When books are turned into movies, it can be difficult to capture every single moment of the book and adapt it into a film. Details get left out of the movie version, or details that weren’t in the book are added to the film. One movie that was being shown recently holds this up. “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” written by Suzanne Collins, is her prequel to the original “The Hunger Games” trilogy. With this book being adapted to film, there are bound to be some differences between the two.

The book is 517 pages, split into three parts. “The Mentor,” “The Prize,” and “The Peacekeeper.” It is written from the point of view of Coriolanus Snow, president Snow from the original trilogy. It takes place 65 years before the original book, far in the future, and portrays how Coriolanus became the tyrannical president he is. He becomes a mentor for the games, assigned with the female tribute from district twelve, Lucy Gray Baird. Small spoilers lie ahead.

Reading the book in part one, Coriolanus is a very fascinating character. There are moments where the reader questions him as a person, quite often. He puts on this facade of being this stellar, nice academy student. As he gets to know Lucy Gray, he becomes enamored by her. It’s very entertaining to see how their friendship grows as the Hunger Games approaches and she is being sent away to her very likely death.

“There were moments where I just had to pause,” sophomore Jada Billesbach said. “Coriolanus is manipulative.”

This book was written in 2020, and as it’s adapted to film in 2023, there were many differences between the film and the book. The book is well written and engaging, as you’re reading from the point of view of the villain from the original trilogy. Reading this book was amazing and hard to put down at moments. Reading this book will give more background into the book that the movie does not.