Meg Reads: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

A prequel to the Hunger Games Trilogy? The purchase of this was inevitable since the last time I was on a reading streak was like...10 years ago when I read the first 3 books. This prequel was a perfect addition to my 2020 reading habit revival, and within the first paragraph I knew I would tear through it quickly. 

Since time is not usually my own, I’ve been multitasking with audiobooks a lot, but this one deserved a paper copy. 

The Hunger Games Book series really dive into the “how does a society get here?” Types of questions. And with a civil rights and social justice battle changing the world outside my door and igniting important and uncomfortable conversations within my home, I recognized a heavy portion of the same themes in the book. Prejudice, apathy, broken systems, denial, selfishness, survival, social injustice, blindness to privilege, uprising, corruption, and the voices of the oppressed uniting against it. 

This book was uncomfortable and consuming. Like a train wreck.  I developed an immediate dislike for the protagonist, but the author tries HARD to make you love him, and I think I might have if I were not consciously working to analyze my own privilege and programmed racist thoughts. You want to empathize with the protagonist, but instead the “how did he get there? What would I do?” Thoughts really caused me to identify with other characters more often, and by mid-book, I’d labeled the main character as a sociopath at best. 

This is not an excellent book review?  But seriously, read it. It’s like Suzanne Collins has a crystal ball. I know it’s a prequel to the Hunger Games, but it’s also a mirror mirror of some very broken departments and systems in so many ways. There are not really any religious themes In this novel, but throughout my reading, as conflicts (both for just one or two characters, or in the society as a whole) arose, I questioned what might look or turn out differently if the characters had relied on Jesus (and emulated what He would do) instead of putting all of their trust into the natural man, who fails them   As I face my own battles against injustice and corrupt systems and also  resolve to use my voice stand up for the voiceless, powerless, or overlooked, I found a lot of parallels in this book. I recognized ways I can trust in God, and lean not unto my own understanding—the latter being a habitual reflex for the protagonist.  This book was a

“What not to do” story for me.  I wanted to understand Coriolanus, and be happy for his successes. I just never got past the vanity and deceitful promoting and self aggrandizing.  Sure, it’s all fiction, but loads of great ethics questions in this book. 

Read. Question. Learn. Awake. Act.