Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

218 reviews

ciecyreads's review

dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Death

jspelman14's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Violence, and Murder

barbarianmissy's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Took me a long time to pick up this book cause I adored the Hunger Games trilogy and HATED Snow but I’m super happy I did! I enjoyed the story thoroughly and it had a very poetic ending. Suzanne Collins killed it as per usual! 

I still hate Snow, though, he sucks major butt. I’ll never forgive him for what he did to Finnick. 🖕

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, War, and Classism

charlieemagne's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

magsbord's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

celina246's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.75

Suzanne Collins was in her bag with this one. this was suchhh a great book I could not put it down.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, and Grief

Minor: Vomit, Police brutality, Dementia, Death of parent, War, and Deportation

downsophialane's review

challenging dark medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I would have loved a more comprehensive exploration of the "Dark Days", the ascent of the Capitol and the initial origination of Hunger Games, but that's not the promise of the premise, so, okay. The beginnings of the mentorship and sponsorship programs is also an interesting piece of worldbuilding. I think young adult literature is a great way to grapple with big philosophical ideas about human nature, civilisation and our capacity for evil, and Suzanne Collins has demonstrated her capacity to facilitate this again in this sequel.

The subversion of the highly-produced, nail-biting Hunger Games of the original trilogy is a interesting change. Lucy Gray is a delightful heroine, though I will say staying in Coriolanus' point of view was an interesting choice... He was so relentlessly self-centred and untrustworthy, I was so distracting by how unlikeable he was;

(I know he had sympathetic circumstances in the Capitol and the trauma of the war in his childhood, but his consistent choice to choose seeking power over people, and deflect human connection is just... so horrible and sad.)

The end escalates so quickly, and

Coriolanus' descent into paranoia was so intense and so well done. I love the ambiguity of what Lucy Gray was doing in that climatic scene, but the reveal that the snake was non-venomous was just like... my dude, this is on you. As usual, I chose to believe my favourite character survive and live long and happy lives (just like Finnick, thanks very much Suzanne Collins.)

 
I definitely chose the audiobook because it was performed by Santino Fontana, who I adored in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Roger and Hammerstein's Cinderella, whose lovely Disney Prince voice everyone would recognise from Hans. So I was pretty disappointed with the lack of music in this audio production. Obviously they hadn't set the songs to music yet, but let's be real, the film (which I haven't seen yet but I assume she's singing the whole time) was always going to be made so it would have been great to have mocked up the melodies to create a really high quality audiobook. As it is, I wouldn't recommend the audio over the physical book. 

I would recommend this, but not as a must-read the way the originals are. All I know is I couldn't move on with my life. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: War

Minor: Cannibalism

rmgiannino's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The world of The Hunger Games is so riveting and this book was no different than the trilogy. I really enjoyed learning all of the things that became a part of The Hunger Games because of Coriolanus. He was such an easy character to enjoy until the end. I really didn’t know what was going to happen but obviously knew he’d make his way to the dark side and back home. 

The only downside of this book was that the names drove me bonkers!!!! They were all just so silly and I know that’s just the way of the Capitol but it was a breath of fresh air when the storyline moved to the districts. It’s so obvious to see why President Snow hated Katniss so much because she must’ve reminded him so much of Lucy Gray.

I loved that the Covey was a bluegrass band. Bluegrass is some of our favorite music and I’m excited to listen to the music in the movie! I really loved all of the connections in this one and I can’t wait to watch the movie adaption soon to compare.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence and War

rsoule7's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Torture, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying

kaitidid's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Cannibalism

Minor: Animal cruelty and Toxic friendship