The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
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| Written by: | Suzanne Collins |
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| Synopsis: | |
| Series: | The Hunger Games |
| Followed by: | The Hunger Games |
| First published: | May 19, 2020 |
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a 2020 novel by Susan Collins, a prequel to The Hunger Games. It features President Snow and the first District 12 tribute to win her games.
"Welcome to the 10th Annual Hunger Games!" Once, President Coriolanus Snow was a boy. A student, to be precise, assigned to mentor a tribute in the Hunger Games. He's not looking forward to it, since he got a girl from District 12, one of the underdog regions.
But Lucy Gray Baird intrigues him. She knows how to entertain an audience while preparing to defend herself. What's more, they need each other to survive.
Tropes used in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes include:
- Anger Born of Worry: While Dean Highbottom bullies Snow, he genuinely gets angry at him for getting into the truck with the tributes and the zoo. As he points out, Snow could have easily been injured or killed, and gives him a demerit.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: The reason why Lucy starts defending Snow from fellow tributes and journalists; she notes how he was the only mentor that showed up to meet her when they were loaded from a boxcar to a prison truck in the capitol. Despite himself, Snow falls for Lucy for similar reasons. This ends poorly for them both.
- Becoming the Mask: Lucy and Snow both acknowledge that they are partnered because of obligation, not because either of them wishes to be involved with the Hunger Games. But because they need each other, they will play the part of mentor and student. Soon, however, Snow starts falling for Lucy for real, and she defends him from others that would disparage him. Unfortunately, just as it seems they can be together in District 12, Snow sells out Sejanus to save his own skin, and it goes downhill from there.
- Call Forward: Plenty for the Panem set during Katniss's time:
- Lucy protects Snow from the other tributes by saying that they may be dying in the arena, but they have families back home that the Capitol could target if they kill a mentor. It's implied Snow later used this idea against future tributes, such as Finnick, Johanna and Haymitch.
- The tributes are basically starved in the zoo, with one killing her mentor after the latter taunts her with food too many times. Snow changed the rules as President so the tributes can at least get stable lodgings and square meals before they enter the arena.
- Lucy Gray composes the song "The Hanging Tree" after witnessing a lover being strung in District 12. Katniss would later sing this song to the mockingjays, haunting Snow decades after he left Lucy and her uncertain fate in the woods.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Snow does not find starvation funny. He remembers when his family scrambled for food, and absolutely hates that he and Tigris have to stretch their cabbage and rations. As a result, he is not amused when seeing some mentors taunt their tributes with food. In the main trilogy, the tributes are given proper meals and safe lodgings so they can't die or kill each other before the games start.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Why Casca Highbottom is sloshed to the nines all the time; he came up with the Hunger Games as a drunken joke about what would be the worst punishment for the districts. Snow's father stole the idea and presented it seriously, giving Highbottom the credit. Highbottom is horrified about what he did, refuses to call the tributes anything but "children", and makes sure that Lucy returns to District 12 with some money after Snow cheats to help her win.
- This is why Lucky Flickerman, unlike his descendant Caesar, is no good at narrating the Hunger Games; he finds the idea of betting on children distasteful and would rather review the weather.
- Lucy Gray is willing to put snakes down rivals' dresses, murder to defend herself, and lie to save her own skin. She draws the line at betraying a friend, and figured out that Snow sold out Sejanus.
- Morality Chain: Snow has three of them, and he loses them over the course of the books.
- His cousin Tigris, who always makes sure that Coriolanus is well-fed and dressed. By the time of the main trilogy, they are estranged. It's implied that Tigris left Snow after seeing the monster he was becoming.
- Sejanus Plinth considers Snow is Only Friend and best friend in the Capitol, amid the other old rich. Snow sells out Sejanus, but thought he wouldn't be hung owing to his father's influence. He is horrified about what he did but only thinks to cover his tracks.
- Lucy Gray falls for Snow for real after he goes out of his way to help her survive, and win. Despite himself, he sympathizes and empathizes with her situation. Then she finds out that he got Sejanus killed, and runs into the woods. Snow tries to shoot her in despair, while not knowing if he killed her as well. Afterward, he takes the first opportunity possible to return to the Capitol, and become the leader we all know in the present.
- Nice Guy: Sejanus Plinth, in part because he arrived to the Capitol under protest after his dad sold out his district. He's the first one to take initiative in feeding the tributes using his mom's sandwiches and tries to keep his friend Marcus alive, even if Marcus isn't willing to cooperate with him.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In-universe, no one, not even Snow, finds out what happened to Lucy Gray after Snow shoots her in the woods. She could have bled out, made it to the north to District 13, died making that journey, or returned to District 12 under a fake name. The uncertainty of her fate haunts Snow to the present; it's implied that Katniss resembling her so much, hair and all, made him ping her as a threat.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Snow's main goal is to help Lucy Gray Baird survive the arena, and maybe even win to boost his own social standing. He succeeds in both goals...and gets busted for helping her cheat to win. Cue Snow being sent to District 12, and dealing with the fallout of his actions in the third act.