SUZANNE Collins' Hunger Games trilogy is one of my favourites, so I was excited when a prequel was released.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020) has an intriguing premise. The story occurs six decades before Katniss Everdeen won the 74th Games and sparked a revolution that ended the Capitol's regime.
Ballad centres around President Coriolanus Snow's youth, when he was an ambitious student. Readers of the trilogy will be surprised to learn that the immensely popular Games were once hardly watched.
The sadistic head Gamemaker, Dr Gaul, is aware that "if the Hunger Games were to continue, they needed to evolve into a more meaningful experience".
Dr Gaul tasks Coriolanus' class with making the Games more exciting. His classmates discuss why Capitol citizens don't watch the Games much. Some say they are too gruesome.
Others suggest viewers will be encouraged to invest emotionally in the Games if they can bet on and sponsor their favourite tributes.
Coriolanus' classmates are assigned to mentor the 10th Hunger Games tributes. The student whose tribute wins will earn a life-changing university scholarship.
Coriolanus is devastated when he is assigned a girl from District 12, which is considered the "joke" district. As their fates are intertwined now, her success or failure affects his.
His tribute, Lucy Gray, is a natural performer. Her show-stopping singing makes her an immediate sensation. As Coriolanus mentors her, feelings develop and he begins seeing her as a person.
However, their relationship is always undercut by power imbalances. From the start, Coriolanus believes that "she was a gift", but he also wonders "how best to exploit her".
It was fascinating to read how their romance developed, then deteriorated with frightening speed.
Collins masterfully depicts Coriolanus' psychology as he begins perceiving Lucy with possessiveness and paranoia. He eventually sees her as a threat that must be eliminated.
"Lucy Gray was no lamb. She was a victor."
The imagery of snakes and songbirds in Ballad has clear connections to the trilogy. For instance, Katniss associates President Snow with snakes. Ballad shows readers how young Coriolanus learned to weaponise poison, first to help Lucy Gray, then to kill his enemies.
President Snow's hatred of Katniss as the mockingjay can be traced to Lucy Gray's association with the songbird.
Those who have read Mockingjay will find it chilling to learn that the Hanging Tree song that Katniss sings was actually written by Lucy Gray for Coriolanus. The song's lyrics gain disturbing implications with this revelation.
Ballad also explores the psychology of waste and wealth. In Ballad, the Capitol has just barely recovered from the war with the districts and is a vastly different place from the decadent city depicted in the trilogy. While the Capitol's excessive wealth and wastage disgusted Katniss, Capitol citizens once knew deprivation and despised wasting anything.
Coriolanus' musings on "what a luxury trash would be" and that waste is "a sign of prosperity" help readers understand why the Capitol later enthusiastically celebrates wasteful tendencies.
Katniss would certainly find it hard to believe that her nemesis President Snow is as familiar with hardship as she. For Coriolanus acknowledges that "the endless dance with hunger had defined his life".
After the once great Snows lose their wealth, the family's survival depends on Coriolanus. To save them from homelessness, he must earn the scholarship prize by helping Lucy Gray win the Games.
The fight for survival and cut-throat competition that Coriolanus faces in his everyday life resemble the Hunger Games. Little wonder President Snow values the Games deeply.
His justification for the Games' social function is disturbingly logical and reasonable. That since war is an eternal constant, control is necessary. Therefore, "if the war's impossible to end, then we have to control it indefinitely".
Snow realises that the Games are "part of the eternal war". Each Game is a miniature battle with the districts that allows the Capitol to safely "hold in the palm of our hand, instead of waging a real war that could get out of our control".
Ballad offers a satisfying alternative perspective to the Hunger Games series. While Katniss sees it as unjust punishment, the Capitol views the Games as instruments for peace and pleasure.
By focusing on Snow's boyhood, Ballad offers readers fascinating insights into the teenage mind of a future dictator.
The writer hopes to share insights into books and films to inspire appreciation for the power of stories