Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

57 reviews

gracewiley's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Grief, Violence, Murder, Animal death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Classism, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, and Death of parent

Minor: Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Slavery, Child abuse, and Medical content

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

4.0

I first read this series in my twenties, and I'm now reading this again at age 31. Overall, it holds up quite a lot. I now understand Katniss to be an aroace character, even if that wasn't the author's intention. That reading has added a new dimension and flavor to the narrative. The chapters are masterfully crafted, and I don't think the author ever got enough credit for the skillfulness of her writing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Death, Alcoholism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Gore, Addiction, Grief, Gaslighting, and Confinement

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Drug use, Alcohol, Classism, Torture, and Genocide

Minor: War, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Ableism, Racism, and Police brutality

Starvation, Dehydration, Dictatorship

rosenau's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Torture, Animal cruelty, Child death, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Vomit, Alcoholism, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Cannibalism

jennabell's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Mental illness, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Physical abuse

laval's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

2.0

honestly, surprisingly bad considering how everyone hypes this up to me. i genuinely think that this book was never intended to be marketed towards a younger audience (nor should it have ever been) but due to the poor quality of writing, it was. i know it is a YA but i have read plenty others and none this bad. this is full of grammatical errors and has absolutely no style to it. I do not think this is appropriate at all for <13 to be reading. plus i think katniss is one of the worst characters ever to follow. i do not like her and find her actions are always backhanded or unnecessarily cruel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Murder, Vomit, Death, Grief, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Blood, Death of parent, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Classism

goldsbuc's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Animal death, Blood, Violence, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism

marleen02's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Violence, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Animal death

maggieed's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, and Police brutality

lily1304's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes

4.25

 I was impressed how well the first book held up on rereading, now that I'm older. This review is going to be full of spoilers so I'm just going to spoiler-tag the whole thing:

Even though the Hunger Games is a huge corporate franchise under Scholastic and Lionsgate, it still retains some subversive political themes. Rebellion against authoritarianism and income inequality are obvious. But labor rights are also a major theme, for example, in Katniss' descriptions of District 12 and Rue's descriptions of District 11. Katniss' father is one of many miners who die in coal mine explosions; both coal miners in District 12 and farm workers in District 11 are forbidden from keeping the products of their labor; both farm workers and Appalacian miners were major players in labor history in the US.

There's plenty more here, too, that could become whole essays - the criminalization of poverty, art and performance as political protest, a state-planned economy dependent on violent suppresssion of dissident speech, climate change causing war, the power of a heterosexual love story to sway bystanders into sympathy for a cause, entertainment media as "bread and circuses" distraction, etc, etc. It has the potential to politicize young readers if they aren't too distracted by the love triangle and the game itself.

I found the relationship between Katniss and Peeta to be more believable than I remembered, at least in this first book of the trilogy. Pretending to be in love while enduring trauma together might make me catch feelings for some dude too.

I appreciate Katniss' movites change over the course of the novel from "literally do anything to survive, trust no one" to teaming up with Peeta to win with at least some kind of dignity and integrity. Overall I think she's a more interesting protagonist than many other YA novels.

It's been so long since I've read the sequels, but now I'm curious if they hold up as well as the first one... my suspicion is that they don't. I remember being just as disappointed by Mockingjay as I was Gregor and the Code of Claw waaaay back in the day. Maybe I should re-read those too!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment and Mental illness

Minor: Alcohol

Contains detailed descriptions of hunger/starvation and dehydration

danileah07's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Murder, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

Moderate: Vomit, Alcoholism, Torture, Suicide attempt, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, and Blood

Minor: War, Police brutality, and Physical abuse