Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

211 reviews

the_pysselfia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Alcohol, Body horror, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Child abuse, Classism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child death, Classism, Medical trauma, Xenophobia, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Murder, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Police brutality, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Misogyny, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Addiction, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, War, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Genocide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Physical abuse, and Toxic friendship

bella_01's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Deciding whether to rate this book 5* or not was a tough decision. The writing was incredible and the story had me enthralled, but after finishing the book, I felt severely  bothered. Eventually I realised that the fact it bothered me so much speaks volumes for the quality of the writing, and is absolutely deserving of 5*.

I loved that Suzanne Collins tied the books together so cleanly. Even down to the small details, nothing felt like an afterthought, and despite not long finishing the trilogy, I'd love to read the books side-by-side to identify any of these small links that I missed. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, War, Gore, Murder, and Blood

Minor: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Police brutality

karly_ackley's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Blood, Alcohol, and Child death

Moderate: War, Police brutality, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Death

am4man's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Bullying, Drug use, Murder, Blood, Physical abuse, Classism, Child death, Drug abuse, Death, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Police brutality

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Torture

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Animal death, Child death, Murder, Animal cruelty, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: War, Police brutality, Alcohol, Confinement, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Vomit

memoirsofabooklover's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

this was a brilliant sequel. perfect length, it really gave you time to delve in to the story. suzanne did a brilliant job of putting us in snow’s mind. the way she started off making you feel sorry for him because he has real hardships and goes through many genuine emotions you find yourself kind of rooting for him and *almost* forgetting what he was to become

the complexity, yet simplicity, and eventually tragedy, of his love story with lucy gray was so well written, you weren’t sure if you could trust her and the way it spoke her ballad in to existence at the end was chilling

. the attention to detail was incredible; so many nods to, and easter eggs from the original trilogy. and not only those, but also the fact that we see the creation of the world that katniss is brought up in, and connect so many dots.

the songs origins brought from the original trilogy, as well as the other songs sung were haunting, as well as it being incredible to see their origin and true meaning behind them. the symbolism of it all was poetic. seeing snow’s mindset already being brainwashed by his society, the superiority he feels from his tile and status being further twisted and deepened to become the man who we meet in the original trilogy.

the depravity and brutality of the treatment of the districts in this earlier setting was astounding, after reading the original books you don’t imagine things be much worse in the past but it is, despite the wicked and twisted things yet to come, along with snow’s power. overall, it was a brilliantly thought-out and crafted novel, perfectly tying in to the original trilogy; whilst being its own twisted, compelling story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Murder, Child death, Gaslighting, War, Torture, Classism, Death, Racism, Slavery, Police brutality, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Confinement, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Dementia, Grief, Gun violence, and Alcohol

Minor: Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Vomit, Cannibalism, Drug abuse, Sexism, Addiction, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Medical content, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Racial slurs

hellelujahs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Child death, Violence, Death of parent, Gore, and Police brutality

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Cannibalism, Panic attacks/disorders, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Drug abuse, Animal death, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Alcohol, and Addiction

kaylaswhitmore's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Suzanne Collins has done it again. Even knowing exactly how Snow turns out….it was still all too easy to be sucked into his POV. Which is exactly the point Collins is trying to make, I suppose. She inserted just enough little tidbits of questionable internal dialogue moments to keep me skeptical of his thought process and morality, but even with those moments I found myself wishing against all odds that he would make the "right" choices. That, combined with the truly nauseating cruelty of the Capitol was enough for me to eagerly await the eventual revolution. Collins’ pacing was near perfect imho, with perhaps a bit of slowness in the beginning as she set her tale up for its ultimate conclusion. And by the end, I found myself even wishing for more information about how Snow becomes President, how he eventually betrays Tigris, what happens to the Covey, etc.

Even as I was left longing to know what happened to Lucy Gray, I simultaneously was intrigued by the mystery of it all and how poetically it sets the stage for Katniss' introduction.

All in all, any critiques I have for the book pale in comparison to how thoroughly I enjoyed this foray into Snow's past. Hoping she continues to expand this world with perhaps a book on Hatmitch or even Joanna! We shall see!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Blood, Classism, Death, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Violence, Gaslighting, War, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Child death

Moderate: Grief, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Cannibalism

lydiasturges's review

dark emotional reflective tense medium-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

5.0

I was hesitant to read this when it wasn’t Katniss/Peeta centric, but I’m glad I read it!! What a phenomenal read. Holy shit. I am amazed at Collins’ writing style and her ability to write social commentary in a subtler way. Snow’s development throughout the book is so compelling that you forget you already know who he turns out to be. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Police brutality, Murder, Death, Classism, Confinement, War, Violence, Child abuse, and Child death

Minor: Alcohol and Cannibalism

hailstorm3812's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.25

This book is super interesting. I pretty much read it just to see the movie but I am glad that I did. It is absolutely brutal with moments of kindness shining through. I also love how much they reference how close to us it is. It does a really good job of connecting you to the characters even when you can see where it is going. It has some truly haunting moments.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Child death, and Violence

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and War