Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins

14 reviews

cait's review

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adventurous dark informative mysterious sad tense slow-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? Yes

3.5


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elenaluisa's review against another edition

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

0.25


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studydniowka's review

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adventurous challenging dark reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

Bardzo dobra młodzieżowa (i nie tylko) dystopia.

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eagleshouse's review against another edition

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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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hannahbailey's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

TW: violence, death (of parent, children), torture, war, gun violence, toxic relationship, animal death/cruelty, body horror, suicide attempt, grief, cannibalism, emotional abuse, forced institutionalisation, stalking, genocide, vomit

It was great to be back in Panem again-I've missed it! I'm aware how unhinged that sounds given the horrendous TWs I've listed above. But it's YA! And its Panem, a place we know is not famous for its kindness and generosity towards children.

So it was interesting to see Panem from the perspectives of Capitol citizens, however the perspective is limited through Coriolanus' gaze...make of that what you will 🥸 The POV was not quite a revelatory as I'd hoped it would be. Although, as with everything Suzanne Collins writes, I'm now thinking maybe this was intentional. There's no big reveal, we go to war and we fight and we kill each other because that's what humans do. There's no deeper message to be understood or secret to be discovered. Dammit Suzanne, you got me again! We have to stan.

I of course enjoyed the Hunger Games part, how could I not?! But the rest was overly long and stretched out. I didn't feel like we were given anything new, especially as District 12 was featured again over other districts. I wanted a lot more from Snow than I was given too. In every aspect of the novel and THG world, I'm itching to know more. Maybe one day we'll get the Finnick and Joanna novellas we deserve!

I know it's cringe and cliche but I want nothing more than for the movie adaptation to end with a close up of young Snow's face slowly morphing into old Snow's face either during his most evil in Catching Fire or at the end of Mockingjay when he *redacted*. The satisfaction would be too much to bear!

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cdoubet's review

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dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75


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zombiezami's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

5.0

Masterfully done

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jenna_justi2004's review

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

3.0


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cammiem8's review against another edition

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

4.25

Collins does an excellent job of writing action in a way that feels like seeing it in real time. I was skeptical when this book came out around the same time as Midnight Sun, thinking it was a nostalgic YA cash grab, but the book does pose some interesting questions about old money male entitlement and the nature of power and control. I think the Hunger Games universe is rich enough to warrant revisitings, and while it doesn’t quite stack up to Katniss’s story, it’s worth a read for fans of the original trilogy. Regarding the audiobook, it drove me nuts that a story that involved so many scenes with singing and many passages with lyrics, the narrator read them out monotonously without any attempts to give the reader a sense of the melody. Surely Collins had an idea for what the original songs would sound like, and it couldn’t possibly be difficult to find a narrator who could sing “Oh My Darling Clementine” and “The Hanging Tree,” the former being a well known folksong and the latter having a canon melody from the films. Really annoyed me, given that the book has “song” in the title. 

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averyrembish's review against another edition

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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


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