It is quite appropriate that The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is prefaced with a quotation from Frankenstein, for a few reasons. With Dr. Gaul, the book riffs on the mad scientist genre that claims Mary Shelley's 19th-century novel as a seminal work; with the poetry-inflected Lucy, the Hunger Games prequel introduces a number of references to British Romanticism - a literary movement that also claims Frankenstein as its own. Still, even readers who are only passingly familiar with Frankenstein will recognize it as a classic "making of a monster" narrative. Here, indeed, Suzanne Collins is crafting the central monster of her later Hunger Games trilogy: the devious President Coriolanus Snow.
In tracing Snow's youth, Collins plants several references to the three Hunger Games books (The Hunger Games; Catching Fire; Mockingjay) that preceded The Ballad in terms of publication. These allusions - or Easter Eggs, to take the gaming term popularized by Ready Player One - are among the major draws for the Hunger Games fandom, and several are explained below. But sci-fi prequels have a problematic record, for the fandoms and for casual viewers. There was the very real danger that, in telling the story of a teenage Snow, Collins could have sentimentalized and watered down a wily, formidable villain. That is exactly the critique that is frequently lobbed at George Lucas's Star Wars prequels. Even without doing anything as inane as reducing a cynical brute like Darth Vader to a lovelorn sap, there was still the threat that Collins could have bogged her book down with "retconning": re-explaining or reinventing of key storyline elements, resulting in a convoluted read.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes finds the future President Snow at a moral crossroads, arguably from the book's opening. Forced to choose between protecting his friends and furthering his ambitions, he consistently chooses the latter. Aspects of his character that are present from the book's outset - a history of family villainy that can be traced to Snow's father, Coryo's wartime sufferings, and his subsequent grudge against the Districts - can explain his slide into evil. In terms of logical character development, Collins acquits herself quite well in justifying Coriolanus Snow's mutation into an immoral monstrosity.
Collins also avoids retconning her series, instead planting Easter Eggs - lots of them. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes avoids anything like a decade-by-decade walkthrough of how young Coryo developed into a poison-mouthed dictator, or how Tigris became a crazy cat lady who literally looks like a cat. The book also avoids delving into the Everdeen family, despite the centrality of heroine Katniss Everdeen in the latter trilogy. Readers, instead, can consider several references and allow their imaginations to provide the connecting events of the 60-odd years between the 10th Hunger Games and the events of Katniss's trilogy (74th Games, 75th Games/Quarter Quell, Capitol Raid/"Unofficial" 76th Games). A partial list of such allusions is given below.
- Roses: Used by Snow in communication with Katniss (Catching Fire) and featured in his presidential residence (Mockingjay); traced to Snow's grandmother as a point of family pride (Ballad)
- Katniss: The name of the narrator and protagonist of the Hunger Games trilogy; a plant mentioned by Coriolanus and Lucy during their flight from District 12 (Ballad, 499)
- Tigris: Looks like a grotesque, humanoid tiger through "surgical enhancement gone wrong" according to Katniss (Mockingjay, 318) and out of favor with Snow; looks mostly normal and close confidante of Snow (Ballad)
- The Heavensbee Family: represented by Head Gamemaker and District ally Plutarch Heavensbee (Catching Fire, Mockingjay; major character); represented by rich Academy student Hiliarius Heavensbee (Ballad; minor character)
- The Crane Family: represented by Gamemaker Seneca Crane (Catching Fire primarily; minor character with a significant death); represented by disagreeable Academy student Arachne Crane (Ballad; minor character with a significant death)
