Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

55 reviews

taelights's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Honestly I really loved this book. I liked learning more about Snow's story and getting to see how he developed from an annoying school boy into pure evil. I also liked seeing the state of Panem so soon after the war. 

I also enjoyed getting to learn how the hunger games operated in earlier years. How it was somehow even worse than in the OG trilogy and see how the foundations were laid for the format we already knew about. I was honestly shocked about the treatment of the tributes before and during the games many times. It was hard to read at times but it was worth it and gave me a lot to think about especially seeing as I often thought that the hunger games in the trilogy aren't that bad.

Can I just say though I'm so sad about Sejanus and want to fight Snow? I predicted really early on that he'd die so I saw it coming but I'm so sad about how it happened.

Also I do know that there is criticism about the ending but I don't share the same criticism. 

Personally I think there were hints that Coriolanus was getting annoyed with Lucy Gray and wasn't happy with her for multiple chapters before he decided to try to kill her. Plus with how he betrayed Sejanus and killed the mayor's daughter for his personal gain without a care, it didn't seem out of nowhere to me. Especially seeing as I personally never was convinced that Coriolanus fully loved Lucy Gray. To me it always read like he saw her more as something to possess rather than a living breathing girl with feelings. So personally I liked the ending and didn't think it was rushed and out of nowhere for him to turn on her. Especially for his own gain. 

The only thing is I wish I knew for sure what happened to Lucy Gray at the end but I am also satisfied not knowing because it parallels well with her ballad and you can kind of come up with whatever you wish so I can imagine whatever end I want for her and that will be my canon.

Anyways I loved this book and I really hope we get more books in the hunger games universe because I will literally read them all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Police brutality, Blood, Child abuse, War, Classism, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Cannibalism, Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Dementia

Mentions of sex work/prostitution that the character was forced into basically due to not having any other choice.

greenmind's review

adventurous challenging dark 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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I enjoyed this book enough as an audiobook to have on while doing other things, but it needed a throughly good editing - it’s overlong and completely loses it’s impact for this. 

Coriolanus isn’t a hero or even particularly likeable here, which makes this book a little harder to find the groove into - and sadly we see him as a young villain, more this way by nature than by design. Weak and snobbish, confused by his emotional responses and only ever “in love” in a shallow, possessive sense, rather than being fully present in his own life. Lucy Gray is more interesting than him, and yet we never really get to know her because Snow isn’t actually capable of deep human connection. It means the book doesn’t live up to its true potential and feels confusing to read, with shallow character and a lack of tension if you haven’t already enjoyed the Hunger Games trilogy before this. Snow really is just a boring psychopath after all - and it’s all the more disappointing to have that revealed when you’re looking for something with more conflict and bite. A manipulative and manipulating loner with only the drive to feed his own narcissism and personal survival driving his actions. Disappointing generally, even if I did enjoy dipping into this world again. I imagine the upcoming film of this could also be equally disappointing… or it might be significantly better, considering the much needing edit this bloated book needed will be delivered in film script form. We’ll see. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide, and Child abuse

Moderate: Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death, Deportation, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Violence, War, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Child death, Genocide, Medical content, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Stalking and Alcohol

cait's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Police brutality, Sexism, Slavery, Stalking, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Child death, Confinement, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Torture, and Toxic friendship

lemonysquish's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

2.0

I liked it? But the end was so rushed and overly ambiguous. We know Snow is bad and he was never a good guy..

but that was a steep drop off in character development in the last ten pages

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Torture, Cannibalism, Classism, Confinement, War, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicidal thoughts

annawantstowrite's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

3.5

„The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes“ is a prequel to the Hunger Games Trilogy and features the later president of Panem Coriolanus Snow as a teenaged protagonist and mentor in the 10th Hunger Games.  Fans of the original trilogy will find many fascinating links to it and sort-of-explanations for Snows character. The book provides and interesting new brick in the world building of the dystopia Panem. I found some of the storylines a bit too rushed and almost not fully thought out and the theoretical philosophical background (mainly Hobbes and Locke) was woven in quite heavy handedly but overall it was an enjoyable read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Violence, Cannibalism, Classism, Death, Child abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, War, Addiction, and Panic attacks/disorders

jonesroni638's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, War, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, and Gun violence

studydniowka's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Bardzo dobra młodzieżowa (i nie tylko) dystopia.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Deportation, Grief, Medical trauma, Torture, Toxic relationship, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Sexism, Slavery, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Murder, War, Xenophobia, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, and Violence

yourstrulytay's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

0.5

Thanks! I hated it!

After the brilliance of THG series, I had fairly high hopes for this book. Even once I heard that the book would be centred around a young Coriolanus Snow - which, admittedly, I wasn't wholly thrilled out - I thought the premise at least sounded interesting.

Absolutely not.

I have never been so consistently bored while reading (technically, listening, because audiobooks are my BFFs right now) a book, and I have never been so annoyed by a character's inner monologue before.

I know we aren't supposed to like Snow; obviously not, considering how we met him during THG... but seriously, he was such an awful character all around. Awfully written, awfully stupid. One second, he's practically writing sonnets about Lucy Gray Baird, and the next he's whining about being stuck doing whatever task he deems beneath him. Two seconds later, he's complaining about Sajanus, after naming him as his BFF two paragraphs prior. I mean, this man is exhausting, and I listened to 16 hours of this BS... Six. Teen.

I hate DNFing, mostly because I always hold out hope that something will get better. In case you're wondering... this book did not get better. It got consistently worse as time went on; in fact, that's probably the only consistent thing about it!

So yeah, don't waste your time, I'm glad I borrowed the audiobook from a library and didn't waste money buying it because. Yeah. I hated it. So much.

(The 0.5 star is for the character of Maude Ivory who is categorically the cutest child ever and I adored her... everyone else can go home, she wins)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Drug abuse, Classism, Violence, Death, Addiction, Blood, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cannibalism, War, and Suicidal thoughts

hannahbailey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

TW: violence, death (of parent, children), torture, war, gun violence, toxic relationship, animal death/cruelty, body horror, suicide attempt, grief, cannibalism, emotional abuse, forced institutionalisation, stalking, genocide, vomit

It was great to be back in Panem again-I've missed it! I'm aware how unhinged that sounds given the horrendous TWs I've listed above. But it's YA! And its Panem, a place we know is not famous for its kindness and generosity towards children.

So it was interesting to see Panem from the perspectives of Capitol citizens, however the perspective is limited through Coriolanus' gaze...make of that what you will 🥸 The POV was not quite a revelatory as I'd hoped it would be. Although, as with everything Suzanne Collins writes, I'm now thinking maybe this was intentional. There's no big reveal, we go to war and we fight and we kill each other because that's what humans do. There's no deeper message to be understood or secret to be discovered. Dammit Suzanne, you got me again! We have to stan.

I of course enjoyed the Hunger Games part, how could I not?! But the rest was overly long and stretched out. I didn't feel like we were given anything new, especially as District 12 was featured again over other districts. I wanted a lot more from Snow than I was given too. In every aspect of the novel and THG world, I'm itching to know more. Maybe one day we'll get the Finnick and Joanna novellas we deserve!

I know it's cringe and cliche but I want nothing more than for the movie adaptation to end with a close up of young Snow's face slowly morphing into old Snow's face either during his most evil in Catching Fire or at the end of Mockingjay when he *redacted*. The satisfaction would be too much to bear!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Blood, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Torture, Animal cruelty, Gore, Gun violence, Cannibalism, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Death of parent, Drug use, Genocide, and Grief

dancing_on_ur_muml0l's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Hi Katniss by the way your grandmother and your worst enemy fell in love 65 years ago anyway have a good day

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Murder, Gun violence, Gaslighting, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Alcohol, Classism, and Cursing