A review by kivt
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

4.0

i went into this with low expectations and was very pleasantly surprised! i wouldn’t have looked to collins for a solid execution of a fascist antihero coming-of-age story, but she did it. it was a good character study and a nice contrast to the confused ideological mess that was mockingjay. part of what makes this so successful is that the writing was tighter than the original series. it’s cool to see an author gain success and then get better at what they do. if you liked the original series i’d recommend it, but while it’s surprisingly well-executed, i don’t think it’s especially profound or interesting outside the context of the original series.