Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

8 reviews

maddielags's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

My 14 year old self is absolutely screaming that this series is still something I’m enjoying 12 years later. I honestly thought that the trilogy would be all that we’d see but this book just adds so many more layers to the story that I’m so glad it exists. 

Going into it after the first three and how much of a bad guy Snow is, I really wasn’t sure if I would like it but I loved the character of Lucy Gray. Snow is… hard to like, but that’s kinda the point. 

This book had little nods to the trilogy and explained the back story of some pivotal stories from the trilogy, such as seeing the story of the hanging tree and how the song came to be. 

All that’s left for me to say is… read the book, if you liked the trilogy, you will like this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Vomit, Alcohol, and Classism

rainydaysinautumn's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.5

It pains me to rate this book so low but after two re-reads and watching the film adaptation my rating remains the same.

It needed a dual POV and it needed a likeable love interest. 

It felt lackluster after the awesomeness that is The Hunger Games.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lovosii's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Alcohol

captaininsaneoh's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, and Classism

Moderate: Cannibalism

melongin's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Self harm, Suicide, and Police brutality

Minor: Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Dementia, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

thattheatrekid's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

Loved this book! I still don’t feel sympathy for Snow; he’s still a sleazeball; but I do understand why he is how he is. His fundamental view of the world is just wrong which caused him to become the monster he was. A great read (did it in 1 night!) and I liked the glimpse of Capitol’s past and the early version of the Hunger Games. The plot moved well. However, sometimes the direction Snow went with some decisions or outlooks just didn’t make sense with the rest of the context. It felt more like Susanne was trying to get him to the spot of a believable villain than to weave a story where the progression to get there was natural. But! Overall loved it and would definitely read it again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Emotional abuse, Vomit, Police brutality, Abandonment, and War

wilamina's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.75

If you're picking this book up after reading the hunger games trilogy, then honestly I'd say I not worth it. Look up the basic plot and leave it at that because this book does not live up to the emotional wonders that the hunger games have. It feels like all the colour was stripped out. The best part of all the hunger games books are the actual games right? Because they're deeply emotional and everyone is running on adrenaline and a willingness to kill. But in these hunger games, barely anything happens. It's dragged on for way too long. everytime a character dies its just bland, like it's narrated by snow watching it on tv, and it reads like watching a grainy video with no sound as a character stand another then moves on. The whole thing feels like security footage being played for half the book. Then 2 thirds kf the way in it feels like the entire plot of the book is abandoned (no spoilers just look as the section title). The only redeeming factor I'd say would be knowing a little more about what makes snow tick, and why it hates 12 so much. But like I said, just look it up, don't bother going through all 517 pages. The writing style is also very elegant, but that can't make up for bland characters and lack of a cohesive plot line. It wasn't a horrible book, and the idea to write about snow was definitely a good one, but Collins could have executed it much better. 

if you ask me, I think some interesting stuff could have happened if snow had gotten stuck in the arena, there he could have maybe became part of the games, and it would definitely have amped up the plot and give  the hunger games fans much more if what they loved about the series in the first place. There's a reason many people think the series went down hill after catching fire, it's that the environment the games make is so tense that it's almost impossible to write a dry plot.

So in conclusion, the ballad of songbirds and snakes was annoying average, with few redeeming factors to warrant it a slightly higher grade, but without it's association with the hunger games, it would probably never have been shelved.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

mscalls's review against another edition

challenging dark informative tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Murder