Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

102 reviews

bxnny's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, and Deportation

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Chronic illness and Excrement

ladybanecourt's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-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

✨5/5✨

"Snow lands on top."

This was such an interesting book!! It is easy to hate Snow from reading the first Hunger Games books as it gives us the impression that he is just downright evil. But this prequel, set from Snow's life from before, gives us key points about his character, past, and motivations. Definitely a good read.

P. S. Sejanus is my favorite character fr

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Torture

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Classism

rchulin1's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Wow just wow it's hard to not get popular books spoiled but even so l still was surprised. I really was able to transport myself into the games into district twelve on a whole other level. The ending was so surprising I could definitely feel Snow's insanity building something | kept thinking about was the title: the ballad of songbirds and snakes. So at first I assumed the title was to be about Lucy's time in the hunger games the battle between her innocence and her violence which is true in a sense but I feel like the true symbolism was that Snow eventually became another snake Lucy tried to handle in a way. So Lucy is the songbird and Snow is the snake. Throughout the entire book we see Snows internal battle with the mentality he was raised with being a child of the capital and the mentality of someone on the outside although he was only in the Games for a small moment the entire book was in a way his own game. He was stripped of his innocence his way of seeing the capital through rose colored lenses into truly seeing and not only not fearing the capitals ideals but embracing them. A few times he mentions how he impulsively does things and those impulses are his inner self trying to break through even with him aiding Lucy it just shows how selfish he is he saved her for his own benefit. Lastly I deeply appreciated the small nods to the other hunger games books "May the odds ever be in our favor", the meadow song, his dislike of mocking jays, Katniss! I can deeply see how he changed the hunger games and the role he played in the beginning he dislikes how the tributes were transported in cargo holds and in the other books we see the tributes now being in a far fancier train. We see the peacekeepers being more harsh and we see how the arena changes every year so that the former years games doesn't play a role in this years and so on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

paloverdepages's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Blood, and Classism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Vomit, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

hereiskyra's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.0

This was not a bad book, I just don’t know if I’m the best audience for it. I went into this pretty blind discounting the fact that I know Snow turns out to be a villain in the Hunger Games and that this is essentially his origin story. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t really like any of the characters. I felt as though Lucy Gray wasn’t a well-rounded character and her and Coriolanus’ relationship felt very forced and almost impersonal as the reader. 

And I personally hated that it was all from his perspective (even though obviously it’s his story) because he as dull and I was barely even rooting for him. 

I kind of worked out the majority of what was going to happen around 60% in and after that I was just waiting for the hammer to drop and something to happen. But, even that felt fairly anticlimactic once it was said and done.

Now, I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy this at all because it wasn’t terrible! It wasn’t a good romance and it wasn’t even a great villain origin story but… it was cool to be in the world again and to see what the world was like so soon after the war rather than decades after it. 

I’m still and forever putting my vote in the “tell Haymitch’s story” box. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Medical trauma, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

debstrain's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

The writing is wonderful. Only lost a star because I found it a little slow to start out but totally worth it for the ending and all of the background info on The Hunger Games.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction and Gore

Minor: Cannibalism

shellind75's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Murder, and Classism

picnicatthehangingtree's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.75

A fascinating look into Snow’s journey to being the tyrant we know from the original trilogy, the red flags were there from the beginning. I am choosing to believe

that Lucy Gray survived and escaped into the woods and doesn’t just live on through her songs.

The pacing was a little off sometimes but overall exciting and gripping. Suzanne Collins is a genius. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

loveisabird's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

i saw the movie first and while there’s much more in the book that fills the story out much better, there’s definitely some touches/changes from the movie i missed desperately here. coriolanus ripping out his own stitches. tigris’ last line about his father. YOU CAN KISS MY ASS!!!!!

but between the book and the movie together i think i’m even more taken in by this era of THG storyline than the original trilogy. don’t get me wrong i love the story of the final rebellion. but i also just adore worldbuilding and seeing the world of panem getting built, setting up the eventual rebellion, at this earlier point is entrancing to me. the way it recontextualizes things from the original trilogy that are already so provocative… the mockingjay, the hanging tree, the unnamed first district 12 victor, the traditions and spectacle of the hunger games… delicious. 

also like. as much as i hate the bitch coriolanus was a more compelling narrator. then again maybe if katniss’ books weren’t in fucking first person i’d be more into her narration and inner world also. 

finally lucy gray baird is the best character suzanne collins ever created and if you ask me she lived a long life in the woods. maybe not a happy one. but she survived that motherfucker i know it in my heart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, War, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Gun violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Cannibalism, and Alcohol

kirjakimalainen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Cannibalism and Medical trauma