Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Das Lied von Vogel und Schlange by Suzanne Collins

106 reviews

kdailyreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Torture, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Murder, Violence, Child death, Blood, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Death, Confinement, Classism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Cannibalism, and Addiction

calamityin's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Toxic friendship, War, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Police brutality, Grief, Medical content, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Violence, Addiction, Child death, Colonisation, and Death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Medical trauma, Bullying, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal death, Cannibalism, Infidelity, Alcoholism, Blood, and Vomit

bridget_magpie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

OMG HOW DID SHE MAKE ME ROOT FOR SNOW???? Like I was literally annoyed with him for things not going his way then I remembered this is Snow who we’re talking about 😅😅 Can’t wait to see it in the cinema, it’s gonna be so good! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Vomit, War, Violence, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Slavery, Death, Child death, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Drug use, Blood, Addiction, Gun violence, and Alcohol

leedolee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

While I hate Snow, it was cool reading about the past. I liked learning more about past Panem and the early developments with how the Hunger Games would eventually pan out. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, War, Toxic relationship, Violence, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Emotional abuse, Classism, Gore, Genocide, Gaslighting, Death, Child death, Death of parent, and Confinement

Minor: Cannibalism

cluckieduck's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.0

This book was excellent...until it wasn't.

Suzanne is an excellent storyteller, and it was great to revisit the world of Panem 60+ years ahead of the The Hunger Games. I loved the background and expansion of how the Hunger Games themselves were developed, the extra layers of detail showing the Capitol's recovery from the rebel attacks, and the morsels of call-backs (call-forwards??) to the OG trilogy kept me enthralled.

The use of President Show as the protagonist was an interesting choice. It was hard to equate the Coriolanus (or Coryo to those near & dear) of TBoSaS with the eventual antagonistic, sadistic President Snow. I was waiting for such a major cataclysmic event, and perhaps my lacklustre feelings towards the ending are because I expected something major, but I found the ending just...meh. 

I wanted and obvious turn of our protagonist from 'good' to 'evil' when, in truth, Coriolanus was always a morally grey sociopath, so there was no chance for me to be shocked into his villainous turn. I wish we could have gotten an alternate POV removed from his own internal monologue to get an outsiders perspective on his behaviours or actions. Lucy Gray would have definitely benefit from some more screen time, IMO. She was an intriguing character and her eventual arc left little to be desired. In truth, I was definitely waiting for

Spoiler

her to die in the Hunger Games, so having her win and then, eventually, wiping the entire games out of existence

seemed like such an odd (and kinda lazy) choice to me.

All in all, it just didn't really...go anywhere or provide anything necessary to the overall universe of the Hunger Games. What is has done though, is make me want to re-read the original trilogy because it's certainly been a while! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Gun violence, Blood, Medical content, Classism, Confinement, Death, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, Cannibalism, Dementia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, and Vomit

biab00's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Death, Genocide, Grief, Murder, Child death, Death of parent, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and War

Moderate: Animal death and Cannibalism

mariavdl's review against another edition

dark reflective sad

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Confinement, Toxic friendship, War, Cannibalism, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Drug abuse

bexi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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 was on the fence about reading this. I really like the original Hunger Games books and enjoy stories about how people become the way they are. But I really don't care about President Snow, and the reviews were mixed. But then I saw the movie trailer for the adaptation and decided I had to read the book if I wanted to watch the movie.

The book was more interesting than I anticipated and I'm glad I picked it up. Now how are they going to fit a 16 hour audiobook into one movie and do it justice?? Give me an 8 hour movie, I'll watch it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Classism, and Child abuse

Moderate: War, Cannibalism, Murder, Death, Blood, Gun violence, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Animal cruelty

sav_22's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Death, Blood, Animal cruelty, Slavery, Vomit, Torture, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Grief, Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Dementia, Death of parent, War, Colonisation, Classism, and Excrement

te_ss_i's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

Disliked the narrator for this one 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Medical trauma, Death, Addiction, Emotional abuse, War, Violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Child abuse, Cannibalism, Toxic friendship, Forced institutionalization, Drug abuse, Classism, Child death, Blood, Animal death, Grief, and Death of parent