This month we will delve into the world of Panem and it's lethal Hunger Games.
On May 19, 2020, Suzanne Collins published a prequel and spin off of her The Hunger Games trilogy. This is a dystopian young adult novel that is full of action and adventure. This book follows teenage Coriolanus Snow, who will one day become the dictatorial President Snow of Panem during the original The Hunger Games. We will follow Coriolanus Snow as he is tasked with mentoring Lucy Gray Baird, a tribute from District 12, and navigates life in the Capitol during the 10th Hunger Games. Decades before the original story, what will we learn about Snow’s rise to power and the development of the Hunger Games?
Post Schedule and Reading Breakdown:
Discussion #1….pg. 3-153….....June 29
What are our pre-reading impressions of this month’s book? What do we hope to get out of this story?
Jacilyn: I saw a sign with the cover of A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in Barnes and Noble awhile back, and immediately got excited. The original trilogy is still one of my favorite series, and I don’t even know how many times I’ve re-read it. When I found out that the main character was going to be President Snow as a teenager, I became hesitant about the book in general. I’m always here for context to the original series because Panem is really fascinating to me, but generally, in dystopians in particular, I want to like the protagonist, and maybe even relate to them a little bit. I don’t know that I’ll be able to get to like Snow. I’m hoping to learn more about Panem and how the Hunger Games came to exist, so in regards to that, I’m really excited to read this book!
Michaela: To be honest, I didn’t even know this book was coming out until Jacilyn told me, about a month ago. So then I pre-ordered it two days before its publish date. I did not read the description or book summary at all. I googled it to see who the book was going to be about, saw that it was going to be about President Snow as a teenager, and I was sold. I loved the original Hunger Games series, the concept of the society in these books fascinates me. I also really love dystopian novels, especially ones set in a particularly believable version of the United States. Collins has a way of writing the political aspects of this story in a way that I can understand, which makes me enjoy the series so much more. I often have a hard time grasping political themes, hidden messages, and such in books. I think this prequel will give us a real insight into the beginning years of the Hunger Games and hopefully a little more history about Panem. I hope the book does not try to make Snow start out as an innocent kid, because for some reason this just doesn’t seem believable to me because of how horrible he becomes.
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