Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

41 reviews

garlicbelle's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Overall a good book, a great read that took me back to my time as a teenager reading the original hunger games. My one qualm is that the pacing is weird and it ends very abruptly.

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david_slack110507's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I was not expecting for this book to end the way that it did and for me to be so engrossed throughout but this was honestly a really fun read that had very few issues for me. I haven't read the original trilogy of books as I mainly read this book in anticipation for the movie adaptation to come out and I have watched the movie adaptations of the original trilogy but this book has made me want to start reading the original 3 books as I really enjoyed the way that the story was told in this and I would not be surprised if the movie adaptations of the original trilogy left things out of those books.

It was such an interesting choice to centre the book around the very antagonist of the original series in President Snow, who is simply just Coriolanus here and nothing much else other than having the last name Snow and the reputation that comes with that name. This was a good way of characterising Snow more so then what was done in the original entries into the franchise, and it was done so in being able to add layers to Snow's character while also being able to show how morally corrupt he was and how he didn't suddenly become evil, rather it was a slow process that becomes cemented in the final few chapters of the book and the epilogue in particular - essentially it does not just write off his actions as byproducts of what happened to him in this book and make him a misunderstood villain but rather that the intention behind his later actions was always there but just amplified by this book's events. Lucy Gray was also such a fascinating character too as she truly is someone in the wrong place at the wrong time that brings out the best in someone as bad as Snow and gets nothing good for her efforts and contributions, I like how different she is to Katniss and how being a performer, she immediately adapts to the publicity of the Games and survives because of it. I really liked the two of them as characters but there were also many others that I really liked and/or found fascinating and wanted to see more of such as Tigris, Sejanus, Dean Highbottom, Dr Gaul and more.

Speaking of the Games, they were really interesting to read about as we get it from the perspective of an onlooker (Coriolanus) while Lucy Gray, the one of the two that is actually in the Hunger Games, is trying to survive and fight for her life and so we don't read about any of the action that takes place other than what is seen on the monitors and yet it doesn't get boring and instead adds to the level of mystery and intrigue of the book which is something that it continues on with it's ending and resolution or there lack of for Lucy Gray's fate. It was also really interesting to have the Games as a sort of midway point in the book and to end the first half or so of the book rather than have it be the climatic battle/act that you would expect it to be instead allowing for Snow and Lucy Gray's relationship to grow following the aftermath of Games and their respective participation in it as mentor and competitor/participant, when they both return to District 12. This really solidified the strength of the book for me as it continued to thrive past its main selling point of the Hunger Games and instead allowed for more of a character study of the two to take place.

I feel like my only issue with this really is the fact that at times the pacing felt a little off as it stayed a little too focused on something that didn't seem to have too much significance but that's only really a minor issue I had with the book and only knocks it down a little from being an actual 5 star book to one that's rounded up from 4.5. I'm really interested in seeing how the movie adaptation manages to cover all this information as there is a lot here and I'm sure that there are references scattered about, besides from the obvious ones, to the original trilogy so I really hope that it delivers as this is such a wonderfully written and engaging story that has you become deeply invested in a previously unseen and unheard of character (That actually makes sense given the context) and the central villain who appeared to be just pure evil but is much more layered than that.

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plumdustsuns's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.25

I hate President Snow. That’s it. That’s the tweet. And the fact that Plinths are funding Snow when he got his son killed UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
This little sociopathic bitch???

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elfghostthingy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Gosh
Coriolanus
So many emotions in one book
It took me some time to get used to it, being a big book

and about a character I despised in the og trilogy

There were moments where I heard my heart race
It was fun

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kt2e56's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

3.0

Not as good as the original trilogy, but a good read regardless. I think my biggest issues are with the fact that its central character is someone we already know from the future. I

t seems like Collins had to go back on quite a bit in order to make this narrative fit in with what she already told us in the original trilogy.

I’d say that some other issues with this book are that most of the characters are just…flat. Dr. Gaul with her ridiculous nursery rhymes is too cartoonish of a villain, Lucy Gray is a manic pixie dream girl (which on the one hand makes sense because we’re seeing her from Snow’s POV, but that doesn’t make her any less grating), the rest of the Covey and their weird country bumpkin way of life are equally as grating and Snow himself has zero shades of gray. He’s awful all the way through (I’ll get back to this).

The most interesting characters by far are Sejanus Plinth and Dean Highbottom, both of whom I kind of wish had been the POV characters for this prequel.

BUT I will say that in terms of politics and big picture ideas, this book is way more ambitious than the original trilogy. Yes, Snow is a bit one note but I *do* actually appreciate that. He’s a fascist, point blank. He’s an elitist bigot whose family has fallen on hard luck but we don’t ever have to feel sympathy for him because he STILL clings to that bigotry even though it’s glaringly obvious that The Capitol is to blame for his family’s trauma. It’s also VERY interesting that Collins doesn’t even attempt to hide the links between fascism and misogyny.

Let’s talk real world for a second and how commonplace it is for alt-right young men to be drawn to their worldviews because of an innate sense of entitlement not only with wealth and the economy but with women as well. A big part of fascism is controlling women. It’s never a surprise when an alt-right extremist has a history of domestic violence. Never.

And Collins making it abundantly obvious that Coriolanus doesn’t truly LOVE Lucy Gray but seeks to own and possess her is actually really great. There’s no love story here. We know Lucy Gray is doomed from the moment she’s in his clutches. He wouldn’t have done ANYTHING for her if he didn’t want to fuck her so badly tbh. This was so obviously going to end one way and I’m glad that Collins didn’t chicken out and went for it and avoided giving him a change of heart although I wish she wasn’t so ambiguous with it.

The ending as a whole was another issue for me. It felt a bit rushed and convoluted and I wish Snow’s meeting with Highbottom was stretched out just a little more as opposed to stuffed into the epilogue.

All in all though, this was a solid read and I’m sure I’ll be seeing the movie in the Fall. I’m curious if Collins will be expanding even further on this world or not…

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dativa's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Finding !!! connections with the rest of the books like clues here and there is so cool. And Snow really

becomes himself in this one. It's really amazing watching the depths of his evil be created, tested, and affirmed so young

. I... am hoping that the

singing

will feel natural in the film; that tends to take me out of it sometimes, but I see how integral it is to the whole thing.

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mattiedancer's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad tense medium-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

Writing: 4.75⭐️/5

As with much of Collins' writing, the book thrives on its visually stunning and well-described settings. What any artistry in her writing might have lacked, she made up for with the impact of the world. And, even with a few stumbly sections in her writing, much of it read cleanly and beautifully–an intriguing insight into a poisonous mind.

Characters: 4.75⭐️/5

A few characters felt a touch jarring, but otherwise, like the setting, the world came alive with the characters. The way in which we understand Corionalus’ thoughts and mental state without overly empathizing with his goals is stunning. The side characters felt explored in their relationship with Coriolanus, meaning the people he liked we knew the most about and the people he thought ill of, we also felt the toxicity of his opinions.

Plot: 4⭐️/5

While the plot overall is intriguing and fascinating to watch unfold (believe me, I was slackjawed at several moments), I did feel (SPOILERS HERE) that the resolution of his attempted escape with Lucy Gray was rushed and unclear. Had the book been written in first person, I would’ve accepted this section gleefully as a possible blip in our narration due to an unreliable narrator, but I would have loved more of this section to focus on his mind unravelling a bit slower – as well as Lucy Gray’s realization moving a bit slower – so we could understand this section fully. And, even though I loved all the symbolism that ties us to the original trilogy, the added details connecting Lucy Gray to Katniss’ rebellion and how personally it integrated into Corionalus’ life felt too on the nose. The moment in which Lucy uses the excuse of finding katniss (the plant) to leave him felt a bit too heavy-handed for the analogy that later Katniss (the person) will cause his undoing. The song, The Hanging Tree, being written for him by Lucy also felt too coincidental, especially when tied with his heavy hatred of the mockingjays around District 12 during his time there. I wish some of these tie-backs had been removed or made less vital to slowly grit on his nerves, rather than to so obviously connect him to Katniss.

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