Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

290 reviews

tuc39033's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Animal cruelty

cardan_greenbriar_1's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Vraiment j'ai adoré, comme tous les autres tomes mais j'ai mis que 4 car je l'ai trouvé un peu long à certains moments.
J'ai adoré Lucy gray mais le personnage de Coriolanus est détestable. Il utilise tout le monde pour avoir du pouvoir. 
<spoilerIl fait semblant d'être l'ami de Sejanus, il utilise Lucy Gray pour remporter le prix Plinth, même si au final il l'a pas eu parce qu'ils se sont rendus compte de sa tricherie. Il cherche tout le temps à excuser ses actes en se disant qu'il avait pas le choix alors que si

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Genocide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and War

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Addiction

ladybanecourt's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-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

5.0

✨5/5✨

"Snow lands on top."

This was such an interesting book!! It is easy to hate Snow from reading the first Hunger Games books as it gives us the impression that he is just downright evil. But this prequel, set from Snow's life from before, gives us key points about his character, past, and motivations. Definitely a good read.

P. S. Sejanus is my favorite character fr

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Torture

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Classism

rchulin1's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful sad tense 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

4.5

Wow just wow it's hard to not get popular books spoiled but even so l still was surprised. I really was able to transport myself into the games into district twelve on a whole other level. The ending was so surprising I could definitely feel Snow's insanity building something | kept thinking about was the title: the ballad of songbirds and snakes. So at first I assumed the title was to be about Lucy's time in the hunger games the battle between her innocence and her violence which is true in a sense but I feel like the true symbolism was that Snow eventually became another snake Lucy tried to handle in a way. So Lucy is the songbird and Snow is the snake. Throughout the entire book we see Snows internal battle with the mentality he was raised with being a child of the capital and the mentality of someone on the outside although he was only in the Games for a small moment the entire book was in a way his own game. He was stripped of his innocence his way of seeing the capital through rose colored lenses into truly seeing and not only not fearing the capitals ideals but embracing them. A few times he mentions how he impulsively does things and those impulses are his inner self trying to break through even with him aiding Lucy it just shows how selfish he is he saved her for his own benefit. Lastly I deeply appreciated the small nods to the other hunger games books "May the odds ever be in our favor", the meadow song, his dislike of mocking jays, Katniss! I can deeply see how he changed the hunger games and the role he played in the beginning he dislikes how the tributes were transported in cargo holds and in the other books we see the tributes now being in a far fancier train. We see the peacekeepers being more harsh and we see how the arena changes every year so that the former years games doesn't play a role in this years and so on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

catsbreadbikes's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative medium-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

3.0

This book has big "you were named for the bravest man i ever knew" energy for most of the way. I liked learning the history of Panem, but thjs would have been better served as a fictional "history" text, similar to The World of Ice and Fire for the game of thrones books. Being a fictional narrative with a young president snow as the protagonist detracts from the experience of this book, and the choice to have SANTINO FONTANA narrateand NOT have him perform the songs is downright baffling 🤷 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Blood, Medical content, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Child death, Torture, Police brutality, Cannibalism, and Death of parent

jjohans3's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Minor: Addiction

peroxide_princes's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

Another artfully crafted and carefully planned book from Suzanne Collins, and in my opinion makes a great addition to the Hunger Games universe as a prequel. There are definitely some moments where character decisions/plot points feel a little jarring or rushed, especially in very tense moments of the book,

like Sejanus’ death and the whole ending Lucy Gray scene in which she disappears. Obviously these plot points were carefully made by Collins, and I think it fits the story, but I think from an objective reading standpoint they come off clunky.

. Overall, I think she does an excellent job with Snow’s characterization and development

and not to sound crazy, but I think she does a great job of showing just how twisted he is. He is clearly a master manipulator from the start, but throughout the book shows he can have heart or moments of weakness. Collins really leads you to believe for a while that he truly might change, only to rip it away in the epilogue, where ‘Coriolanus’ has truly died, and ‘Snow’ now presides with pride and power. May not be to everyone’s taste, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

.  Also, I have to give Collins a lot of credit, because no detail dropped throughout the book (and trust me, there were SO many details) went without resolution, and I appreciate that greatly. Because of my personal taste with clunky writing and strange word choice at times, I couldn’t give this book 5 stars, but I really think Collins has another solid rendition here in the universe of The Hunger Games.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

whitne_ey's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Addiction, Confinement, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Vomit, and Alcohol

thebowandthebook's review against another edition

challenging emotional fast-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

I enjoy this book, this was a re-read. The madness of Snow is really fascinating and I really like how Collins integrates philosophy into her works. 
Minor reference to gay stuff. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Torture, Cannibalism, and War

Minor: Addiction

bag_end_library's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad medium-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

4.0

Good prequel to the Hunger Games series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism