The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a novel written by Suzanne Collins. Released in 2020, it is a prequel to Collins' Hunger Games trilogy and tells of Coriolanus Snow's time within the Games.
Main Characters[]
- Coriolanus Snow
- Lucy Gray Baird
- Sejanus Plinth
- Casca Highbottom
- Dr. Volumina Gaul
- Tigris Snow
Publisher's summary[]
It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capital, 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.
Summary[]
Coriolanus Snow is one of 24 students of the Academy selected to mentor a tribute in the 10th Hunger Games. His family has fallen on hard times and he is assigned the female tribute from District 12, a girl named Lucy Gray Baird of a singing and performance group called the Covey. He quickly forms a bond with the girl, but things get chaotic before the games even begin. One of the chosen mentors, Arachne Crane, is killed by her own tribute and several tributes and mentors are injured and killed in a bombing of the Capitol Arena.
Coriolanus Snow tries everything he can to help his tribute, but is also drawn into the troubles of his classmate, Sejanus Plinth. Sejanus is originally from District 2 and is horrified by the treatment of the tributes and particular his own tribute, Marcus, who is strung up in the arena for trying to escape during the bombing of the arena. Coriolanus ends up in the Arena himself, at the orders of Dr. Volumnia Gaul, the Head Gamemaker, who has taken a personal interest in Coriolanus. He rescues Sejanus, but ends up killing one of the tributes, Bobbin, in the process. As the Games continue, he ends up taking more desperate measures when he learns that Dr. Gaul is releasing snake mutations in the arena. He places a handkerchief riddled with Lucy Gray's scent in the mutation snake tank to prevent them from attacking her. This does work, and the snakes seem mesmerised when Lucy Gray begins to sing “The Old Therebefore”. Coriolanus wonders whether this magical scene was happening because of Lucy Gray’s singing, or the fact that in an open, vast arena, her scent was one the snakes were familiar with. Lucy Gray then makes it to the final three, where she kills Treech by throwing one of the snake muttations that she had hidden in her dress, at him.
She then kills Reaper by exhausting him in the searing sun, and poisoning him. Lucy Gray then waits for over half an hour, until she is finally declared the winner of the 10th Hunger Games. However, shortly afterward, Coriolanus is confronted with his father‘s handkerchief that he’d dropped in the muttation tank, a napkin he used to bring food to Lucy Gray, and his mother's compact, filled with the rat poison he instructed Lucy Gray to use by the Academy's dean, Casca Highbottom, who seems to have some sort of grudge against him. Highbottom expels him from the Academy, but promises not to reveal his disgrace if he enrolls in the Peacekeepers.
Coriolanus enrolls in the Peacekeepers, asking to be assigned to District 12, where he has fallen head-over-heels for Lucy Gray Baird, though he worries about her spurned lover, Billy Taupe. In District 12, things quickly become tangled, as Sejanus Plinth was made to enroll in the Peacekeepers as well. Sejanus seems bent on helping the rebels in District 12. Coriolanus learns of the bubbling rebel resentment in the community of District 12, while trying to form a new life with Lucy Gray as well. He also takes the test to become an officer with the Peacekeepers, Sejanus having used his father Strabo Plinth's influence to secure a diploma for Coriolanus. Things come to a head when Coriolanus discovers Sejanus aiding the rebels. He covertly informs the Capitol of the activity, but he himself ends up shooting Mayfair Lipp, the mayor's daughter and Billy Taupe's other lover. He hatches a desperate plan with Lucy Gray to run away north, before learning that he passed the officer's test.
Worried that he will still be implicated in the crime, Coriolanus runs away with Lucy Gray anyway, but then discovers that he can get rid of the evidence. At the same time, Lucy Gray realizes his betrayal of Sejanus and his loyalty to the Capitol. She runs away and sets a trap for him. He tries to track her down, but is bitten by a snake in the woods. He fires into the woods, hoping to kill her, though it is unclear if his shots connect.
The next day, he travels away to become an officer, but is diverted back to the Capitol by Dr. Gaul. She has decided to take him on as her protege. He begins studying at the University in the Capitol and also takes on a position as an apprentice Gamemaker although the others treat him as a full fledged member. Coriolanus then implemented many of his ideas into the Games that we see in later years. The Plinths fund his studies and lifestyle, convinced he was a great friend of their son and unaware of his betrayal. He poisons Casca Highbottom, the first victim of his signature method of dispatching his enemies, reflecting that "Snow lands on top."