I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-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 outcharm, 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.

Short and Sweet Review

It is time for the 10th annual Hunger Games and Coriolanus Snow has been chosen to be a mentor to one of the tributes. Coriolanus knows that if his tribute wins that this could bring him and his family back to their former glory. The odds are stacked against him when he’s given a tribute from distract 12, but Lucy Gray has a way about her that charms people and Coriolanus knows that every choice they make can either make it or break it for them.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is Coriolanus Snow’s villain origin story. We get to see who President Snow was before he became the guy gunning for Katniss in the Hunger Games trilogy. Here we see that the house of Snow has fallen on hard times and he’s just trying to make it by and keep up appearances. Coriolanus attends the academy and him and 23 other students were chosen to be mentors. Coriolanus is given Lucy Gray from district 12 and she’s probably the most willing to talk to her mentor and follow his lead, she’s also a singer and that’s how she’s been winning over the people. Coriolanus finds himself coming up with new ideas for the games, like betting and sending things into the arena for the tributes, and it was interesting to see that it was him who came up with some of the things we see in the other books. Coriolanus falls for Lucy which in the ends gets him in trouble and instead of being in the Capitol he’s sent to be a peacekeeper in district 12. In district 12 Coriolanus tries to follow the rules but he’s reunited with Lucy again and also an old friend from the Capitol but they have some rebel ideas in mind. It took me a while to figure out but after some thinking I realized that this is when we see Coriolanus make the switch into a villain, during his time in district 12. After we see Coriolanus switch up on people he ends up going back to the Capitol and starts to make his way back up the social ladder and this is when he eventually becomes the President Snow that we see in future books.

I thought this book was interesting and I liked that we get to see how Snow became who he was. It was also interesting that this book isn’t completely focused on the games its just one part of the book. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, the pacing was kind of slow but it was really to build everything up and in the end I was satisfied and a few days after reading this book I’m still thinking about it.