Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

23 reviews

sarahsbookss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Murder, War, Addiction, Drug abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Police brutality, Vomit, Trafficking, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Classism, Death, and Death of parent

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

jo_d's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

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

5.0

Absolutely stunningly well written. The subtle changes in Snow throughout the book while simulatniously maintaining consistancy in character and decision making was a jarring insight to what is (in my opinion) among the most interesting villains in YA. The setting for the book, the 10th Hunger Games, rehighlights what the movies did wonders in erasing: that the games are far from glamerous, and are instead violent indicators of what people, given too much power, are willing to do to others, espeically those they deam inferior. Absolutley would recommend, it was thought-provoking, adgitating, but I found myself unable to stop reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Gun violence, Torture, Murder, Violence, Child abuse, Vomit, and Confinement

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Drug use

Minor: Sexual violence and Trafficking

becca_w_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Addiction, Blood, Death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Gore, Violence, Animal death, Child death, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Vomit, War, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Torture, Trafficking, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Kidnapping, Slavery, Body horror, and Bullying

Minor: Body horror, Stalking, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Body shaming, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

c_dmckinney's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Colonisation, Classism, Xenophobia, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Racism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Confinement, Gaslighting, and Grief

Minor: War, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Genocide, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Dementia, Deportation, and Trafficking

kt2e56's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Violence, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Gun violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Misogyny, Police brutality, Blood, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Torture, Medical trauma, Murder, War, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Trafficking, Mental illness, Addiction, and Medical content

eviejo_07's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

4.25

Mmmmm. I don’t know how I feel about this book. I rated is kinda high because the writing is really good and the story is fascinating. I was confused on how Coriolanus becomes the villain we see in the main trilogy. Let’s just say things make more sense now, but I also still have so many questions. The Epilogue made me so mad! Not for any reason other than the main character’s actions. The people around him deserved better. I really liked the classroom setting though. The academy was pretty cool. I wouldn’t read this is you have a fear of snakes…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Physical abuse

Moderate: War, Cannibalism, and Violence

Minor: Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, and Trafficking

jonssweater's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Child death, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic friendship, Classism, and Addiction

Moderate: War, Sexism, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gore, Blood, Trafficking, Drug use, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual assault, Vomit, and Sexual violence

annorabrady's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.0

When I heard the announcement of this book, I wasn't thrilled with the idea of following President Snow as a youth because I feared it might have taken the route of making him a sympathetic villain like many prequels following villains do. I was pleasantly surprised that the story didn't go that direction. However, it made it hard for me to engage with his story. Most of my attention, instead, went to the stories of the characters around him. I almost wish it had been a story from the POV of a character who was close to him but wasn't him. Someone who could witness his growth into villainy without being the villain themselves. 

That isn't to say that Suzanne Collins did a bad job with this POV. It was really well done. I'm just not a fan of following someone grow into the level of villainy we see in the original books and wearing that growth like a badge of honor. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Vomit, Violence, Death, War, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Confinement, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Medical content, Physical abuse, Police brutality, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Murder, Suicide, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

sophie42's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Child abuse, Violence, War, Death of parent, Murder, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Classism

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Trafficking, Vomit, Alcohol, Classism, and Gore

Minor: Grief, Sexism, and Toxic friendship