#52 in Dystopian
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
- 544
- Pages
- about 10 h
- Reading time
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Our view
A prequel that stays close to the young Snow and is best as his portrait. He is charming and frightening by turns, and watching the second side win is the book’s grim pull. Some readers find it slow for most of its length, then hurried, with an unsatisfying ending; Lucy Gray and her songs win others over. Those who think the original trilogy said it all may find little new.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a dystopian young adult action-adventure novel written by the American author Suzanne Collins. It is a prequel to the original The Hunger Games trilogy, set 64 years before the events of the first novel. It was released on May 19, 2020, by Scholastic, with an audiobook of the novel, read by the American actor Santino Fontana, released simultaneously. The book had a virtual launch due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A film adaptation by Lionsgate, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, was released on November 17, 2023.
Reading order · The Hunger Games
Full order & progress →- The Hunger GamesStart here
8.38.3 / 10 - Catching Fire
8.28.2 / 10 - Mockingjay
7.77.7 / 10 - The Ballad of Songbirds and SnakesThis book
7.67.6 / 10 - Sunrise on the Reaping
8.68.6 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.6 across 1,709 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 92% of the weight and the score stays at 7.6 — the Dystopian average of 7.7 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.5 | 46 | 3% |
| Hardcover | 7.6 | 1.7K | 97% |
Frequently asked
What age is The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes for?
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes sits on the Middle grade shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 8–12. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 544 pages — longer than 69% of the ranked books in Dystopian.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Dystopian — with scores between 7.1 and 8.2, closest to this book.
