Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

95 reviews

sadiaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Child death, Classism, Drug use, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, and Eating disorder

peachythi_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This book brings on a whole new level of nuance and symbolism to THG and Panem as a world. The original trilogy was already so disturbing and the Capitol was corrupt. But in this book we get to see the corruption on a deeper level. Snow in this book is so deeply flawed and wholly unforgivable for his action in THG and in TBOSBAS. Yet his humanity is so clearly explored in this book that you can’t help but be so invested and intrigued in his character. Not lovable or even easily understood but vexing. If you are a fan of THG then this book will only make the entire series more enjoyable. Lucy Gray Baird is everything Katniss is not and vice versa. She is this charismatic performer who sees the good in everyone and easily came to trust Snow. Yet she remains eyes open to his actions and such as the title implies she uses music and songs as her own small act of Rebellion. And I adore her for it. Lucy so pure of heart and ready to rebell and poor struggling Snow who has every potential to be a better human but ultimately succumbs to the wickedness of the systems he eventually exploits.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, War, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, and Police brutality

Minor: Emotional abuse, Vomit, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Grief

amy_louise's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-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

4.5

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It kept my attention despite being very long and I often found myself thinking ‘just one more chapter!’ It was interesting to see the Games in a simpler format, so many years before the original trilogy. The characters were well-written and I was invested in Snow, hoping that he would turn out well even though I knew that he couldn’t! I do agree with a review I saw that it’s not a traditional origin story, but worth the read anyway if you like The Hunger Games!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Animal death, Grief, Murder, Blood, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, War, Police brutality, and Suicidal thoughts

jo_d's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

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

5.0

Absolutely stunningly well written. The subtle changes in Snow throughout the book while simulatniously maintaining consistancy in character and decision making was a jarring insight to what is (in my opinion) among the most interesting villains in YA. The setting for the book, the 10th Hunger Games, rehighlights what the movies did wonders in erasing: that the games are far from glamerous, and are instead violent indicators of what people, given too much power, are willing to do to others, espeically those they deam inferior. Absolutley would recommend, it was thought-provoking, adgitating, but I found myself unable to stop reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Gun violence, Torture, Murder, Violence, Child abuse, Vomit, and Confinement

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Drug use

Minor: Sexual violence and Trafficking

becca_w_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Addiction, Blood, Death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Gore, Violence, Animal death, Child death, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Vomit, War, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Torture, Trafficking, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Kidnapping, Slavery, Body horror, and Bullying

Minor: Body horror, Stalking, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Body shaming, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

priscillarobock's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Gun violence, and Vomit

kt2e56's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Not as good as the original trilogy, but a good read regardless. I think my biggest issues are with the fact that its central character is someone we already know from the future. I

t seems like Collins had to go back on quite a bit in order to make this narrative fit in with what she already told us in the original trilogy. 

I’d say that some other issues with this book are that most of the characters are just…flat. Dr. Gaul with her ridiculous nursery rhymes is too cartoonish of a villain, Lucy Gray is a manic pixie dream girl (which on the one hand makes sense because we’re seeing her from Snow’s POV, but that doesn’t make her any less grating), the rest of the Covey and their weird country bumpkin way of life are equally as grating and Snow himself has zero shades of gray. He’s awful all the way through (I’ll get back to this).

The most interesting characters by far are Sejanus Plinth and Dean Highbottom, both of whom I kind of wish had been the POV characters for this prequel.

BUT I will say that in terms of politics and big picture ideas, this book is way more ambitious than the original trilogy. Yes, Snow is a bit one note but I *do* actually appreciate that. He’s a fascist, point blank. He’s an elitist bigot whose family has fallen on hard luck but we don’t ever have to feel sympathy for him because he STILL clings to that bigotry even though it’s glaringly obvious that The Capitol is to blame for his family’s trauma. It’s also VERY interesting that Collins doesn’t even attempt to hide the links between fascism and misogyny. 

Spoiler

Let’s talk real world for a second and how commonplace it is for alt-right young men to be drawn to their worldviews because of an innate sense of entitlement not only with wealth and the economy but with women as well. A big part of fascism is controlling women. It’s never a surprise when an alt-right extremist has a history of domestic violence. Never.

And Collins making it abundantly obvious that Coriolanus doesn’t truly LOVE Lucy Gray but seeks to own and possess her is actually really great. There’s no love story here. We know Lucy Gray is doomed from the moment she’s in his clutches. He wouldn’t have done ANYTHING for her if he didn’t want to fuck her so badly tbh.  This was so obviously going to end one way and I’m glad that Collins didn’t chicken out and went for it and avoided giving him a change of heart although I wish she wasn’t so ambiguous with it. 

The ending as a whole was another issue for me. It felt a bit rushed and convoluted and I wish Snow’s meeting with Highbottom was stretched out just a little more as opposed to stuffed into the epilogue.

All in all though, this was a solid read and I’m sure I’ll be seeing the movie in the Fall. I’m curious if Collins will be expanding even further on this world or not… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Violence, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Gun violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Misogyny, Police brutality, Blood, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Torture, Medical trauma, Murder, War, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Trafficking, Mental illness, Addiction, and Medical content

marthadude's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.25

Before reading, I really didn’t think this book was going to be necessary and I didn’t think Snow’s origin story would be worth telling. After reading I think this book is a great addition to the series even if it’s not required reading. It was interesting to see how the world of The Hunger Games evolved from this into the one we see during the main series.

Spoiler

I’m also glad Snow was not made into a sympathetic character. That was a concern of mine and, while Snow is interesting here, he is still incredibly deplorable. It’s also fun that even though he is cunning and great at manipulation, he’s actually pretty stupid at points.

There’s definitely more threads I would have liked to seen just from the original books. I also wouldn’t have been opposed to seeing more of Snow’s career as he ages and becomes more powerful but I guess there could be another sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Torture, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child death, Child abuse, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, War, and Violence

Minor: Terminal illness, Cannibalism, and Dementia

fromatreebranch's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Finding !!! connections with the rest of the books like clues here and there is so cool. And Snow really

Spoiler

becomes himself in this one. It's really amazing watching the depths of his evil be created, tested, and affirmed so young

. I... am hoping that the

Spoiler

singing

will feel natural in the film; that tends to take me out of it sometimes, but I see how integral it is to the whole thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

It is a heavy read in the sense of understanding the ways it is explicitly and implicitly exposing real life; something like watching a Black Mirror episode I guess.

ailerua's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal death, Gun violence, War, Child abuse, Child death, Violence, Genocide, Slavery, Police brutality, Classism, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Addiction