Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

A Balada dos Pássaros e das Serpentes by Suzanne Collins

66 reviews

kate_has_book_thoughts's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and War

Minor: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury

ailerua's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, War, and Classism

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Addiction

issyd23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious 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

5.0

Collins lands on top! So glad this prequel has kept its fire 5💥 

APKAB All Peace Keepers Are Bastards

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

jodean's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

This is a book that knows what a prequel should do. There's too many unneeded pre- and sequels around lately and not enough original work, so I'd been skeptic
al of this one. But it's an exception. 
I don't think anything can compare to the original trilogy, but this book makes me look at it all in a new light. It answers questions I didn't think to ask. 
<Spoiler>Also, Sejanus deserved better and God I hope Lucy Gray made it somewhere better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Slavery, Blood, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

astrangewind's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

If Veronica Roth killed the genre of dystopian fiction, Suzanne Collins has revived it.

The Hunger Games take on a whole new meaning in this book - only ten years after the war, before all the pomp and flair, from the perspective of not only a mentor, but Corionalus Snow, the Big Bad Villain Man in the original Hunger Games trilogy. Here, we see the televised nature of the Games as an awkward affair, which provide the barest suggestion of what they will become by the time Katniss gets to them. The Games themselves are distanced; we only see the violence that happens from the mentors' eyes, who are largely interested in their tribute's survival only inasmuch as their fame and recognition depend on it. So much unlike the original trilogy where the reader, too, is inside the arena. 

It's 500+ pages of following around the future president of Panem; of course we know it doesn't end well. That's what makes this book so captivating - Coriolanus is not a hero. He's a bystander, only caring about others in terms of how they affect his long-term goals, willing to step on those he deems subhuman.

When I read The Hunger Games for the first time, I was barely in high school. Back then, the draw of the books for me was that a bunch of teenagers were killing each other. Now, as I read Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, I wonder if the trilogy was this damn obvious. The reaping on July 4th, Coriolanus's hatred of Sejanus as a district-born Capitol citizen whose family has more money than his, the way he talks about the tributes other than his, the one he can use. 

The Hunger Games were books about rebellion, revolution, fighting against oppression, no matter the cost. And there were costs. But this is a book about suppression. About how apathy and self-interest turns you into a monster that you don't care about becoming. About how the circumstances of your birth and life informs how you see others - that even though you might be eating cabbage soup inside of a penthouse with marbled floors, at least you're not district poor.

Coriolanus's obliviousness, selfishness, and downright sociopathy make him so unlikeable, but I couldn't put this book down. I wanted to see him punished - but, of course, why would he be? He gets the top spot in Panem's hierarchy.

Everything Collins does is clever: Sejanus's name, rooted from Janus, a god often portrayed with two faces; Coriolanus's abject hatred of the mockingjays as soon as he encounters them; the funeral of the Ring twins, where several tributes were dragged behind horse-drawn chariots, conjuring images of Achilles's dragging of Hector during the Trojan War. Her treatment of Coriolanus's PTSD from the bombings is superb and accurate. The characterization of Tigris as a mother figure, too.

Really just an incredible book that makes me want to reread The Hunger Games. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Slavery, Grief, and War

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical trauma, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

emma97louise'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Slavery, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, and War

a great insight into the twisted mind of president coroilanus snow (pre-presidency) and how and why he became such a psychopath

more graphic and violent than the hunger games trilogy

nellsir's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense

• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Moderate: Dementia

tabbed_reads2much's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Oof bro I didn't like this one

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, and Classism

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse

Minor: Death, Genocide, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Murder, Toxic friendship, and War

Maybe I just hate snow but this book was not it

wajeemba's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

The setting is interesting if you've read the main series. I've never read a prequel that tells the backstory of the villain. Similarly I haven't seen a main character in a story that's good at intrigue and politicing, so that was a fresh perspective.

Writing was pretty well done. Characters generally behaved in a way that was consistent with their motivations, though one decision was more plot driven than believable in my opinion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Slavery, and Classism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, and Cannibalism

Minor: Addiction, Toxic friendship, and War

It's a hunger games book. The elitism and callous disregard for life are rife throughout the book. Though it's on the shorter side and classified as a young adult book, I would not recommend for an audience younger than late teens at least.

smalljoys's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Medical content, Dementia, and Grief