Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

424 reviews

wild_rabbits's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Torture, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Gun violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol

georgiaabigail's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.0

Although I didn’t enjoy it as much as the original trilogy, I adore the hunger games universe and learning more about the earlier games and how Snow became who we know him to be. I struggle reading books when I dislike the main character but I was too invested in the plot to stop!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Drug use, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death and War

guardianofthebooks's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

Yipes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

chavonnwshen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

What a haunting book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cannibalism and Abandonment

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

viireads's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and War

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

onefineelephant's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

9/10. I really enjoyed this book. Coriolanus is a very complicated character and an unreliable narrator which makes him so intriguing. However, I was worried that he was going to come across as the hero of this story (considering how awful he is from the original trilogy) but thankfully his paranoia and selfishness permeate every page. Essentially, he is the main character but he is still a villain or at the very least problematic. It is fascinating seeing things from his point of view and even understanding his actions while also recognizing that he could have acted more humane. Coriolanus is more humanized because of this book since we get to see his hardships and emotions, but his putrid personality still affects everything he touches. Additionally, I love the Covey and addition of songs with their meaningful lyrics embedded in the story. It helped that I could listen to the movie's soundtrack, though, to actually grasp the songs' tunes.  I knew how this book would go because I saw the movie first but I enjoyed the book so much more because I could actually understand his motivations and thought processes. Suzanne Collins does a great job of portraying him while also writing him in a way that clearly does not excuse his behavior. As always, I am in love with her writing and will always praise her work. 

SPOILERS:

As I said, I watched the movie before reading the book so I knew the events of the book. While watching the movie, I wondered if Coriolanus actually loved Lucy Gray like he said or if he felt attracted to her but was manipulating her for his own benefit. I guess both could be true, but the book makes it clear that he does actually love her even though his own paranoia, selfishness, and manipulation spoil even the most pure thing in his life.  The concepts of trust and love come up in this book quite a lot, especially at the end, and I think it is fascinating to examine what those concepts look and feel like. Coriolanus claims to love and trust Lucy Gray (even to himself) but ultimately proves that while he may love her, he is incapable of truly trusting anyone. I think the only person Coriolanus ever truly trusted was Tigris and we know that he ended up having a falling-out with her later in life. Considering his actions throughout the book (causing Sejanus's death, murdering people, becoming a Peacekeeper/cop, horrendously improving the Hunger Games, turning on Lucy Gray), I take deep satisfaction that he grows up to be miserable and alone. Snow may land on top, but tyrants always fall eventually.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Torture, Blood, and Alcohol

Minor: Confinement, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Gaslighting, and War