First off, let's just be clear that Suzanne Collins remains a master of the page-turner. This was, on purely an engagement/entertainment level, a great read. But as for the nitty gritty of the story itself... I can tell it's going to take me quite a while to figure out exactly how I feel about it all.

I think one of my issues is sort of fundamental, and it's the reason it took me so long to get around to this in the first place: Coriolanus Snow was never a very mysterious figure to me. I never felt as though I didn't understand him. I never wished for any greater insight into his mind than what we got in The Hunger Games. And despite the fact that I love a morally dubious or straight up villainous protagonist, I didn't find his psyche as presented through his POV in this book to be all that compelling. He wasn't a boring protagonist, but he didn't thrill me either.

But the biggest problem is simply this: I made predictions. I didn't mean to. I am not a person who actively tries to guess the plot, because I KNOW it's a recipe for disappointment. But my brain did it all on its own. By the halfway point, I had subconsciously developed my own ending, which seemed to fit so perfectly with the narrative, themes and character arcs that I couldn't shake it off despite knowing it would most likely not play out the way I imagined. And it didn't, cos it never does. But sometimes it's just really hard to abandon the invented plot that felt so right to you and accept the one in print. I have to wait for the real ending to cement in my brain before I can really judge it.

Anyway, I never expected this to resonate on the same level as The Hunger Games, which ensnares my heart as much as my pulse. I don't know that it really enriched my relationship with the original story but like I said, it was an entertaining and easy read and I really did enjoy it. And as I embark now on my Hunger Games reread, I suppose we'll see what Songbirds and Snakes brings to that experience.