Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

101 reviews

gonnachangethislater's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Grief, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Vomit

maite_moonchild's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Colonisation

mattiedancer's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad 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

4.5

Writing: 4.75⭐️/5 

As with much of Collins' writing, the book thrives on its visually stunning and well-described settings. What any artistry in her writing might have lacked, she made up for with the impact of the world. And, even with a few stumbly sections in her writing, much of it read cleanly and beautifully–an intriguing insight into a poisonous mind.

Characters: 4.75⭐️/5

A few characters felt a touch jarring, but otherwise, like the setting, the world came alive with the characters. The way in which we understand Corionalus’ thoughts and mental state without overly empathizing with his goals is stunning. The side characters felt explored in their relationship with Coriolanus, meaning the people he liked we knew the most about and the people he thought ill of, we also felt the toxicity of his opinions. 

Plot: 4⭐️/5 

While the plot overall is intriguing and fascinating to watch unfold (believe me, I was slackjawed at several moments), I did feel (SPOILERS HERE) that the resolution of his attempted escape with Lucy Gray was rushed and unclear. Had the book been written in first person, I would’ve accepted this section gleefully as a possible blip in our narration due to an unreliable narrator, but I would have loved more of this section to focus on his mind unravelling a bit slower – as well as Lucy Gray’s realization moving a bit slower – so we could understand this section fully. And, even though I loved all the symbolism that ties us to the original trilogy, the added details connecting Lucy Gray to Katniss’ rebellion and how personally it integrated into Corionalus’ life felt too on the nose. The moment in which Lucy uses the excuse of finding katniss (the plant) to leave him felt a bit too heavy-handed for the analogy that later Katniss (the person) will cause his undoing. The song, The Hanging Tree, being written for him by Lucy also felt too coincidental, especially when tied with his heavy hatred of the mockingjays around District 12 during his time there. I wish some of these tie-backs had been removed or made less vital to slowly grit on his nerves, rather than to so obviously connect him to Katniss. 

Who Should Read This Book? 

• Fans of The Hunger Games trilogy

Content Warnings? 

• Death, murder, child death, parent death, illness, cannibalism, blood, injury, medical trauma, gore

Post-Reading Rating:  5⭐️/5

I wish it had gone on a bit longer, but I was happy with the conclusion.

Final Rating: 4.5⭐️/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Dementia, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Eating disorder, Misogyny, and Sexism

pallasreads's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I will be thinking about this book for the rest of time. Suzanne Collins had successfully added new depth to Panem and the Hunger Games. Until the last 25 pages, I was still rooting for Snow to make the right decisions, even though fans of the trilogy know he won’t. Every detail is wrenching, and the little ways the original trilogy is tied in serve as reminders of the cruelty humans can enact on each other. Most importantly, this book reminds all of us how much power art really can have to ignite a revolution. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, and War

Minor: Torture, Xenophobia, and Cannibalism

weepingstones's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, and Classism

Moderate: Physical abuse, Police brutality, and War

Minor: Vomit, Medical content, and Medical trauma

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

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

cait's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

hayleyvem's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Medical content, Dementia, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying and Medical trauma

chronicacademia's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.0

I was expecting The Hunger Games 2.0 But Make It a Villain Origin Story and instead I got the world’s worst protagonist, too many descriptions of cabbage soup, and at least a hundred songs.

The world building was good. This book could have (and should have) been an almanac of information to expand The Hunger Games world about how the games developed over time, which would have been more interesting than 500 pages of Young Pre-President Snow complaining about how much his life sucks in the Capitol because he can’t afford his penthouse rent. 

Also, this might be the first book I’ve read in preparation for a movie adaptation where I really hope the movie is not accurate to the book. Because if it is accurate to the book, half the movie is just going to be me sitting in a theater watching Coriolanus Snow sitting in a theater watching the world’s most boring Hunger Games. 

I am so disappointed in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

elviolet's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail