Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes gives the dystopia fad the ending it deserved
In 2012, the first Hunger Games movie sparked a revolution.
Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games books were already bestsellers at that point, but the success of the movie adaptation cemented their cultural impact, ushering in an era of female-led action movies — and more significantly, a huge wave of young adult dystopian stories, in print and on film and TV. And yet, with each imitator, the sheer brilliance of the Hunger Games was lost: its clever world-building, its doomed-protagonist narrative, its subverted character tropes. The trend eventually tapered off because of oversaturation and lack of innovation.
In 2020, Collins returned with a new book in the Hunger Games world — this time a prequel with an origin story for the original trilogy’s villain, Panem President Coriolanus Snow. The fans initially reacted with skepticism and outrage, with some citing the choice of protagonist as “tone-deaf.” But when the book finally came out, readers remembered why the Hunger Games trilogy kickstarted a trend: Collins is a great storyteller who manages the themes of oppression and rebellion deftly.
Like the book it’s based on, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakesspeaks to the sheer brilliance of Collins’ world-building, and the sharp way she tackles inequality and authoritarianism. It’s a reminder of just how good YA dystopia stories can be when they’re done well. Pivoting the perspective to show the power of propaganda, and how easy it is to radicalize people into viewing others as less than human, evolves the conversation around YA dystopia to reflect modern anxieties. It’s a sharp, exciting movie — one that finally gives YA dystopias the ending the genre trend deserves.
[Ed. note: This review contains some setup spoilers forThe
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