Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes- Maybe I’ve just read too many books about narcissists?

A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

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It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute. The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the […]

Better off sad than dead

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

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It’s been said before, but with how popular the Hunger Games books and movie franchise got, and how many mediocre-to-terrible copycats they spawned, it’s easy to forget that there’s a reason the original trilogy was so successful. That reason being, Suzanne Collins is a really, really, really good writer. In this prequel, Collins has a tall order to fill. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes presents the backstory of Coriolanus Snow, the totalitarian president from the first three books. Villain origin stories are so tricky. You […]

Monsters and nightmares

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

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CBR17Bingo: “Purple” – for the purple on the cover I’ve read all the Hunger Games books, so when I heard there was a new one out, I knew I didn’t have a choice. I put a hold on Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (2025) and read it as soon as it became available. Sunrise is a prequel to the trilogy that made Collins famous. It focuses on Haymitch Abernathy, who in later books is the drunk and disillusioned “mentor” to Katniss and Peeta. The book takes place […]

Quoth the raven, “This book quotes me far too much”

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

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CBR Bingo: Purple If you’d asked me six months ago if another Hunger Games prequel was necessary, I’d have said no. I read the original trilogy around the time that they came out and fully enjoyed them but haven’t re-read them since. I did watch the movie of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and had mixed feelings (the earlier timeline was interesting, but I didn’t really care for Snow as a protagonist) so didn’t end up reading the novel. But enough people whose opinions I […]

The Man in the Arena

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

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The problems with Suzanne Collins’s latest attempt to wring more money out of The Hunger Games franchise start right from the get-go. Sunrise on the Reaping is a prequel to the original trilogy, and somewhat a sequel to the series’ fourth entry, The Battle of Songbirds and Snakes. It tells the story of Haymitch Abernathy, later Katniss Everdeen’s drunken, curmudgeonly mentor, as he attempts to survive the 50th Annual Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell. I should say, Haymitch tells the story, […]

Heartbreak and the Perils of Propaganda

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

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What can I say about Sunrise on the Reaping that hasn’t already been said more eloquently by the other reviewers of Cannonball Read? I’ll start by quoting a joke I’ve heard repeated on TikTok: Suzanne Collins saw everyone thirsting over Coriolanus Snow after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie came out, and decided to remind us all what a monster he truly is. If she had to do that by torturing our favorite grizzled old alcoholic mentor and breaking all our hearts in the […]



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