Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

98 reviews

jade_queer's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Minor: Cannibalism

cmhansen97's review

challenging 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? No

2.5

I hope enough time has passed for me to be able to say this. The Hunger Games is not a bad book, but it is a strange one to me. The writing is not particularly flashy nor will you be wowed by the prose of the text. The story itself is middling. It was part of (and in no small part drove to mass popularity) the craze of dystopian fiction (mostly YA) that entered literature in the mid-2000s, and as a result contains a lot of the same notes that you will find in books like Maze Runner, or Divergent. One of the big problems with this is it also comes with a rather shallow and nonsensical view of government and fascism in general, to the extent it is rather difficult for me to get into. The economy of the districts makes no real sense, the districts themselves are somewhat arbitrarily divided in ways that (again) don't make sense (why would your coal mining district, which would be of vital importance for energy production, also routinely suffer starvation??? sounds like a good way to lose power and therefore collapse your entire system of infrastructure). It is just evident it wasn't very thoroughly thought through, and this is also seen in the portrayal of the capitol, Panem, which is ultimately a poor man's stereotype of Neronian Rome. What is worse is the Games themselves don't really make sense... part of maintaining a stable empire would be ensuring some level of hegemony and a general sense of either prosperity or contentment among the populace. Fascism does, for sure, massacre and target groups, but these are usually hated minorities that the majority agrees should be targeted. So, I don't think the worldbuilding is good.

The characters in the book are also almost all pretty bland. Drunken mentor archetype (check). Well-meaning rich person (check). Main character who has very little actual personality (check). Family character we are meant to care for only because they are family, e.g., Prim, (check). This becomes a bigger problem in the final volume of the trilogy, but Prim is such an underdeveloped non-character I honestly don't feel attached to her, which isn't helped by the fact that Katniss is also very bland, so it hamstrings the whole inciting incident.

The one thing I will give this novel is that the action sequences and pacing are pretty good throughout, and I greatly appreciate that. It does make the novel a satisfying read, even if I find it to be a bit shallow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, and Alcohol

annabellegloy's review

adventurous challenging 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 abuse, Confinement, Death, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Vomit, and Alcohol

Minor: Abandonment

glownary's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Pedophilia, Vomit, and Death of parent

olivian11's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Gore, Torture, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

thewalkingnerd's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Gore, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

vampyrka's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, and Alcohol

lolasbooks12's review

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

elle7_09's review

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

beebrainn's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I remember reading this series as the movies were coming out and i absolutely loved it. coming back to it now as a fan of the dark and gritty dystopian novels, i’ve fallen in love with it once again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Slavery, Kidnapping, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and War