The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

By Suzanne Collins

Book 4 in series

Book 1! The Hunger Games

Book 2! Catching Fire

Book 3! Mockingjay

    64 years before Katniss Everdeen entered the arena in the 74th Hunger Games...young Coriolanus Snow is chosen to mentor the female tribute of District 12 in the 10th Hunger Games. The Games looked very different back then, with tributes in the same decrepit arena every year with a selection of weapons. This is the first time mentors are allowed. Coriolanus's father was a Capitol general who was killed by Rebels in the war, and his family is now nearly broke. Performing well as a mentor and winning the prize at the Academy is his only chance to make it to the University.

    Coriolanus decides that even though Dean Highbottom appears to have pranked him with the supposedly worst tribute, he will play it up as much as he can. He meets his tribute, Lucy Gray Baird, when she gets off the train, and somehow ends up in a cage with the tributes, which gets him great publicity. Lucy Gray is an odd character. She is apparently in a traveling band that was confined to 12 by the Capitol after the war. She wears a rainbow dress and is an amazing singer, enrapturing the audiences at the zoo. (That's where tributes used to be kept). Coriolanus brings her food, and appears to be the only one building a relationship with his tribute.

    However, things begin to go awry. Dr. Gaul and Dean Highbottom get involved. The Dean appears to hate Coriolanus, doing everything possible to get him expelled, and Dr. Gaul, the head Gamemaker, is just weird. She believes that the war isn't over and is everlasting, and that the Games are absolutely necessary. She also has a variety of odd, deadly muttations. Attempting to appease them, Coriolanus comes up with an idea to have more people watch the Games. Sponsoring and betting. People can sponsor and send money to the mentors, who can then use the money to send their tribute supplies.

    Meanwhile, the unfed, tired tributes get out of control. Some attack their tributes and get shot, while others die. When a bomb goes off during a tour of the arena, many mentors and tributes die, with just over half remaining. Coriolanus has steadily been picking up public support by spending time at the zoo and having Lucy Gray sing at her interview. On the day of the Games, he gives her a last gift. His mother's compact, inside which he has hidden rat poison for her to use.

    Over a week, tributes die, and with just a few left, things get boring. One day, Sejanus Plinth, Coriolanus's friend, goes in to get his dead tribute (Quick backstory: He is actually from District 2, moved to the Capitol when his dad got rich, still thinks he is a District person). Dr. Gaul makes Coriolanus get him, and he nearly dies. He is told to come to Dr. Gaul's lab every week to get treatment.

    Things have gotten a little slow in the arena, and one day at the lab, Coriolanus overhears some assistants whispering that the snakes will be used. The snakes. He has seen them in action, and remembers that they won't attack someone that they have smelled before. He drops a handkerchief Lucy Gray has used into the snake tank. Sure enough, they do not attack her when they are released into the arena. But something strange happens. Lucy Gray sings, and the snakes coil around her, charmed somehow. Overnight, as it rains, the snakes die because water is apparently their weakness. Lucy Gray has killed multiple tributes with the rat poison already, and she and Reaper are the last two. He has been refusing food that his mentor sent, drinking rain water instead, but it is a mistake. It's been poisoned, and Lucy Gray is the victor.

    Coriolanus has fallen in love with her, and he can't wait to see her. Unfortunately, Dean Highbottom has discovered his tampering. The compact, and the handkerchief. He has two options become a Peacekeeper or go to jail. Sadly, Coriolanus picks Peacekeeper and goes to District 12, hoping Lucy Gray will be there. He does find Sejanus, who has also been turned into a Peacekeeper. While out and about, Coriolanus discovers mockingjays. They are a cross of the lab created jabberjays and the natural mockingbirds. Jabberjays were designed to record conversations, but when Rebels fed them false info, they were released to the wild. For some inexplicable reason, Coriolanus hates them.

    He does reunite with Lucy Gray, but things don't go his way. Sejanus, always the rebel, helps a group of rebels and confides in Coriolanus. Coriolanus, unwilling to get caught up in this foolishness, records Sejanus's confession with a jabberjay remote and sends it to the Capitol. Lucy Gray doesn't seem to be normal, either. Her ex-boyfriend, a rebel, keeps coming after her, and she sings these weird songs about him. One thing leads to another, and he decides to run off with her. But she abandons him in the woods, disappearing like her namesake (her name comes from a ghost song). He vows never to get involved with someone he loves, for they can manipulate him too much. He returns to the Peacekeeper base, where Sejanus was recently executed for treason. He is recalled to the Capitol, where Dr. Gaul asks if he has expanded his worldview. Previously, he saw no reason why the Games where necessary. Now, he does. And he begins to become what will eventually be President Snow.

Note: Tigris from the original trilogy is Coriolanus's cousin, and she cares for him in this book.