Waiting on Wednesday | The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Hey friends,

I hope you’re all doing well!

I can’t believe that California has been in lockdown for over a month. The pacing has been so irregular and I’ve officially lost track of time. I’m hoping to get a few videos up this week. I have a few that just need to be edited. Since I’ve also been back to reading, I should have weekly reading vlogs starting back up again soon.

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For those of you not familiar, Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. This meme spotlights highly anticipated upcoming releases. 2020 has some amazing books coming out, this is a great way to highlight them since I’m pretty shit at doing anticipated release posts.

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This week’s pick:

This week I’m highlighting The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins.

Synopsis:

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the 10th annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, 18-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 out charm, 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.

Predictions/Early Thoughts:

I have so many mixed feelings about this book. I joined the Hunger Games fandom pretty late to the game. I didn’t read the books until my junior year of high school and I only saw the first two movies in theaters and it was years until I saw Mockingjay. I really enjoyed the books, but it wasn’t ever a Twilight or Harry Potter level obsession for me the way it was with my contemporaries. I also haven’t reread the books. I read them once when they were popular and that was it.

When the prequel was announced, I was intrigued. That being said, once Snow was announced as the protagonist I was hesitant to read this one. I’m all for a good villain origin story, don’t get me wrong, but it’s hard to do an origin story right, especially for a character as detested as Snow. I’m worried we’re gonna get a “scorn by lover” or “fucked over by the man” type story.

I’m of course going to do a reread of the original trilogy before picking this one up, and  I’ll be going in with an open mind.

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Are you planning on reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes?

Be sure to let me know below!