Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

224 reviews

rchulin1's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Wow just wow it's hard to not get popular books spoiled but even so l still was surprised. I really was able to transport myself into the games into district twelve on a whole other level. The ending was so surprising I could definitely feel Snow's insanity building something | kept thinking about was the title: the ballad of songbirds and snakes. So at first I assumed the title was to be about Lucy's time in the hunger games the battle between her innocence and her violence which is true in a sense but I feel like the true symbolism was that Snow eventually became another snake Lucy tried to handle in a way. So Lucy is the songbird and Snow is the snake. Throughout the entire book we see Snows internal battle with the mentality he was raised with being a child of the capital and the mentality of someone on the outside although he was only in the Games for a small moment the entire book was in a way his own game. He was stripped of his innocence his way of seeing the capital through rose colored lenses into truly seeing and not only not fearing the capitals ideals but embracing them. A few times he mentions how he impulsively does things and those impulses are his inner self trying to break through even with him aiding Lucy it just shows how selfish he is he saved her for his own benefit. Lastly I deeply appreciated the small nods to the other hunger games books "May the odds ever be in our favor", the meadow song, his dislike of mocking jays, Katniss! I can deeply see how he changed the hunger games and the role he played in the beginning he dislikes how the tributes were transported in cargo holds and in the other books we see the tributes now being in a far fancier train. We see the peacekeepers being more harsh and we see how the arena changes every year so that the former years games doesn't play a role in this years and so on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Animal death, Classism, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Murder, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child death, Confinement, Death, Toxic relationship, War, Blood, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Police brutality, Cannibalism, and Mass/school shootings

lri_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Vomit, Classism, and War

picaresquedreamer's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Death, Violence, Gaslighting, Classism, and Murder

Moderate: Cannibalism, Death of parent, Torture, and Mental illness

Minor: Sexual content

peroxide_princes's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

Another artfully crafted and carefully planned book from Suzanne Collins, and in my opinion makes a great addition to the Hunger Games universe as a prequel. There are definitely some moments where character decisions/plot points feel a little jarring or rushed, especially in very tense moments of the book,

like Sejanus’ death and the whole ending Lucy Gray scene in which she disappears. Obviously these plot points were carefully made by Collins, and I think it fits the story, but I think from an objective reading standpoint they come off clunky.

. Overall, I think she does an excellent job with Snow’s characterization and development

and not to sound crazy, but I think she does a great job of showing just how twisted he is. He is clearly a master manipulator from the start, but throughout the book shows he can have heart or moments of weakness. Collins really leads you to believe for a while that he truly might change, only to rip it away in the epilogue, where ‘Coriolanus’ has truly died, and ‘Snow’ now presides with pride and power. May not be to everyone’s taste, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

.  Also, I have to give Collins a lot of credit, because no detail dropped throughout the book (and trust me, there were SO many details) went without resolution, and I appreciate that greatly. Because of my personal taste with clunky writing and strange word choice at times, I couldn’t give this book 5 stars, but I really think Collins has another solid rendition here in the universe of The Hunger Games.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Blood, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Child death, Violence, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, Medical content, Death of parent, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

itsrenee's review against another edition

dark 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

4.5

Sejanus’ death absolutely ruined me. He didn’t deserve that. Lucy Gray didn’t deserve to be hunted down by Snow either.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Abandonment, War, Violence, Child death, Toxic friendship, and Murder

hazle_363's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

Such a good exploration of snow and Lucy gray, the capitol vs districts and loyalty

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Colonisation, Grief, Classism, Violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

joselyn_wren's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Cannibalism, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Body horror, and Death of parent

Minor: Blood, Vomit, Chronic illness, and Gun violence

decie's review against another edition

adventurous dark

• 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: Animal death, Child death, Violence, Confinement, Classism, Colonisation, Gun violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Xenophobia

Moderate: War and Cannibalism

Minor: Abandonment and Vomit

aliengirlreads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Child abuse, Murder, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal cruelty, Death, Police brutality, Child death, and Confinement

Moderate: Grief, Addiction, War, Medical content, Classism, Alcohol, Animal death, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Death of parent, Dementia, Vomit, and Blood

neverlandingonabook's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Dude omg this book was insaneeeee. I didn’t want to put it down, and every day when I woke up I was excited to read and it felt so good to really get out of my reading slump. It felt like back when I was little and woke up every morning excited to read. I love and admire Lucy Gray, who knew when she was in trouble and defended herself by running away and was her own hero. I also admire Tigris, who was so confident that Snow was good and who was so pure. Definitely a comfort character. This book made me forget I was reading.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Cannibalism, War, Vomit, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Gaslighting

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Drug use, and Suicidal thoughts