Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins

50 reviews

dodecashedron's review

challenging dark reflective 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? Yes

4.0

I feel like this book really offers us some insight in the inner world of the privileged elite. They will always see themselves as the victims, see themselves as far superior to the rest of us and will spin anything to fit their world view. Which means they can be easily manipulated into believing heinous acts are needed for their safety. Add to this the trauma of a war and a sociopathic disposition and we get Coriolanus Snow. 

It also shows how narcissists and sociopaths often have trouble loving other people, they tend to only love them as an extension of themselves and stsrt to consider those they love almost as if they have ownership of them.

It's one of the few books I've read where the protagonist was definitely 'the bad guy'. And furthermore showed where his worldview and actions come from, but never tries to whitewash him in any way. Even if Coriolanus thinks he is doing things for the right reasons, we all can clearly see he is wrong. 

I'm the end Coriolanus doesn't choose the capital, he chooses himself and the capital is an easier tool to get what he wants then his other options.  He is an opportunist at heart. 

Spoiler

the moment where we see this most clearly is the moment he finds the guns. This is really the first moment in the entire book where he feels he has a choice to make. All other choixlces were things he thought he had to do to survive. Only hear can he pick either option, and we immediately see what he really wants, and what he is prepared to do for it.

I will say that it a little too much references to the hunger games books and Katniss in it for my liking. However it was very effective in showing why president Snow hated Katniss so much, that it really was much more personal than just the danger she posed to the fragile governing system. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Child death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, War, and Animal death

bookthief's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This was a very interesting book. It was completely different to how I imagined it to be before I read it. I thought it was mainly going to be based around Coriolanus being a mentor but that was only a small portion of the book. 
The first half of the book was a slow pace with each chapter ending in a cliff hanger and the second half got considerably intense and the story changed.
Suzanne Collins originally made us feel sorry for Snow as he was poor and had no parents, but by the end of the book you could see his development from being poor and empathetic to controlling and manipulative. 

Theories :
Could Lucy Gray be Katniss’ grandmother?
Could it be that Katniss’ dad was Lucy Gray’s son and she taught him the Hanging tree song and who taught that to Katniss?
Is Lucy Gray dead or did she run away or escaped to those who she claimed to be hiding in the woods?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Vomit, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Alcohol, Animal death, War, Death, Grief, and Alcoholism

brittaka's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is an excellent prequel to the Hunger Games series! Using Snow’s first-person perspective and his internal musings on the state of nature debate, Collins does a masterful job of displaying the eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow’s descent into the bloodthirsty, villainous President Snow readers of the original series will recognize. On a philosophical level, I love that Collins uses this narrative to argue that Thomas Hobbes (who wrote that humanity needs to be controlled in order to be “civilized”) is wrong. Throughout the book, readers see firsthand that those who champion the need for oppressive and violent control and order only do so in the name in maintaining their own sense of supremacy. Snow doesn’t do any of what he does in this story for the Capitol, for the people of Panem, for Lucy Gray, or even for Tigris and the Grandma’am—it’s all for himself, to satiate his own unquenchable desire for power, authority, and complete control. Snow merely uses Hobbes’s philosophies to justify his violent and selfish actions, which (along with Lucy Gray’s contradicting belief that human beings are good at heart) promotes the idea that Hobbes and Snow have it wrong—an idea that Collins fully endorses in the Hunger Games series itself. In other words, this book says “be anti-facist!” and “ACAB” in all the best ways, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has read the original series!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Classism, Murder, Confinement, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Grief, Police brutality, and Gun violence

Minor: Drug use, Drug abuse, Animal death, and Death of parent

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

midnightgremlin's review

adventurous 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Torture, Death of parent, Child death, Death, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cannibalism, Animal death, and Addiction

lucimolri's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

3,75/4 

Desde que se anunció tenía poquísimas expectativas y no tenía intención de leerlo, pero al final me ha enganchado un montón y me ha dejado con ganas de releer la trilogía. 

¿Que si es bueno? Pues a ver, para mí ha sido muy entretenido, pero si no eres muy fan de la trilogía y sientes mucha nostalgia por su historia… pues a lo mejor no te gusta. 

Para mí empieza muy bien pero pierde fuerza una vez empiezan los juegos del hambre. Está repleta de referencias a la trilogía, claramente hechas para los fanses, y de canciones, muuuuuuuuuchas canciones. No mentiré, llegaba un punto en el que prácticamente me saltaba las canciones, porque igualmente el narrador te las explicaba. 

En conclusión: me ha gustado, pero si no te lo lees no te pierdes tampoco nada

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Death, Alcohol, Blood, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Genocide, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Child death, and War

Moderate: Cannibalism

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

tinybluepixel's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Alcohol, Gore, Addiction, Classism, Physical abuse, Death, War, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: War, Confinement, Injury/injury detail, Death of parent, and Vomit

Minor: Infidelity

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!

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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

cdoubet's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, War, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, Child death, Confinement, Hate crime, Injury/injury detail, Misogyny, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, Alcohol, Bullying, and Dementia