Reviews tagging 'Dementia'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

66 reviews

melongin's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Mental illness, Cannibalism, Child death, Murder, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Alcohol, Colonisation, Racism, Blood, Drug use, and Classism

Moderate: Self harm, Police brutality, and Suicide

Minor: Stalking, Dementia, Bullying, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, and War

kylasmv15's review

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I’ve got many thoughts and *many* opinions about this book, but I'm going to sit on them for a bit. All I will say at this time is that after managing to finish this book, there had better be a Finnick book in the works as my compensation. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, Blood, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Classism, and Addiction

Minor: Grief, Alcohol, Dementia, Bullying, Cannibalism, War, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Abandonment, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

themelleh's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

We all know what happens to Coriolanus Snow, so it’s nice to see how he gets to be that way. Like most men, he put poor Lucy (in this case) on an unobtainable pedestal and she was the one who paid for it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Cannibalism, Gun violence, Racism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Genocide, Gore, Kidnapping, Drug abuse, Classism, Death, Vomit, War, Addiction, Alcohol, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, Blood, Child death, Murder, Dementia, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

calamityin's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Classism, Toxic friendship, War, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Police brutality, Grief, Medical content, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Violence, Addiction, Child death, Colonisation, and Death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Medical trauma, Bullying, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal death, Cannibalism, Infidelity, Alcoholism, Blood, and Vomit

marisabenn's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

This was SO SLOW and could have been 300 pages shorter. The last chapter is amazing, but it's soooo much character building for 300 pages. It was honestly a struggle to finish this, and I only did because of the movie. 

This was definitely an amazing villain origin story. I loved to see Snow become a sociopath... but again, it only really shines in the last few chapters. 

Lucy Grey deserved so much. I loved her, even if I didn't really trust her. I was hoping she would be the poisoning that leads to Snow's chronic bleeding, but no. We never learn her fate which is disappointing.  

I wish there were more chapters that went into the future and we could see Snow become president and even an introduction to Katniss. 

I can't say I recommend this, but it was a decent addition to the trilogy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Classism, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Moderate: Gun violence and Death of parent

Minor: Cannibalism, Cursing, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Dementia, and Drug abuse

cluckieduck's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.0

This book was excellent...until it wasn't.

Suzanne is an excellent storyteller, and it was great to revisit the world of Panem 60+ years ahead of the The Hunger Games. I loved the background and expansion of how the Hunger Games themselves were developed, the extra layers of detail showing the Capitol's recovery from the rebel attacks, and the morsels of call-backs (call-forwards??) to the OG trilogy kept me enthralled.

The use of President Show as the protagonist was an interesting choice. It was hard to equate the Coriolanus (or Coryo to those near & dear) of TBoSaS with the eventual antagonistic, sadistic President Snow. I was waiting for such a major cataclysmic event, and perhaps my lacklustre feelings towards the ending are because I expected something major, but I found the ending just...meh. 

I wanted and obvious turn of our protagonist from 'good' to 'evil' when, in truth, Coriolanus was always a morally grey sociopath, so there was no chance for me to be shocked into his villainous turn. I wish we could have gotten an alternate POV removed from his own internal monologue to get an outsiders perspective on his behaviours or actions. Lucy Gray would have definitely benefit from some more screen time, IMO. She was an intriguing character and her eventual arc left little to be desired. In truth, I was definitely waiting for

her to die in the Hunger Games, so having her win and then, eventually, wiping the entire games out of existence

seemed like such an odd (and kinda lazy) choice to me.

All in all, it just didn't really...go anywhere or provide anything necessary to the overall universe of the Hunger Games. What is has done though, is make me want to re-read the original trilogy because it's certainly been a while! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Gun violence, Blood, Medical content, Classism, Confinement, Death, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, Cannibalism, Dementia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, and Vomit

sav_22's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Violence, Murder, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Death, Blood, Animal cruelty, Slavery, Vomit, Torture, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Grief, Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Dementia, Death of parent, War, Colonisation, Classism, and Excrement

brandie_abbie19's review against another edition

dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Abandonment, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Trafficking, Grief, Hate crime, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Dementia, Death of parent, Confinement, Classism, Gun violence, War, Violence, Physical abuse, Drug use, Slavery, Murder, and Toxic friendship

ahawkins11's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Police brutality, Child abuse, Dementia, Drug abuse, Gore, Child death, Death, Addiction, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Grief, and War

quinn24's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

The Hunger Games prequel following an 18-year-old President Snow  as a mentor in the 10th hunger games. 
and holy shit oh my god this is SUCH an incredible prequel. It’s absolutely fascinating the ways in which snow is so self important yet insecure and the way that he lies and justifies things to himself barely even needing outside influence. The way he views the games and his peers and Lucy Gray. The ways in which he is treated by the system and he clearly notices the faults in the system and yet continues to uphold it. All the parallels and references to the trilogy oh my god my brain is exploding. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Violence, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Toxic friendship, Classism, Medical content, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Alcohol, Addiction, Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Vomit, Drug use, War, Dementia, Drug abuse, Cannibalism, and Animal death