By VIVIAN KOPKA
The 2020 novel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,”prequel to the “Hunger Games” trilogy, didn’t impress me as much as I’d hoped. I read it over the summer, after I read the three “Hunger Games” books.
Part of my lack of inspiration could have been because of my age. A lot of Collins’ writing, more so in the first novel, was telling and not showing – a big “no-no” in creative writing.
“But there’s also food if you know how to find it. My father knew and he taught me some before he was blown to bits in a mine explosion. There was nothing even to bury,” a quote from the first book that forced me to close it and throw my hands up. I can see how fourth to eighth graders could eat this up, but the present tense and the weird jumps were laughable.
However, after I got sucked in, I couldn’t stop, which is one of the most important parts of writing. It’s simple, clear, and interesting. A relaxing beach read (not content-wise), if you will.
Okay now fast forward to “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” Collins’ writing is too straightforward to create a nuanced fallen-angel trope. Again, I think my lack of enjoyment is from my unfortunate abundance of English Language education at this point of my life.
Since the novel was in the third person limited (past-tense), focused on Coriolanus Snow, the stress on order and rules in Snow’s thoughts were overdone to the point where it was obvious what Collins was foreshadowing. After Coriolanus goes into the arena to fetch his friend, Sejanus, he reflected on his short time spent there:
“Coriolanus thought about what it had felt like to be in the arena, where there were no rules, no laws, no consequences to one’s actions. The needle of his moral compass had swung madly without direction. Fueled by the terror of being prey, how quickly he himself had become a predator…. He’d transformed, all right, but not into anything he was proud of — and being a Snow, he had more self-control than most. He tried to imagine what it would be like if the whole world played by those same rules. No consequences.”
The plot, in a straightforward sense, shows how Snow “falls.” I wish the narration had hidden more in the beginning. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed reading the book.
So, this book came out in 2020. Nothing I’m saying hasn’t been said before. It’s not relevant, but it’s relevant to me, because just this week I watched the movie, which came out in 2023. Ok, yeah, it’s still not relevant. Take it up with the Editor-In-Chief if you have a problem. Oh wait, that’s me.
Anyways, I did not take into consideration that Coriolanus Snow would be a six-plus foot baddie with a grin that can make men, women, and nonbinaries alike blush from miles away. The casting of the film may have saved the film.
All jokes aside, so many of the supporting characters did such a great job with their characters. Even if every other actor was horrible, Viola Davis as Dr. Gaul was so chilling, I can not imagine anyone who could have played her better. I loved to hate her.
Also, Peter Dinklage as Dean Highbottom is some of the best spending of budget money for any movie ever. I’ve never seen “Game of Thrones” before, so I don’t know his Sci-Fi or Dystopic Fiction repertoire besides his few moments in the “Thor” and “Avengers” movies. Other honorable mentions are Jason Schwartzman as Lucky Flickerman and Hunter Schafer as Tigris.
The actors brought this movie together, but what made this movie supersede the novel was the lack of internal dialogue from Coriolanus Snow. I apologize to whoever this offends, but that boy annoyed me in the novel. Not in a way where he was making the wrong choices, but in a way where I was begging him just to be evil already so he would shut up.
After watching the movie, I wonder if I had watched the film first if I would have liked the novel better. Perhaps the performances of the actors in the movie would have falsified a depth in the book I felt was missing. Furthermore, I wonder if watching the three “Hunger Games” movies (multiple times) before ever reading the trilogy affected my reading experience this summer. I wonder if I would have pictured Gale and Peeta as beautiful boys if I didn’t know how to picture Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson.
Featured image: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes screencap, Vanity Fair
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