Reviews tagging 'Dementia'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

70 reviews

madflatt's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Outing, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Dementia

chaoticenby's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.25

Dark and realistic look into life in the eyes of the delusional elite. Snow is a perfect depiction of a boy who has been twisted by the propaganda of a self-serving empire, unable to shed the views of the Capital even when presented with hope and horrors. I sped through this book. I just couldn’t put it down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Murder, and War

Moderate: Drug abuse, Dementia, and Alcohol

memoirsofabooklover's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

this was a brilliant sequel. perfect length, it really gave you time to delve in to the story. suzanne did a brilliant job of putting us in snow’s mind. the way she started off making you feel sorry for him because he has real hardships and goes through many genuine emotions you find yourself kind of rooting for him and *almost* forgetting what he was to become

the complexity, yet simplicity, and eventually tragedy, of his love story with lucy gray was so well written, you weren’t sure if you could trust her and the way it spoke her ballad in to existence at the end was chilling

. the attention to detail was incredible; so many nods to, and easter eggs from the original trilogy. and not only those, but also the fact that we see the creation of the world that katniss is brought up in, and connect so many dots.

the songs origins brought from the original trilogy, as well as the other songs sung were haunting, as well as it being incredible to see their origin and true meaning behind them. the symbolism of it all was poetic. seeing snow’s mindset already being brainwashed by his society, the superiority he feels from his tile and status being further twisted and deepened to become the man who we meet in the original trilogy.

the depravity and brutality of the treatment of the districts in this earlier setting was astounding, after reading the original books you don’t imagine things be much worse in the past but it is, despite the wicked and twisted things yet to come, along with snow’s power. overall, it was a brilliantly thought-out and crafted novel, perfectly tying in to the original trilogy; whilst being its own twisted, compelling story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Gaslighting, War, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, and Pandemic/Epidemic

allymac14's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Dementia, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

melongin's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Self harm, Suicide, and Police brutality

Minor: Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Dementia, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

kylasmv15's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I’ve got many thoughts and *many* opinions about this book, but I'm going to sit on them for a bit. All I will say at this time is that after managing to finish this book, there had better be a Finnick book in the works as my compensation. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Cannibalism, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War

themelleh's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

3.0

We all know what happens to Coriolanus Snow, so it’s nice to see how he gets to be that way. Like most men, he put poor Lucy (in this case) on an unobtainable pedestal and she was the one who paid for it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Classism

calamityin's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Infidelity, Blood, Vomit, and Cannibalism

marisabenn's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

3.75

This was SO SLOW and could have been 300 pages shorter. The last chapter is amazing, but it's soooo much character building for 300 pages. It was honestly a struggle to finish this, and I only did because of the movie. 

This was definitely an amazing villain origin story. I loved to see Snow become a sociopath... but again, it only really shines in the last few chapters. 

Lucy Grey deserved so much. I loved her, even if I didn't really trust her. I was hoping she would be the poisoning that leads to Snow's chronic bleeding, but no. We never learn her fate which is disappointing.  

I wish there were more chapters that went into the future and we could see Snow become president and even an introduction to Katniss. 

I can't say I recommend this, but it was a decent addition to the trilogy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Gun violence and Death of parent

Minor: Cursing, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

cluckieduck's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.0

This book was excellent...until it wasn't.

Suzanne is an excellent storyteller, and it was great to revisit the world of Panem 60+ years ahead of the The Hunger Games. I loved the background and expansion of how the Hunger Games themselves were developed, the extra layers of detail showing the Capitol's recovery from the rebel attacks, and the morsels of call-backs (call-forwards??) to the OG trilogy kept me enthralled.

The use of President Show as the protagonist was an interesting choice. It was hard to equate the Coriolanus (or Coryo to those near & dear) of TBoSaS with the eventual antagonistic, sadistic President Snow. I was waiting for such a major cataclysmic event, and perhaps my lacklustre feelings towards the ending are because I expected something major, but I found the ending just...meh. 

I wanted and obvious turn of our protagonist from 'good' to 'evil' when, in truth, Coriolanus was always a morally grey sociopath, so there was no chance for me to be shocked into his villainous turn. I wish we could have gotten an alternate POV removed from his own internal monologue to get an outsiders perspective on his behaviours or actions. Lucy Gray would have definitely benefit from some more screen time, IMO. She was an intriguing character and her eventual arc left little to be desired. In truth, I was definitely waiting for

her to die in the Hunger Games, so having her win and then, eventually, wiping the entire games out of existence

seemed like such an odd (and kinda lazy) choice to me.

All in all, it just didn't really...go anywhere or provide anything necessary to the overall universe of the Hunger Games. What is has done though, is make me want to re-read the original trilogy because it's certainly been a while! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Dementia, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship