Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

61 reviews

bookswithbethx's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Grief, Murder, War, Child abuse, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Violence

Minor: Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Addiction

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, Murder, Child death, Gaslighting, War, Torture, Classism, Death, Racism, Slavery, Police brutality, and Violence

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

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

wheelyautistic's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

Brilliant story that had me hooked the entire time. I have never hated a main character as much as I have reading this but that's what makes it amazing. The character's we're amazing and so well explored.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Trafficking, Grief, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, War, Hate crime, Torture, Suicide attempt, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Minor: Death of parent and Animal death

sedwards1992's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, War, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Police brutality, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Eating disorder, and Cannibalism

rochelleisreading's review

adventurous challenging tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Medical trauma, Violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, Torture, Slavery, Gun violence, and Death

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol

infjkiki's review against another edition

dark 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: Violence, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Gore, Blood, Gun violence, War, Medical trauma, Murder, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Animal death, Abandonment, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Drug use, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Mental illness

Minor: Cannibalism and Pregnancy

trashcanmoose's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Confinement, Terminal illness, Gun violence, Death, Classism, Emotional abuse, War, Violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Child death, and Police brutality

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Torture, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Toxic friendship, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death of parent, Bullying, and Toxic relationship

ag_berry's review

challenging dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Toxic friendship, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Blood, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Classism, Alcohol, Addiction, Police brutality, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

emercedesrich's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This book's prequel status is aided by reading the original trilogy first, for anyone who is just getting into this story for the first time!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Drug use, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Grief, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, Classism, Death, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Body horror

Moderate: Cannibalism

Minor: Slavery, Alcohol, and Vomit

nenaveenstra's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

This book came out three years ago at the time of writing this review, and I read it almost immediately after it came out. It had been a while since I had consumed any Hunger Games-related media and I was just happy to be back in the universe, and I was a bit confused by what was going on. There seemed to be a romance between Coriolanus Snow and a girl from District 12 that I wasn't happy with at all and the plot was a bit all over the place, but I still gave it four stars for enjoyment.

Now it's three years later and I've re-read the entire trilogy as well as rewatched all of the movies before diving back into this one, in preparation for the new movie coming out, and I have a lot of new insights (also thanks to people on the internet talking about this book again). I think the most important takeaway is this: above all else, this book is a character study of Coriolanus Snow, a boy who has grown up by the idea that the Capitol is Good and the Districts are Bad, and that Bad people need to be controlled by Good people. In a sense, he resembles men who accept the patriarchy as unfaultable, and he acts like a 'Nice Guy' too.
 
*spoilers below*
From the very beginning of this book, it's very clear that Snow doesn't view people as anything other than tools. He doesn't have friends, he has allies. He doesn't connect with people, he keeps them on his side. Sejanus is the loudest example of this, where even after his death, he is useful to Snow because his parents are willing to give him money. But it also happens with Lucy Gray: first and foremost, keeping her alive is a way for Snow to get a step ahead in life.

There's a second layer to his relationship with Lucy Gray, though: possession. Throughout the entire story, Snow might think he's in love with her, but actually he wants to own her. She is his girl, he keeps repeating in his head. He gets incredibly angry at even the thought of her having a life outside of the Capitol, wants her to erase all the songs she wrote about Billy Taupe, and he feels like she owes him love because he saved her life (he has a similar thought about Sejanus, too: that he saved his life and therefore he owed him, even though Snow caused his death sentence).

Lucy Gray seems to reciprocate Coriolanus's love, as in: she kisses him back, flirts with him, even writes songs about him. But we also know about her that she flirts a lot with people as part of her job, to make them give the Covey more money. And we know that she's very clever. So it might all just be an act - which is confirmed at the end of the book, when she gets Snow alone, interrogates him, and then flees after he finds the weapons, leaving a snake to bite him. The flirting, the loving - it was all a ruse to get him to leave, one way or another. And Coriolanus notices that, and he gets very scary for a moment - like Jack Torrence or any other horror villain, he promises his victim that he's not going to hurt her when he inevitably will. Because if he can't have her, no one can (plus he's trying to save face, like he always has).

All of this is very subtle and I missed it upon my first read - what I thought was, that this book was a poorly done romance that I didn't quite root for, but now I know that all of it was intentional. Just like the other Hunger Games books had subtle emotional undertones that I didn't get the first time I read those. I think that just speaks to the craftmanship of Suzanne Collins.

I do still agree, though, that the plot is a little bit messy, especially towards the end. He gets shipped back to the Capitol and finds out that his stint as a Peacekeeper was just a summer job, then he has a conversation with Dr. Gaul about what the Hunger Games really mean, and then he has a conversation with Dean Highbottom that I think could've been explored more. In a way it makes sense that Snow wouldn't really care to ruminate on the things he said but I thought it was really interesting that in a way, Snow was filling his Dad's shoes by 'improving' the Hunger Games together with Dr. Gaul and I'd like to think about what he actually meant by 'like moths to a flame'. I feel like there's multiple interpretations there.
*end of spoilers*

Long story short, I think there is much more to this book than meets the eye. It's not one for the masses, I fear, but I respect that. I'm very excited to go see the movie this weekend and I hope it's just as good - although I fear that it won't be. This movie series doesn't have a history of portraying the subtleties of the books that well, instead focusing on the spectacle, which is very ironic if you think about it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: War, Murder, Suicide attempt, and Slavery

Minor: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Medical content, and Vomit