Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

200 reviews

bookwormofartemis's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

helenafaustina's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content

raluca_s's review

adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War

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

djy's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Genocide, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Cannibalism, and Alcohol

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

harylikeshb1's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

creationwing's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Torture, and Abandonment

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Cannibalism, Alcohol, and War

nikkilerae's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

The Hunger Games
By Suzanne Collins
5⭐️

This story was gripping from the very first page. Collins gives you a thorough look into the life of Katniss in District 12. You get a real feel for the desperation that comes from just living. Then she introduces the Hunger Games. 

During the Hunger Games you meet 24 kids from 12 districts. You see them fighting and trying to survive. Deeper than that though, you get Katniss’s perception and it feels like you are experiencing the challenges along side of her. 

This dystopian novel is engaging and it pulls you in to the very core. When you finish you will be ready to pick up the next book in the series. 

I read this book along side of my middle school son. We both enjoyed it very much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

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