Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

145 reviews

hjb_128's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Cannibalism, Classism, Death, War, Violence, Gore, Murder, Body horror, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Suicide, and Vomit

wallywoahjack's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

You have no idea how many notes there are in my copy that literally say either “Jesus Christ”, “DUDE” or “my god”

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death, Toxic relationship, Torture, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Police brutality, Murder, Kidnapping, Confinement, War, Sexism, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Violence, Child death, Body horror, Misogyny, and Gore

Moderate: Addiction, Cannibalism, and Alcohol

Minor: Death of parent, Vomit, Stalking, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

undecidedpersonality's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Child death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, War, Police brutality, Blood, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Alcohol, Gore, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Addiction, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Classism, Suicide, Confinement, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Kidnapping and Panic attacks/disorders

lay_kone's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug use, Child death, Confinement, Animal death, Torture, Violence, War, Medical trauma, Grief, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Suicidal thoughts

katvou's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

3.0

I liked Lucy Gray as a character, she had an interesting personality and story. Coriolanus Snow on the other hand is someone I didn’t like, maybe some of my dislike is because I’ve read the original Hunger Games trilogy and I know who he becomes after. Also I found him quite annoying in this book.

The idea of the book was interesting, but I would have loved to read more about the game itself. I liked that the book showed more of the “behind the scenes” of the game but still I would have wanted more of the game. Especially the ending of the game just fell flat.

I really didn’t like how Snow was complaining about being poor, having to eat cabbage soup etc when he lived in a nice house in the Capitol. And simultaneously his tribute was from a really poor district.

This book felt like a cash grab, haven’t seen the movie so I don’t know whether it’s better or worse. I would have loved to read a book about Haymitch and his time in the game, or Finnick instead.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Classism, Death of parent, Alcohol, Child death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, and War

Minor: Drug abuse, Addiction, Cannibalism, and Drug use

nialiversuch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Murder, Classism, War, Addiction, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Gun violence

Minor: Vomit and Suicidal thoughts

kyra_613's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Classism

Moderate: Torture and Body horror

Minor: Drug abuse and Cannibalism

adrienanthony's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, and Police brutality

vi_holmes's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

1.5

 I just don't understand why this book exists....

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is an apparent attempt at a villain origin story for President Snow. But it fails miserably. There's no moment or change in his character to explain how he became the evil president in the original series. In fact, there's no change to his character, period. He is a self-absorbed, arrogant prat from beginning to end. There's no character arc whatsoever. There's not even Snow being evil in a fun way from the beginning. He's just an annoying elitist. That's it. After 500 pages...

All the other characters are just as hollow and one note as well. Even the love interest, Lucy Gray, that I assume was written to try to humanize Snow (it didn't), has absolutely no personality outside of her songs (which are mostly pointless wastes of pages) and being Appalachian-coded. She's really just a plot device and not a good one. Which is really a waste. If this book was told through her eyes like the trilogy did with Katniss, I think it would have been had so much more life and would have made much more sense as to why it was written in the first place. As it is, the little bit of her being the explanation behind The Hanging Tree and her involvement with Snow feels like an afterthought. I didn't root for them to be together at any point in the story because Snow treated her like a possession, not a person he was in love with.

I won't spoil anything about Sejanus's part in the story, but even he is the same character from beginning to end (though he is the closest one to having any sort of character arc). He's supposed to be the voice of the districts, but he just comes off as a reckless, loose canon that never thinks through his decisions.

I will say though that learning a bit of background for Tigris in the beginning was interesting even as it felt like such a random characters from the trilogy to give such thoughtout lore to. And when the Games first kick off, it did pick up and it was interesting to see the Games from the outside perspective. But even while the tributes were still in the arena it started to drop off again and got pretty repetitive. But those couple chapters and Tigris' background and Dr. Gaul, whom I found to be a fun villain at times, is why I'm giving this book 1.5 instead of 1 star.

Overall, I know I would have ended up reading it eventually out of curiosity, but I really hope the movie is better. I loved the original trilogy so much. I lost count of how many times I read them. This was such a let down. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Violence

aely's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

This book was awful and disturbing and terrifying and oh my god—

SEJANUS DESERVED BETTER

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, War, Child death, Death, Classism, Murder, Animal cruelty, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Blood, Medical content, and Confinement

Minor: Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Cannibalism, Vomit, Drug use, Animal death, and Drug abuse