The Ballard of Songbirds and Snakes

I decided to wait on reading this book for awhile after it came out, and I personally don't like reading books when they first come out because I like to wait till the hype goes down. I have no reason why, I am just weird.

Anywho.. I had saw all the Hunger Game movies when they first came out and for some reason I never read the books. Which is weird because I am a huge read the books first before the movies kinda gal. I loved the movies. I cried in the first one like a lunatic because all I could think of was, WHY? WHY WOULD SOMEONE DO THIS SHIT. Then after watching all the movies. Someone told me the books are better because there's no much more in it. Duh. I knew that was going to happen.

So for some stupid reason I told myself I'd read the book then I'd watch the movie to compare the difference. HORRIBLE IDEA! Why you ask?? Because I read all THREE books and watched all 4 MOVIES in ONE WEEKEND. HOLY SHIT. The insane emotions I felt in that weekend was horrendous. I cried, I didn't eat. I was a wreck. I think because of that one weekend I forever got attached to books so hard that I feel like I'm there in the book. (regardless of the story) It's also why I have to finish a book in a day or two because I have zero patience I get so wrapped around a book I become an emotional stick on where I left off in the book.

So that's my intro to reading this book... Also I hated Snow, Not gonna recap on these books cause I swear everyone knows these books. So when I found out this prequel was gonna be about him I was heeeeeehh about it because the last thing I wanted was to like the guy. I was curious about Tigris and how she fits into this as well.

So in the beginning you find out that Snow is actually a well known name but they sorta don't live the good life it seems. He is a senior in their Academy in the Capital and then you find out they are mentors for the Tributes, a different student for each one. Which I was actually curious how that worked in the early years since in the books its Winners from previous games but obviously in the beginning there wasn't a lot of them. (which later i found out it was a one year thing only) anyways, he gets paired with Lucy Gray from District 12. woahoh surprise surprise. maybe this is why he hates D12 so much.

(Also I've decided to read a few chapters then write as its a lot that happens in the book and I don't want to forget things as I read it)

Its the 10th hunger games so approx. 65 years before the books... so wait that made Snow in his 80s in the books? Jesus I wasn't expecting that.

It seems like a lot of the kids in his class actually hate the idea of the hunger games and then there's a few who seem to think its the best idea ever. (I don't get it) The tributes are actually treated like shit compared to the books. they are shackled in chains and are kept in zoo cages. like when did they transition to being almost royalty?? they don't fed them they don't do anything nice. you can only visit them for small amounts of time. Lucy is...interesting. you find out she's not originally a D12 as she happened to walking by with her family and they just sorta forced her there. her family is dead and its just her. kinda sad but who knows if she makes it outta this or not. a lot of crazy shit happens. a tribute slashes a mentors throat... they both die. yesh.

so there's this one interesting part so far, they're in their class talking to the gamemaker. and honestly I don't freaking remember anyone's name nor do I care to remember. so they start talking about things about the game and how the capital is supposed to care for the districts but don't. and then he says something about writing a proposal about the game. so then later the slash and dash happens and Snow is to awake to sleep after that and writes this proposal about how they should have sponsors to give them food in the game and that you can bet on them. they were talking about making it mandatory for everyone to watch. because back then I guess not everyone watched it cause its a dome of fucking kids killing each other.

I'm sorry I'm still lost in thought on how its a thing, like HOW DOES IT SOLVE ANYTHING. apparently cause we love children so its why we do it. naw. no logic there whats so ever. seriously sometimes dystopian novels can really fuck with you.

okay so he types this all up and he goes with friend whos a girl who i cant remember her name at the moment. it starts with C. So S and C go to the gamemaker and she says how they thought it together and tells this whole lie about it. not really sure why. it was a group project I guess but he did everything. the gamemaker makes her take her hand and put it in this tank with some weird as mutant shit and bites her and she's screaming and there's venom in it. jesus. apparently this mutant as shits didn't smell her on the paper so they knew she was lying so it proved that only Snow wrote it. the fuck.

the gamemaker liked this idea and say BOOM ITS HAPPENING. so there's how the sponsor shit happened and why people bet on who wins. fucking Snow man. I actually like him so far in this book, I'm surprised he seems to actually care for Lucy, but his grandma is saying to watch his back cause of course they are gonna be nice to get what they can from them. so I'm quite interesting to see where this goes. she can sing and Snow was telling her that she should do it to help get her sponsor to feed her during the game. he did say that they should sponsor food cause what's the point in watching if everyone is starving to death. I mean yes but why don't you just... don't.. whatever I know in 65 years shit goes DOWN. so its interesting to read the beginning when you sorta know what happens in the future. I just wanna know when Snow gets to be the devil. cause he's pretty low on the popularity scale and eventually becomes president.

So eventually a bomb goes off and woah. So Lucy actually saves Snow but apparently no saw it. so he is in the the hospital and you find out 3 tributes are dead and 3 mentors are dead and then there's his friend who apparently her parents haven't even seen. she comes to see him in the hospital and she's like wtf is going on my parents haven't seen me yet and look at my arm and she shows these scales and stuff and eventually she gets taken away. so they doc says the venom is clearly causing her to see stuff....right.....

There people are so freaking gullible it hurts. I mean maybe if I read this first I would think that but yeah no.

okayokay so like at this point I'm kinda curious on what's going on mostly cause is the game gonna happen or naw. so I start to think about the OG books and think to when they talked about the other games. did they bring this up? I couldn't remember. I knew Mags was from the beginning,(the 11th to be exact) so stupid me looks up stuff about the Hunger Games. lolololol. bad move girl. I know what happens now at the end of the book. BUT I'm still curious what happens to Snow. and why he turned to be a douche. I mostly just know who won the game. that's it. no data. which honestly I kinda figured anyways. Finnick talks about stuff that he did and his lies and secrets so here I am still super curious and just need to read it. its longer than I expected haha. see this is me rambling.

So this is what I'm gonna say is Part 2 of my ramble, I have finished the book and I'm honestly a little speechless. I did cry because that's just who I am till my husband was like "just start another book" so I'm kinda glad I wrote stuff as I go because truly that's what I need to do as if I got to the ending I wouldn't even know what to start with.

Alright so. the hunger games still went on, it was like honestly a few chapters which I guess just wasn't the plan plot in this book which is very interesting. Lucy Gray won. she hid most of the time till the gamemakers dropped in snakes, the same ones that his friend was bit by and Snow knew a head of time that they might go in the game so he put a handkerchief that had her smell on it so they wouldn't bite her. came in handy as she used them to poison the other people and bam she won.

They found out he cheated cause well its the capital I'm not surprised and they sent him to be a peacekeeper. I guess its where people when they've been bad but not bad enough to kill them. lol what. anyways he request D12 cause he knows that she will go back there, at least he hopes cause he didn't know what they would do to her. As they caught her with items in the game that helped her.

His friend that was from the districts end up coming there too and its great. sorta. lots of shit happens. He sees Lucy again and then you find out the guy is actually working with the rebels and he's trying to get out. you learn the origin of the mockingjays again more about the jabberjays and how they work. he uses one of them to record what he's saying about the rebels and it goes back to the capital. they find out and basically hang him. its quite sad and all I'm thinking about is how Snow is still trying to be good with the capital but still helping leave eventually.

some people die in self defense and he's like oh shit my gun was used and him and Lucy agree to run away when he just finds out that he's allowed to go to the college and go to officer training. in this conversation with the Dean, I think it was. you find out that Snows dad and the Dean together created the hunger games it was a project they did in school to show the absolute worst thing to do the enemy and when the Dean woke up he was like this was theoretical and its a bad idea but Snows dad submitted it anyways and bam here we are the hunger games have been created. I was very shocked to find out this was legit created because of a damn school project. ARE THESE PEOPLE IN SANE!? yes yes they are.

He still run away with Lucy only to her say she's going to dig up katniss which is a potato I believe. oh the irony.

She's been gone awhile and he starts looking for her and he sorta comes to a conclusion he doesn't like the wild and he's gonna go back and then he also realizes that he's pretty sure she knows that he killed his friend and she starts singing the hanging tree.

first off everything is sorta clicking to why Snow hates Katniss so much. I honestly feel like there is some family connection there like she can sing and she sings that song and who names there kid Katniss. ugggh its driving me crazy on all this my head hurts.

He gets bit by a snake and goes back to get it looked at and Lucy is still in the wild and basically never heard about again, there's no note on if she died so it says she's presumed dead at this point by the first hunger games. (thanks wiki)

he goes to the school and all is happy for him. the Dean told him that they deleted the whole hunger games and its like it never happened. and he flat out poisons the Dean from a drink, with rat poison I believe it was and the ending is just him about how he's TOTALLY DOUCHE.

UGGGGGHH. I will keep saying that to this day.

Also this was the year they added the tribute center and where everything we see from the books get added all because of Snow, the victory village, the betting, the better prizes at the end etc.

This is so far my longest post but its a long book and shit happens. I'm so confused and don't even know how to feel with this book. I think deep down Snow was always going to be a capital boy no matter what. since its a prequel its really hard to think the best of things when you know the shit that happens. I can't believe how much he turned so quickly.

In the end of all this, I did enjoy the book. it's well written but its hard to say i loved it and its Snow. He had a lot of compassion in the beginning and I wish he could have just kept that. I honestly hope there's a book of years after with Katniss and Peta cause just the ending where them in the forest doesn't answer what happened to everyone really. anyways I've gone on long enough with this book. just read it if you read the hunger games book. so many things click into place. makes your head wanna exploded.

its written by Suzanne Collins but i feel like everyone should know that.

P.s. i really need to think of a fun rating system.