Reviews tagging 'Injury/injury detail'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins

55 reviews

abigpigeon'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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Classism, Emotional abuse, War, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Injury/injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Drug use

zuuizai'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
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Throughout this book, my thoughts on it were constantly changing. I'm still not too sure what to think. While reading, I tended to get bored. If I put the book down however, I  was desperate to get back into it. This book's main downfall is that it didn't feel like it was written by Collins. It had a completely different tone from the original triology, and not in a good way. It was written more like a fan fiction, which the ridiculous names and covey didn't help with. I couldn't take the covey seriously, and they seemed out of place and goofy. Lucy Gray was extremely unlikeable at the beginning, and irritated me in every scene she had. Only towards the end did I begin to warm up to her.


On a more positive note, this book perfectly showed Coriolanus selfishness. It showed how he was incapable of love and in spite of everything, put himself first. I thought his obsession with owning Lucy Gray described his character well. I enjoyed seeing how Coriolanus slowly became a worse person, losing any morals he had (which wasn't many to begin with). The world building in this book was incredible, especially with the edition of more lore on how the hunger games begun. It was nice getting a fresh perspective, with the book taking place in the Capitol post-war. The original treatment of the tributes was, while gruesome, a great edition. It showed just how much superior the capitol citizens thought they were to the districts, and how sadistic they could be. 

One thing I wish the books touched on is how Tigris came to hate Coriolanus so much. It also gives me hope of their being a sequel as I'd love to have more lore on Panem.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Injury/injury detail, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Death of parent, War, and Cannibalism

anjaja's review

inspiring mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

Its super slow, like one chapter is one day or less and the next chapter starts with waking up, and the book covers not just a few weeks but months. I usually enjoy faster pace, but this book was super intriguing and read almost like a prophecy for the main trilogy. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cannibalism, Vomit, War, Murder, Medical content, Injury/injury detail, Death of parent, Violence, and Death

jonesroni638's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, War, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Animal cruelty, and Gun violence

literarydumpling's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Blood, Violence, and Gun violence

Moderate: Drug use, Death of parent, Injury/injury detail, Drug abuse, War, Toxic friendship, Grief, and Gore

kabarton416's review

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Classism, Dementia, Cannibalism, Injury/injury detail, Blood, and Suicidal thoughts

eagleshouse's review against another edition

adventurous 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

5.0

this has been my favourite read of the year by far. I've always loved Suzanne Collins' writing and the Hunger Games as a franchise, but I feel like this may be one of her best yet.

The protagonist is schoolboy Coriolanus Snow - the primary antagonist for the original series. However, just because the book is written from Snow's POV, does not mean he is a likeable character or a good guy.

At the beginning, Snow is the main character, and you as the reader attach yourself to him. He's a little pretentious, but nothing more grating than that. However, as the story progresses, I felt further and further horrified and concerned for Snow - the book genuinely slowly shows his progression into a horrible, evil, man, without a massive change happening until right at the end. It was Collins' use of language that Snow used that first set me off, referring to his lover as 'belonging' to him throughout the book, and progressively gets worse until the climax at the end, which honestly I was not expecting at all and yet was one of the best plot twists I've read.

it also adds so much depth to the Hunger Games story - with so many metaphors and references to both classical literature (both Coriolanus and Lucy Gray are named after pieces of literature that fit their characters, with Grays being stated in the story itself), but also the original series. Lucy Gray being the composer to The Hanging Tree and also writing it for Snow makes Katnisses use of it as a rebel song so much more poignant. 

Anyway, without fully spoiling the book, I think this is an essential read for anyone, even if theyre not fans of THG, because the use of government and capitalism and imperialism really shows through as well in such a good way. 5/5 book, my favourite of the year.
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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Death, Injury/injury detail, Toxic relationship, Blood, Confinement, Colonisation, Murder, Violence, and War

Moderate: Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Drug use, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Cannibalism, Dementia, and Bullying

dodie_sullivan's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I liked the book because it gave us more insight on Snow, his way of thinking, and the history of  why the Hunger Games are the way they are as we know it in the first book. I liked the book for the world and character building, but not for the main character 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Child death, Violence, Injury/injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Grief, Addiction, Gun violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, and Vomit

k_galloway's review

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.75

honestly this book could be about 200 pages shorter but the last 100 pages are absolutely insane. read it just for the ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Toxic friendship, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Genocide, Injury/injury detail, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Murder, Police brutality, Violence, and War

meghanelizabeth's review

challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, War, and Blood

Moderate: Police brutality, Injury/injury detail, Grief, Cannibalism, Violence, Gun violence, Gore, Death of parent, Death, Classism, Alcohol, and Torture