Fans of the Hunger Games felt a roller coaster of emotions on Tuesday when an exclusive excerpt from the upcoming prequel was debuted by Entertainment Weekly.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which is set 64 years before the first Hunger Games novel, features Coriolanus Snow as a young man. According to Entertainment Weekly, the young President Snow may even be portrayed as a hero, a deviation from the Snow portrayed in the original Hunger Games trilogy and their on-screen counterparts.
“I’m so disappointed in the premise of the new #HungerGames book…protagonist President Snow,” Twitter user @arsamandica wrote. “I read the excerpt and I hope there’s more to it than that, but I’m tempted to cancel my preorder and use the Audible credit on a Witcher audiobook instead.”
I’m so disappointed in the premise of the new #HungerGames book…protagonist President Snow? I read the excerpt and I hope there’s more to it than that, but I’m tempted to cancel my preorder and use the Audible credit on a Witcher audiobook instead.
— Amanda; poet (@arsamandica) January 22, 2020
Others are not as hopeful and believe there were much better characters to base the story around, such as Katniss Everdeen’s stylist Cinna.
“’Fuck all the characters of colors, let’s write about the evil white dude,'” Twitter user @fangirlJeanne sarcastically wrote.
Imagine the preorder records we would have broken for a prequel book about Cinna. pic.twitter.com/NXrZcIwH27
— @FangirlJeanne.bsky.social (@fangirlJeanne) January 21, 2020
“Fuck all the characters of colors, let’s write about the evil white dude.” 🙄
— @FangirlJeanne.bsky.social (@fangirlJeanne) January 21, 2020
I can wait to find he was queer and that the Capitol didn’t have toilets, so people shit on the ground and had robots clean up after them. 💩 https://t.co/AcBFpfvAdg
Twitter user @cassiansnesta posted Keke Palmer’s “Sorry to This Man” meme to properly convey their disgust.
“You’re telling me I waited YEARS for a new hunger games book just for it to be a president snow origin story,” cassiansnesta wrote. The last Hunger Games book to be released was Mockingjay in 2010.
https://twitter.com/cassiansnesta/status/1219671563680780288
One user wrote that this may not be the right time to redeem a character like Snow, who, as an adult, is the authoritarian president of Panem.
“Imagine looking at the times we’re in now and thinking what’s needed is another tale about how a seemingly-nice privileged white boy grows into a genocidal leader,” Twitter user @GeekMelange wrote. “As if we don’t already know how this happens. As if marginalized people haven’t yelled forever why this happens.”
Imagine looking at the times we're in now & thinking what's needed is ANOTHER tale abt how a seemingly-nice privileged white boy grows into a corrupt genocidal leader. As if we don't already know how this happens. As if marginalized ppl haven't yelled FOREVER why this happens. https://t.co/wMZrl6pTwL
— Michi: Adorable Tiny Demon 🔥🇵🇭🇺🇸🍜📖🦄 (@GeekMelange) January 21, 2020
While some fans haven’t entirely written the prequel off, the odds are definitely not in its favor.
I have very mixed feelings about this, not sure if I will be reading this https://t.co/K7kIquflGX
— Screaming (@thorstix2) January 22, 2020
https://twitter.com/kate_is_writing/status/1219799126814015488
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