Danielle goes dystopic with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. This 2020 prequel to The Hunger Games follows the charming romantic misadventures of Cornelius Snow; the charismatic ne’er-do-well who brought us such classics as failing to kill Katniss Everdeen, destroying his own despotic regime, and not understanding the plight of the common man. Flashback to teenage Cornelius who has been tapped for the prestigious role as mentor in the tenth annual Hunger Games. Once wealthy, his family has fallen on hard times and thanks to the promise of a monetary prize to the mentor of the best-in-show tribute, he is in it to win it. Unfortunately, he gets assigned the suckiest tribute: the girl from district 12. Bummer. Just kidding. She sings! And wears colors! And has a weird affinity for snakes! Cornelius can work with that. Unfortunately, though ten years into the Games, they are shockingly ill-run and Sam and Danielle have THOUGHTS. The Gamemaker is more concerned with creating mutated animals that will not help them keep their dystopia in check, they did not invest in an event planner, and nobody has thought to feed the tributes. Oh no, what’s a boy who needs to win the Hunger Games to do? Join Danielle and Sam as they try to make kid-to-kid combat funny, discuss their ideal dystopian regimes (spoiler: they’d be excellent at organizing The Hunger Games), and deep-dive into the mind of the innovative young man who is just trying to help his country be as successful as it can be.

Theme: Earning Happiness by John Bartmann.

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