Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

482 reviews

_ren's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, and Medical trauma

Minor: Confinement, Torture, and Vomit

arxchiell's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, and War

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Slavery and Torture

lakea's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

Minor: Drug abuse and Drug use

morgue666's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-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

reading this book is having to deal with this fascist thinking the most casually out of pocket controlling insanity and then doing one selfless thing maybe once every ten chapters if you were lucky. completely infuriating in all the right ways and better than i thought after i’d refused to read it for years

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, and War

Minor: Blood, Vomit, and Cannibalism

katie0528's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.0

I was not expecting to like this as much as I did. I grew up with the Hunger Games and really thought Mockongjay was messy and not clearly thought out. I avoided this, thinking Collins had lost her touch. She certainly has not. This book follows Snow before his presidency, as a young high school senior as he participates in the Hunger Games as a mentor and discovers his personal limits and what lines he is willing to cross for his own personal power.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Blood, Gaslighting, War, and Classism

readwithsophsx's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

camilaeg's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

5.0

the ballad of songbirds and snakes is a challenging tale of war, death, and sacrifice. 🐍🐦🌟

we follow the story of coriolanus snow, a young boy born into the prestigious snow dynasty which fell in panem's dark war days with the death of most of the snow family.

SPOILER WARNING!

the story starts by introducing us to a young coriolanus, who's sole purpose is to thrive and excel in the academy in order to ensure a stable financial future for himself and his family, which consists of his cousin tigris and his grandmother. after learning of his opportunity to win a prize entrance into university by excelling as a mentor in the 10th annual hunger games, he makes it his goal to make lucy gray baird, an unimpressive young girl from district 12, as desirable to the public as possible. coriolanus introduces the concept of sponsorships into the hunger games, which further increase his chances of winning with his district 12 tribute by making her as interesting as possible with the use of her singing. coriolanus has to balance his school life and being a mentor in the hunger games, all the while maintaining his family's reputation and gaining lucy gray's trust in order for him to utilize her talents for the public's pleasure. 

long story short, this story is divided into three acts; the first act tells the story of the reaping, coriolanus's mentorship to lucy gray, his family's monetary struggles, the development of a budding romantic relationship between coryo and lucy, and finally leads up to the start of the hunger games. the second act relates everything that is the actual games, with lucy gray participating within the arena as her opponents are eliminated and she eventually wins with the help of coriolanus's and her own cheating. lastly, the third and final act is coriolanus's punishment for cheating in the arena as he is sent to be a peacekeeper in district 12 and reunites with lucy gray, only to eventually lose her to his own greed for power and prestige.

SPOILER ENDS!

this is an intricate tale that shows us the true origins of the infamous president snow from the original hunger games trilogy. i found that it was a very interesting tale that gave us a look into how snow's dark mind worked in contrast to sejanus or lucy's pure minds. i also found that placing two undeniably good characters in relation to snow's complex one made us understand that snow was always twisted in his own way, but he only contained himself at the early stages of his life because of different key factors such as wanting to make tigris proud, wanting to fit in with his classmates, or even wanting to impress lucy gray. 10/10 would recommend! ✨️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Child death and Gun violence

mirithyl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

4.0

In eerste instantie vond ik het boek erg langdradig (19 uur voor een audio boek), maar toen eenmaal de Hongerspelen bezig waren werd het voor mij lastiger om het boek stop te zetten! Dit boek laat je inzien hoe Snow is geworden zoals hij is in de boekenreeks met Katniss. Vooral aan het einde komt dit heel goed naar voren. In het boek krijg je echt de character arc mee van Snow. Zeker een aanrader! Het kan alleen zijn dat je even door een zure appel moet bijten om de smaak te pakken te krijgen.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Alcohol

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