Reviews tagging 'Death'

De ballade van slangen en zangvogels by Suzanne Collins

898 reviews

crunchylettuce's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Death, and Violence

Minor: Child death, Drug use, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Cannibalism

thesecretsapphic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

okaychanly's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 I understand why Suzanne Collins chose to write a prequel, as President Snow in the original THG trilogy was an intriguing, complex villain. There were some parts that I had to push through, and then suddenly in the third act, things felt really rushed. And when you’re reading from the mind of young Coriolanus Snow, it’s obvious that this is a guy you should not root for, no matter how hard post-war life has treated him. Moreover, the way he lays “claim” to Lucy Grey and tries to take control of everything and everyone around him is disgusting to watch. That being said, this book still compelled me (watching Snow’s descent into madness) and I wanted to know how things would turn out, plus it had a good amount of Easter eggs and info alluding to the main series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Cannibalism, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

maryconney's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Medical content, and War

Minor: Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, and Alcohol

christygsp's review against another edition

3.5

I liked this better than The Hunger Games. There was less kids killing kids focus, and more preparation and strategy into what even made the games come about and how it would be reflected eventually when the timing of HG happens. Yes, we still had the games, yes kids still killed each other, but it wasn’t first person POV, and the distance was good for me in this. 
I normally don’t care about having a “sympathetic” origin villain story (let villains just be bad can we?) but this one was really quite good. It had enough sociopathic insights for us to not really connect to Snow as a good guy who just turned on the system, but someone who really had it inside him all along. He was selfish and leaned towards more brutal mindsets before the events of the book, so it wasn’t a huge shock when he all of a sudden becomes the bad guy of HG that we know. 
Too much cannibalism mentioned for me in the first half, and some of the death explanations were pretty intense but not too bad overall. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Cannibalism and Injury/Injury detail

jdgammons's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I enjoyed this book as a character study of Snow but in my reading I was well aware it was written for a younger audience of middle age to high-school age reading level. I found it too perfect how Lucy Grey's music fit perfectly with the music of the next book, like every song she wrote then became a folk song within district 12 and then influenced Katniss. 

I was pretty much annoyed with Sejanus and Snow the entire book and found only Lucy Grey as the only semi enjoyable character but was consistently frustrated with her doe eyed complacency and ignorance. In comparison to Katniss who is one of the strongest women characters in teen fiction I found Lucy Grey lack luster in comparison. 

Snow was the only person who had any sort of character development in the book and non of it good. I found the epilogue where suddenly Snow has no care for consequences very out of character suddenly when he spent the rest of the book careful of any repercussions that may come to him as well as the Plinth family adopting him as well as an easy way to wrap up loose ends with the Snow families low income and the Plinth's loss. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Classism

alexmall029's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Classism

kathi_90's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cannibalism and Alcohol

dyer's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is incredibly thoughtful in every word. Suzanne Collins covers war, the nature of humanity, censorship, media as a weapon, classism, male mental health and more in 517 short pages. 
I enjoyed reading about an evil character and his origin story. I also loved the relationship between LGB and Coriolanus. He is delusional! He loved thinking he controlled her, owned her. He loved the fantasy of her. A manic pixie dream girl that may trick the audience too.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Grief, and Murder

mollyb13's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book definitely pales in comparison to the original trilogy. I did like learning more about President Snow's background but feel like something was missing - overall I don't really feel like I completely understand his origin story. I know that the reader is supposed to sympathize with Coriolanus at different points in the book but he just always seemed sketchy/terrible to me? At times I also felt like the author was trying too hard to connect this book with the series -

having the main characters frequent the lake/cabin that Katniss visited often, linking Snow so closely with District 12, Lucy singing with the mockinjays like Katniss, etc...

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Overall was a good listen on audiobook and was likely the reason I got through it as fast as I did. Suzanne Collins of course adds in plenty of timely political commentary which I love. The entire reason the Hunger Games is so horrifying is that the way she writes about politics applies to our current day society. Very much Animal Farm/Lord of the Flies spooky.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, and Blood