Hello friends, foe, and fellow tributes;
“Welcome to the 10th Annual Hunger Games.”
For those of you who had the (mis)fortune of knowing me in my early teen years, you should remember well the fact that I was an insufferable Hunger Games fan/nerd/walking encyclopaedia.
I am pleased to announce that nothing has changed in that aspect.
And thanks to one Suzanne Collins, I have had and will continue to have new Hunger Games content until at least 2027.
Strap in fckers, it’s going to be a long two years hehehehehe.
So let’s start with the first stop on the resurgence tour shall we? The release of Collins’ first prequel novel: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Published in May of 2020, like many things that year - the books released into the wild suffered commercially from the pandemic-that-shall-not-be-named.
As was understandable, there were a lot more pressing matters clogging up our timelines.
However, Songbirds and Snakes chalked up over half a million sales in its first week alone, the first print run from Scholastic surpassed 2.5 million - a record breaking figure - and it was the top selling book in all of their categories for the first half of 2020.
TBOSAS (as you may have gathered from my introduction to today’s TedTalk) covers the period of the 10th Hunger Games.
PAUSE
In case you are an uncultured swine or haven't spoken to me for more than 10 minutes let me give you a whistlestop explanation:
The Hunger Games is a (currently) fictional reality TV show in (another) dystopian America. 24 Children between 12 and 18, 12 girls and 12 boys (yay equality) are thrown into an arena to fight to the death until a single* victor remains.
The games began as a punishment to the Districts aka general population for daring to rebel against the Capitol (government.)
Nothing familiar there at all. So unbelievably unbelievable right? Listen carefully and you’ll hear Suzanne Collins and Margaret Atwood laughing at the unrealistic worlds they’ve created - so very, very different from our own utopic society.
Anyways…
TBOSAS, although documenting the build-up, actual events, and fallout of the 10th games, actually focuses more on showing us an 18 year old Coriolanus Snow (our future child-killing, sex-trafficking, poison-drinking President, in Katniss Everdeen’s time.)
The Capitol and many of its citizens including the Snow family (Corio, his cousin Tigris and their Grandmother) is still rebuilding and still dealing with the aftermath of ‘The Dark Days’ of the rebellion.
Snow’s father was killed by rebels in District 12 and the family's wealth was decimated when their factories in the freshly obliterated District 13 were - well… ya know, obliterated.
The surviving Snow family members have been hanging by a financial thread for so long now that their only hope of salvation, and not being evicted (and therefore socially ruined) is that Coriolanus wins the new, and highly coveted ‘Plinth Prize.’
He’s among the 24 Capitol students selected to be the very first mentors for the tributes in this year's games.
But why oh why do the tributes now suddenly deserve the help of a mentor figure?
Oh, that’s because even the bloodthirsty-detached-from-reality Capitol citizens have begun to stop watching the slaughter of children on national TV.
To summarise: the ratings have fallen and the sociopaths in charge of the games want the students/mentors to come up with ‘exciting’ ways to recapture the audience’s attention.
Capitalism at its finest gents.
Driven by loathing (of an unknown origin) the Dean of students – and one of the creators of the games themselves – Casca Highbottom, assigns young Snow to mentor District 12’s female tribute; Lucy Gray Baird.
(The implication is that because District 12 is one of the poorest, weakest Districts, Snow will not be able to be a good mentor because his tribute will be rubbish and die super quickly.)
But Lucy Gray (and yes, that is the proper form of her name, not just Lucy) proves to be far from weak and anything but dull. From shoving a snake down the dress of the Mayor’s daughter after her name is called, to telling the viewers to kiss her ass live on stage – Lucy Gray proves to be a valuable ratings booster and fan-favourite.
Snow and Baird couldn’t come from more different worlds and yet they are forced to work together to ultimately save both their lives and in turn, their loved ones.
But with rebel attacks, a bat-shit crazy head gamemaker, a lifetime of prejudices, and a still recovering post–war arena and equipment… ?
Well.
Let the games begin.
The games may demand a single victor, but the tributes find they are not the only ones at stake. Snow must choose between rules, regulations, and a deep-down rebellious streak, to see where his journey will end.
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That’s as much as I want to say plot wise without truly spoiling the whole thing.
The thing is, Suzanne Collins’ work is always so detailed and complex and intertwined, that it feels impossible to give you just an ‘overview’ or ‘taste’ of what to expect.
I rewrote the above attempt at a summary at least five times because I cannot stress how much I don’t want to spoil it, but at the same time, ALL I WANT TO DO IS DO A DEEP-DETAIL-DIVE BECAUSE EVERY LITTLE THING IN THESE STORIES MATTERS. But I can’t do that because otherwise this review would be roughly the same length of the novel itself and I think there may be an attempt or two to have me committed.
So. I did my best babes.
Now, I think I’ve made it clear so far my opinion on Collins and all her writings. The original Hunger Games trilogy was my first real step up into the YA genre, which has basically been my literary home ever since. I will always love and be grateful for those wonderful, exciting, heartbreaking books.
Songbirds and Snakes?
I don’t know what to say man, it just👏hits👏DIFFERENT.
When I read it in October 2023, it engaged me in the story in a way that I hadn’t encountered in a really, really long time.
There’s a conflict that overtakes you as a reader with this story, and to be honest if it doesn’t/didn’t?
Read it again, because I think you may have missed some vital bits.
I’ve always loved a truly well crafted villain.
Now, let me clarify something off the bat –
I HATE – NAY, LOATHE– NAY, DESPISE, THE MAN THAT IS CORIOLANUS SNOW (FICTIONAL THOUGH HE MAY BE!)
Snow is a truly cretinous being and no amount of tragic backstory will ever make me come even CLOSE to liking him.
To be honest, I barely feel sorry for him either – BUT – there is an element of *understanding that Songbirds and Snakes provides this man-devil.
I have almost zero doubt in my mind that Snow was born with all the biological factors to contribute to an anti–social personality disorder.
Whether he falls more into the category of sociopath or psychopath is for more qualified people than me to determine, but I know crazy when I see/read it.
So step one; homeboy is born almost definitely genetically primed to become the evil prick he grows into.
Then there’s his environment. We know from the book (and film) that he was at most 4 or 5 years old when the war broke out across the country – a period of time when brain development becomes more solid, and moral concepts like right and wrong and empathy begin to take on more meaning.
Ya know, unless you're a potential ASP born into an already dystopian world that then devolves into all out warfare.
Unless that.
His mother died in childbirth along with his still born baby sister, his father (by all accounts, a bastard in his own right) is killed by rebels, he and his family were borderline starving during the conflict and things don’t get much better when the ‘Dark Days’ ended at Snow’s age of eight.
NOTE: I DO NOT LIKE CORIOLANUS SNOW – FEELING PITY FOR A STARVING FIVE YEAR OLD IS A FAR CRY FROM FEELING BAD FOR A HOMICIDAL GROWN ASS DEVIL-MAN.
So step one, his genetic potential – this loads the gun.
Step two, the environment and circumstances of his developmental years? They aim the gun.
Snow was raised in an elitist, cut-throat society even before the war.
His father was not a nice man and (it is implied) was not even a good one.
Three years of childhood development spent in conflict with people he’s already been taught are lesser than him, and the cause of all their own and his problems.
He then spends 9 years watching the games, his prejudicial indoctrination continuing and becoming desensitised to the thoughtless, commercialised killing of children around his own age.
Target acquired, am I right?
FOR THE FINAL TIME — I FUCKING DETEST THIS MAN.
None of this, NONE OF IT, justifies what he becomes. It goes a little way to explaining some of the journey, BUT a crucial fact about Snow is that he is viciously intelligent; academically, socially, politically etc. etc.
You cannot change my mind that the more intelligent a ‘bad guy’ is, the less justification there is for their evil-ness. If you have the intellectual capacity to know right from wrong and be very much aware of your own fuckery then screw you, you child murdering piece of shit.
The really annoying thing at this exact point of writing is that last night I came up with the PERFECT conclusion to this analysis of Snow.
I of course then promptly fell asleep and forgot every word.
But what I suppose it comes back to in simplicity is I love a well-written, expertly crafted villain.
And Suzanne and therefore Snow, fckin DELIVER.
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Lucy Gray Baird is another masterfully constructed character.
Even if you ignore the fact that in the film she’s played by the love of my life Rachel Zegler, Lucy Gray brings something to the story that is both crucial too, and yet also missing from the original trilogy.
Does that make much sense? No, probably not. But I’ll try me darndest to explain what I mean.
Lucy Gray was never ‘supposed’ to be in the games.
She’s a member of the Covey – a familial group of travelling musicians who used to ‘wander from place to place as the fancy took them’ and performing across Panem as they went.
Then as we well know, war struck. Lucy Gray and her Covey as well as other similar groups were essentially rounded up and left stuck/trapped/imprisoned, in the closest District, in order for the Capitol to reinforce its full control.
Lucy Gray and her Covey do not and have never considered themselves “from” District 12 – it was just shit luck that that was where they ended up – and most of the District also feel the same.
Bottom line: You are not one of us (but The Covey never really wanted to be.)
Identity is a massive component to the Hunger Games universe as a whole, but to me it’s especially prominent in the story of Songbirds and Snakes and the character of Lucy Gray Baird.
Socially? She’s an outcast, a factor which contributes heavily to how she ends up in the games.
Internally? She, like many others, wrestles with her desire to live, versus her desire NOT to kill, and the fact that everyone, including part of herself, well and truly believes that she will die regardless of whether she’s willing to kill or not.
Romantically? (because this is one of the original YA book universes after all) she’s in a literal conflict with an ex-boyfriend, and a personal struggle within herself as her bond and feelings with/for Snow develop throughout their mentorship.
Throughout her time in the book, Lucy Gray’s strong character and bold outward appearance (the Covey love colour in their clothes… and their names) sets her aside, not just for us as readers – that would happen regardless, as a lead role in the story – but for Snow also, triggering much of his own conflict, internal and otherwise.
One aspect of Lucy Gray is how in touch with her roots she appears. Music has always been fairly important in Collins’ Panem stories, and of course the Covey were originally travelling musicians. Lucy Gray, who ‘doesn’t sing when she’s told, but only sings when she has something to say’ keeps her family’s traditions alive through the songs they’ve had passed down since they were children.
Well, younger children.
Nothing You Can Take From Me and The Old Therebefore are my personal favourites that Suzanne created and Lucy Gray sings, but for die hard fans of the o.g. Trilogy…
… WE FINALLY LEARN THE ORIGINS OF ‘THE HANGING TREE’ SONG — AND WHY SNOW HAS SUCH A VISCERAL DISLIKE OF IT.
I think what I like about Lucy Gray is multi-form, but best summarised like this:
She’s a perfect contrast to the budding villainy of Coriolanus Snow.
She’s ‘different’ but not in the cringey ‘I’m not like other girls way’ that everyone likes to sneer at. There’s an overwhelming softness to her, punctuated by moments of legitimate scrappiness.I’m not big on intra-fandom comparisons but the easiest way for this is to line Lucy Gray up with Katniss Everdeen. They both use their best talent to survive, Katniss as a hunter and Lucy Gray as the performer, to feed their families AND survive their games. But where Katniss was a true fighter who had to perform for the cameras, Lucy Gray is a natural performer who has to physically fight to stay alive. Innate skill versus spontaneous charisma and both must adapt/cope with the opposite of their true nature to keep themselves alive.
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In March 2025, Suzanne Collins will be taking us back to Panem one more time (although I will sell someone’s soul if I could guarantee at least three more prequels.)
This go around, we will be diving into the pages of Sunrise on the Reaping, which will cover the 50th Hunger Games – crucially, a Quarter Quell (a games with a sick twist) AND the year that Haymitch Abernathy, everyone’s favourite alcoholic mentor, will rise to the status of Victor.
From the existing material, we really don’t know a whole lot about Haymitch and his history, and if you are a consumer of the films only, odds are that you know even less.
(That’s not an insult by the way, they just cover even less in the films than the books in regard to Haymitch and hardly any of it is said directly – more so implied and hinted etc.)
As far as I’m aware, we really don’t know a whole lot about how Sunrise will progress. We have had a release date, a cover art reveal and a first blurb. Being the hermit crab I am, I’d like to think I know a little more than your average nerd going into this, but I shall save potential spoilers/gloating/judgement until the books out and I’ve devoured the thing as I fully intend to do — I’ve had the beast on pre-order since the first available moment, and I mean to finish it just as quickly :)
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Songbirds and Snakes has taken up a wonderful chunk of the last five years for me, and Sunrise will no doubt keep me sated for a minimum of another two.
Hardly any information about the upcoming book and subsequent film adaptation (scheduled for November 2026 as of now) — and yet the internet in all it’s wisdom is already frothing at the mouth as to potential casting choices.
My personal pick for a young Haymitch Abernathy would have to be (at the moment) Tom Glynn Carney, who’s most notable and recent role has been that of King Aegon II in the HBO hit ‘The House of the Dragon’.
He’s blond, he plays an exceptional drunk, and the earliest side of series two showed us that we have barely scratched the surface of his acting range and ability.
But only time will tell.
Suzanne Collins likes to play with our feelings and she does it far too well.
But that’s okay.
There are much worse games to play…
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