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

I would describe this novel as eerily suspenseful. I frequently find myself trying to guess what is going to happen next.

Coriolanus traveled with the tributes in a car seemingly made for animals. When he got to their destination he was put in a monkey cage along with the tributes. The tributes wanted to murder him but decided not to because they were worried about what would happen to their families at home.

Coriolanus met his assigned tribute and they are taking the tributes to the capital to prepare them for interviews. In the original hunger games books I remember the tributes were treated like royalty and transported on a fancy train with lots of food but in this book, they were transported in dirty livestock cars.

The theme of societal inequality is beginning to emerge. The book mentions that both the people in the capital are poor and the people in the districts. They are all starving and fighting to survive in this battle for power.

The author gives man details about the status and Coriolanus and his family. Coriolanus gives details about how his seemingly wealthy family might lose their apartment as well as their social status. We start to understand that the upperclassmen at the academy are going to be appointed to mentor the tributes in the Hunger Games.

Coriolanus describes his neighborhood by explaining that at one point the sidewalks were "impassable" and now there are piles of rubble lying around that he thinks are there to remind citizens of the war. He is describing the state of his town after it was destroyed by the war.