Jazmin’s Reviews > The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes > Status Update

8/8/26 ohhhh my god. i finally finished and i feel sick and ill. that ending between lucy and snow was CRAZYYY. he’s so selfish. and dean scene during the EPILOGUE. oh my god. the sejanus part was so sad too oh my. so many emotions. i read these last 75 pages in the last 2 hours or so and that was just insane. rollercoaster of emotions. snows buildup in character was so sad to see.

they have chemistry, they get each other, but i think at the end coriolanus will become someone unimaginable that will drive him and lucy apart. i think something is going to happen between them, to her, that will make her disappear and no one will ever know, just like her song.

the complications between him and lucy are finally occurring. they’re so similar but at the same time not, even if Coriolanus is sensitive and caring he’ll always be capitol and arrogant. even if he has suffered from the war he will never understand district struggle, and he does not want to. this is the underlying issue in his infatuation with lucy because at the end, she is not who he wants her to be.

it’s crazy to think that all the pain, struggle, and hunger district kids have felt so has coriolanus, but the life he makes out of it does not resemble empathy: he relishes and invokes capitol behavior when it’s useful to him and that’s the worst part of his character. there’s moments where i’m like “man poor guy” but then he says something or thinks something INSANE that pulls me back from sympathy.

i am almost done, like in the last 100 pages as we speak. however i feel like this book is soooo long, i feel like i’ve been reading this forever (because i have; self induced). i actually like that coriolanus is a peacekeeper and all the things that happen to him i think will be a life lesson, but only contribute to the horrific man he becomes in the hunger games original series.

BUT his inner psyche is very problematic nevertheless. although his experience as a child in the capitol is very interesting and shows the complexity of children in panem since he obviously is not living a promised lavish life, but that not does diminish his privilege. i think we see more about how careless the govt is in panem and how propaganda is ruinous to society. thank you!

even if he is capitol born, there is something different about him but ultimately we know his end fate as capitol snow. his empathetic portrayals are very powerful and poignant to the plot. when he shares his trauma and experiences from the war and thereafter poverty his humility resurfaces. those confessions make him the most human to me and i forget he’s a capitol citizen in those moments.

nevertheless, i of course love collin’s writing and after reading more about the grotesque theory i am sooo into THG. i have a love hate feeling for coriolanus: he’s likeable and empathetic, but his title and capitol status feeds into arrogance so much and it’s frustrating. his mind is infiltrated with capitol propaganda, and his need to one up everyone is exhausting. although he is very relatable and kind.

i stopped reading for a week, but i’m picking up again and trying to finish before school. we really get to see inside the capitol more and how they traumatize and humiliate the youth which is interesting. i like lucy and coryo’s relationship but i don’t understand how it’ll go further. the more i empathize with snow i less and less understand him.

i actually like it so far and my biggest put off on reading this book stemmed from my wariness of the characters and era. i did not think i would enjoy a collin’s book without katniss and peeta but its actually good. it’s so interesting on how snow parallels the feelings of district children with his struggles, but snow was raised so entitled he cannot believe district and capitol people the same.