I sat down and watched it in the theatre. The colours were so vibrant and the story so engaging - when Coriolanus and Lucy Gray meet up by the hanging tree and head into the woods to start their life in the wildness, running away from all the chaos and murder they left in District 12 - I almost felt my partner start packing up and getting ready to go. He thought it was the end, naturally. But I'm so glad it wasn't because the story that this actually tells is one so dark, so sinister, and accurate; it covers topics in a way that the average reader/watcher could easily glance over and, sure, think it's just a star-crossed lovers story, but that's missing the point entirely. At this point, I started tearing up, knowing what was to come, and gripped my partner's hand tighter and tighter. He said later that he understood something else was to go down. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I watched Coriolanus find the guns, Lucy Gray figuring it out that only she could connect him to the murder and that he killed his best friend Sejanus so he could kill her too, and then ran into the woods for safety.

This review is about the book, but I can't talk about it without what happened to me at the movies. The movie captured something so raw about the scene when Coriolanus picked up the scarf that the book did not. He had a rough upbringing, living through the war and not having money to eat, living with the trauma of seeing his neighbours eat dead friends in the street out of desperation, in the Capitol, where civility and class were considered so highly. This summer, though, threw him into madness. A madness that molded him into the monster that we eventually know as President Snow in Katniss' time. Collins does a fantastic job of making him likable throughout everything until the very end. That summer, he fell in love with the girl he was mentoring in the Hunger Games; he needed her to win so that he could win a full tuition to University and save the legacy of the Snow name from ruin. He represented everything from the Capitol that the districts despised. But because she was Covey, a musical troupe member, he tried to convince watchers that she wasn't district but Capitol so that when she got out, she could live with him in the Capitol. He would keep his reputation as one of the most powerful families in the Capitol. But she wasn't district nor Capitol, if anything, definitely closer to district. Yet, Coryo tried to convince himself she would be accepted. He almost forgot about that massive detail throughout this unbelievable summer.

He helped her survive the hunger games, even cheated and got himself thrown out of the Capitol into the peacekeeper life as punishment. He lost his status rep, reputation, and winnings. But he loved her. He asked to go to District 12 to find her. He found her, and they were both so wrapped up in the reunions that whenever they would briefly discuss the situation between the Capitol and districts, she opposed him, naturally, but they brushed it off each time. He had killed one of the tributes when he had to rescue Sejanus from entering the arena. He then killed Sejanus indirectly when he admitted to his plans with the rebels, and they hung him. He had killed District 12's mayor's daughter when she had the information to have him hanged. Although Coryo had survived the war and struggled to eat daily for years, he suddenly entered this reality where he cheated, murdered repeatedly, lied, and sneaked around, and this happened over a matter of weeks, not years. From someone who valued integrity and class so highly, he quickly deteriorated into chaos. One can only imagine how distraught he felt inside. One of the main things he took away from Dr. Gaul's teachings was that if you strip away all the class, power, food, and social rules from humanity, humans always devolve into violence. Whether or not that's true, that's what happened to him. He was stripped of his life, authority, legacy, class, and what had he devolved into? Violence and murder.

Side note: Dr. Gaul is superb as a character. She's absolutely terrifying. Well done.

Now, about the control. If you notice, he refers repeatedly to Lucy Gray as his girl, his property, almost. Especially early on in the games, she was his. She was his tribute, and everyone referred to her as that. His, his rainbow girl, his songbird. Having her and owning her were his tickets to winning the mentor award if she survived the games. After the games, when he was looking for her, he would worry about her falling back for her ex or moving on, and he would comfort himself by reminding himself that "she was his, wasn't she? His girl." Another instance of control showed up regarding the mockingjays, he hated their mutation creation, he wanted to round them all up and shoot them. He hated that the Capitol's weapons, the Jabberjays, had mated with the mockingbirds and created a mutt. He considered it an evolutionary nightmare. He despised their spontaneous creation because it symbolized the Capitol's lack of control over the birds they created. They symbolized the lack of control.

Coryo approved of the Hunger Games and its ability to control the never-ending war. He handled every situation in which he could be found in the wrong by finding something to control. He hated Sejanus because he couldn't control him. Ultimately, he hated Lucy Gray because he realized he couldn't control her. That summer spiraled into a hallucinogenic memory of lawlessness and insanity. That summer he spent in District 12 solidified his beliefs on what chaos would ensue when control and order did not exist. When he was sent back to the Capitol, he got to work on the Hunger Games evolution, propelling him into a tyrannic Presidency. Where he could control the whole of Panem.

Throughout the book, he is referred to as Coriolanus or the nickname Coryo. However, in the last few pages, in the epilogue, when he returns to the Capitol and begins his newly regained power and status, the author only refers to him as Snow. That's clever. He's not yet President Snow, but he's certainly not Coriolanus anymore.

This book is so powerful because of what is unsaid but insinuated about our society today—our own dystopian nightmare. It's also about control and power. It's a great narrative on what that looks like and how it's processed from generation to generation.

Do you remember me saying tears ran down my cheeks when Coriolanus picked up the scarf in one of the last scenes? Well, that's because it reminded me of my brother. (Let alone the actor in the movie looks a lot like my brother). It was like watching my baby brother, who had a horrible upbringing that was, unfortunately, his normal and all he knew, go through something else so disturbing and insane later in life that it made him delirious. It was the simple act of picking up that scarf and sniffing it and smiling with distant eyes while the world around him was fading and the trees were blurry and wobbly, the birds above were singing maniacly, that he smelled that faint scent of her. It reminded him of a brief time they had happiness together. That sent me over the edge. It was like watching a metaphor of how my brother had this rough childhood, too, but then later in life, he went through this unfortunate, swift, traumatic experience that threw him into a space where he could not come back. I won't get into the details as it's pretty dark. Still, he was already struggling, and this experience had cut the small string he was grasping onto reality with all his might and sent him into a perspective that didn't align with real life. Just like Coriolanus had never experienced anything but war and violence, his small string tied him to think perhaps not all people are inherently violent, and he ultimately lost that idea entirely. My brother had never experienced anything but inner and outer war and violence, and he lost his string to a reality where he could see himself having a happy life, and ultimately that summer, like Coriolanus', they both only saw a distorted future full of pain.

That's really personal, but I wanted to share it because I had such a raw reaction to that moment. Collins does a fantastic job of making the reader feel for Coriolanus despite the tyrant he turns into; you can really understand how he got there. He vouched to never fall in love again because it made him weak and vulnerable. So this old man that we see in the original books, the cruel President, spent most of his life never feeling the emotion of love again. No wonder he could kill so easily. No wonder he reveled in torturing and tricking Katniss.

I love that Collins left Lucy Gray as a mystery. Did she survive? Did she die in the woods? How did she pass down the hanging tree song so Katniss knew it so well decades later? Are they related? Do you think President Snow hated Katniss so much because (1) her name reminded him of the swamp potatoes he and Lucy Gray were going to eat, (2) he heard her singing the hanging tree song, a song that Lucy Gray sang, and sang to him once as a message of where to meet so they could run away together, and (3) she became the Mockingjay, the bird that he hated so dearly because of its symbolism of the Capitol's lack of control?

I like to think Lucy Gray survived, and Katniss is a distant relative. What do you think?

Last thing - the creation of the Capitol is magnificent. A place that is so extra in its fashion, mass amounts of money, controls the districts, has all of these rigid social rules, and if you break them, there are severe consequences. The districts have no food or money, yet Capitol people created a drink you can have when you are full to eat more food. The avoxes, people who misbehaved and had their tongues cut out and forced to spend their lives as servants! Dr. Gaul and her creepy lab of engineered mutts, cages with avoxes, and animal parts sewn together! Horrific! Magnificent! I can't get enough!