Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins

10 reviews

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

---

Content Warnings

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

studydniowka's review

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.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Deportation, Grief, Medical trauma, Torture, Toxic relationship, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Sexism, Slavery, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Murder, War, Xenophobia, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, and Violence

yourstrulytay's review against another edition

slow-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

0.5

Thanks! I hated it!

After the brilliance of THG series, I had fairly high hopes for this book. Even once I heard that the book would be centred around a young Coriolanus Snow - which, admittedly, I wasn't wholly thrilled out - I thought the premise at least sounded interesting.

Absolutely not.

I have never been so consistently bored while reading (technically, listening, because audiobooks are my BFFs right now) a book, and I have never been so annoyed by a character's inner monologue before.

I know we aren't supposed to like Snow; obviously not, considering how we met him during THG... but seriously, he was such an awful character all around. Awfully written, awfully stupid. One second, he's practically writing sonnets about Lucy Gray Baird, and the next he's whining about being stuck doing whatever task he deems beneath him. Two seconds later, he's complaining about Sajanus, after naming him as his BFF two paragraphs prior. I mean, this man is exhausting, and I listened to 16 hours of this BS... Six. Teen.

I hate DNFing, mostly because I always hold out hope that something will get better. In case you're wondering... this book did not get better. It got consistently worse as time went on; in fact, that's probably the only consistent thing about it!

So yeah, don't waste your time, I'm glad I borrowed the audiobook from a library and didn't waste money buying it because. Yeah. I hated it. So much.

(The 0.5 star is for the character of Maude Ivory who is categorically the cutest child ever and I adored her... everyone else can go home, she wins)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Drug abuse, Classism, Violence, Death, Addiction, Blood, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cannibalism, War, and Suicidal thoughts

hannahbailey's review

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!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Blood, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/injury detail, Suicide attempt, Torture, Animal cruelty, Gore, Gun violence, Cannibalism, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Death of parent, Drug use, Genocide, and Grief

dancing_on_ur_muml0l's review

dark emotional informative 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Spoiler

Hi Katniss by the way your grandmother and your worst enemy fell in love 65 years ago anyway have a good day

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Murder, Gun violence, Gaslighting, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Alcohol, Classism, and Cursing

peso's review

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? Yes

2.5

I hate Snow so much.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Abandonment, Child death, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Classism, and Drug use

Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Police brutality, Injury/injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexism, War, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Addiction, Death, and Grief

mo_za11's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative sad tense fast-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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Injury/injury detail, Murder, Xenophobia, War, Torture, Gun violence, and Forced institutionalization

abbeebeta's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I know not every book needs a happy ending. I know I went into this already aware of who Snow would become. But the final chapter still hurt my heart. I would gladly read a book about every single Game, or any more books in the universe. Even from Snow's perspective

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

lutheranjulia's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, War, Murder, Medical trauma, Gun violence, and Forced institutionalization

mscalls's review against another edition

challenging dark informative 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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, Xenophobia, Addiction, and Cannibalism