A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

In this prequel to The Hunger Games, author Suzanne Collins tells the story of Panem a few years after the war. Coriolanus Snow, whose family lost their fortune during the war, is a poor student attending the Academy though he's hidden his poverty well, and he's doing all he can to make the right connections. As the tenth annual Hunger Games approach, he's humiliated to learn he'll be the mentor for a girl from District 12 named Lucy Gray Baird. Then he meets her. She's beautiful, clever, and talented. He realizes that she, and therefore he, might have a shot at winning, but helping her stay alive will involve cunning and deceit as well as avoiding arousing the anger of the sadistic head game maker, Dr. Gaul. Afterwards, Coriolanus is forced to question those he trusted and contemplate the assertion of Dr. Gaul who believes that absolute control is necessary to avoid chaos.