Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

248 reviews

cody_crumley's review

dark sad tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, and Classism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Drug use

flute_frog_7's review against another edition

dark reflective 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: Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Drug abuse, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Addiction, Animal death, Gun violence, Sexual content, Grief, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

kdailyreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

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: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

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

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

bridget_magpie's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

OMG HOW DID SHE MAKE ME ROOT FOR SNOW???? Like I was literally annoyed with him for things not going his way then I remembered this is Snow who we’re talking about 😅😅 Can’t wait to see it in the cinema, it’s gonna be so good! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and War

leedolee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-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

5.0

While I hate Snow, it was cool reading about the past. I liked learning more about past Panem and the early developments with how the Hunger Games would eventually pan out. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Cannibalism

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

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

biab00's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death and Cannibalism

mariavdl's review against another edition

dark reflective sad

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Confinement, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Murder, Toxic friendship, and War

bexi's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I was on the fence about reading this. I really like the original Hunger Games books and enjoy stories about how people become the way they are. But I really don't care about President Snow, and the reviews were mixed. But then I saw the movie trailer for the adaptation and decided I had to read the book if I wanted to watch the movie.

The book was more interesting than I anticipated and I'm glad I picked it up. Now how are they going to fit a 16 hour audiobook into one movie and do it justice?? Give me an 8 hour movie, I'll watch it. 👀

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Animal cruelty