Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

30 reviews

kt2e56's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad tense fast-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

3.0

Not as good as the original trilogy, but a good read regardless. I think my biggest issues are with the fact that its central character is someone we already know from the future. I

t seems like Collins had to go back on quite a bit in order to make this narrative fit in with what she already told us in the original trilogy. 

I’d say that some other issues with this book are that most of the characters are just…flat. Dr. Gaul with her ridiculous nursery rhymes is too cartoonish of a villain, Lucy Gray is a manic pixie dream girl (which on the one hand makes sense because we’re seeing her from Snow’s POV, but that doesn’t make her any less grating), the rest of the Covey and their weird country bumpkin way of life are equally as grating and Snow himself has zero shades of gray. He’s awful all the way through (I’ll get back to this).

The most interesting characters by far are Sejanus Plinth and Dean Highbottom, both of whom I kind of wish had been the POV characters for this prequel.

BUT I will say that in terms of politics and big picture ideas, this book is way more ambitious than the original trilogy. Yes, Snow is a bit one note but I *do* actually appreciate that. He’s a fascist, point blank. He’s an elitist bigot whose family has fallen on hard luck but we don’t ever have to feel sympathy for him because he STILL clings to that bigotry even though it’s glaringly obvious that The Capitol is to blame for his family’s trauma. It’s also VERY interesting that Collins doesn’t even attempt to hide the links between fascism and misogyny. 

Let’s talk real world for a second and how commonplace it is for alt-right young men to be drawn to their worldviews because of an innate sense of entitlement not only with wealth and the economy but with women as well. A big part of fascism is controlling women. It’s never a surprise when an alt-right extremist has a history of domestic violence. Never.

And Collins making it abundantly obvious that Coriolanus doesn’t truly LOVE Lucy Gray but seeks to own and possess her is actually really great. There’s no love story here. We know Lucy Gray is doomed from the moment she’s in his clutches. He wouldn’t have done ANYTHING for her if he didn’t want to fuck her so badly tbh.  This was so obviously going to end one way and I’m glad that Collins didn’t chicken out and went for it and avoided giving him a change of heart although I wish she wasn’t so ambiguous with it. 

The ending as a whole was another issue for me. It felt a bit rushed and convoluted and I wish Snow’s meeting with Highbottom was stretched out just a little more as opposed to stuffed into the epilogue.

All in all though, this was a solid read and I’m sure I’ll be seeing the movie in the Fall. I’m curious if Collins will be expanding even further on this world or not… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Trafficking, and Gaslighting

fran_buesa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

cdoubet's review against another edition

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Dementia, Death of parent, and Alcohol

laineydunne's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and War

chlorai's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

rae42's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Dementia

Minor: Vomit

Kinda hate that it's humanising characters which later do horrible things in the original trilogy

jjpope's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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 abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Abandonment

holdencaulfield's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, and Murder

Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Hate crime, Blood, and Suicide attempt

mscalls's review

challenging dark informative tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Murder

powellki's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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

2.5

 I was looking forward to this book, I was, however I felt very let down by the final product. In this revisit to the world of the Hunger Games, we're greeted with Coriolanus Snow, future president of Panem and currently a dirt-poor boy clinging to a family legacy that was tied up in munitions in district 13.... the district that was bombed to end the war.

Find the full review at A Bibliotaph's Reviews.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Murder