Reviews tagging 'Dementia'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

66 reviews

kabarton416's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Classism, Dementia, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Suicidal thoughts

eagleshouse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

this has been my favourite read of the year by far. I've always loved Suzanne Collins' writing and the Hunger Games as a franchise, but I feel like this may be one of her best yet.

The protagonist is schoolboy Coriolanus Snow - the primary antagonist for the original series. However, just because the book is written from Snow's POV, does not mean he is a likeable character or a good guy.

At the beginning, Snow is the main character, and you as the reader attach yourself to him. He's a little pretentious, but nothing more grating than that. However, as the story progresses, I felt further and further horrified and concerned for Snow - the book genuinely slowly shows his progression into a horrible, evil, man, without a massive change happening until right at the end. It was Collins' use of language that Snow used that first set me off, referring to his lover as 'belonging' to him throughout the book, and progressively gets worse until the climax at the end, which honestly I was not expecting at all and yet was one of the best plot twists I've read.

it also adds so much depth to the Hunger Games story - with so many metaphors and references to both classical literature (both Coriolanus and Lucy Gray are named after pieces of literature that fit their characters, with Grays being stated in the story itself), but also the original series. Lucy Gray being the composer to The Hanging Tree and also writing it for Snow makes Katnisses use of it as a rebel song so much more poignant. 

Anyway, without fully spoiling the book, I think this is an essential read for anyone, even if theyre not fans of THG, because the use of government and capitalism and imperialism really shows through as well in such a good way. 5/5 book, my favourite of the year.
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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Blood, Confinement, Colonisation, Murder, Violence, and War

Moderate: Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Drug use, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Cannibalism, Dementia, and Bullying

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

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

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

5.0

Masterfully done

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Murder, Police brutality, Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Animal death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Alcohol, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Confinement, Gore, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Death, Stalking, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death of parent, War, Infidelity, Vomit, Dementia, and Cursing

Minor: Pregnancy and Cannibalism

touchegiantsquid's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

5.0

I was skeptical when I heard about this prequel, but I was wrong. I think it's possible that Suzanne Collins holds the unpopular opinion about her books, that you shouldn't hate the players, you should hate the game. That's an easy message to see when you have lovable characters like in the original series. But by choosing to focus on future president Snow, she is able to push that point further. I wonder if this is a reaction to the movie adaptations of the original series. So much of those movies applied the techniques to get in-world-spectators excited about the games to get real-world-viewers engaged. But I don't think it lands that it's supposed to be ironic. This book is, I think, an attempt to drive that point home more clearly. It shows that the craft of narrative can make compelling characters, even as they pursue terrible ends and use terrible means. That tension for the reader makes the theme more obvious yotu time around, I just hope people will appreciate it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Police brutality, and Violence

lastcomment314's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Blood, Gun violence, Child death, Drug abuse, Murder, Death, Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Body horror, Classism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Cannibalism, Dementia, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, and Alcohol

krisawesome's review against another edition

3.5

If you want a likable, sympathetic protagonist, this probably isn't the book for you.

Okay, calling younger Coriolanus Snow "unsympathetic" isn't entirely fair, as his life wasn't a complete cakewalk and he has a couple of decent qualities, but his selfishness and arrogance vastly overshadow those. Which I feel is mostly the point; making the younger Snow a total sweetheart would make for a much less realistic character arc, given what we know of the older Snow in the original The Hunger Games trilogy. So sure, the Snow in this book is a terrible person, but as least I found him a relatively interesting terrible person.

It does help that not all of the characters are terrible people, and Collins did a great job writing characters such as Lucy Gray and Sejanus as well.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a character study first, a world/cultural study second. In many ways Capitol and District 12 and the actual games were quite different 64 years before The Hunger Games, but here you can see how they would develop into what we see in Katniss' time. That's right up my alley, but I can see how a more plot-oriented reader might not enjoy it as much.

Speaking of the plot, it's fine but the pacing is inconsistent and bit odd in the last third.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Violence, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Alcohol, Medical content, Murder, Torture, and Vomit

Moderate: Cannibalism, War, Addiction, Dementia, Grief, Alcohol, and Drug abuse

Minor: Death of parent

jojo_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Death, Toxic relationship, War, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Dementia, Drug abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Eating disorder, Grief, and Slavery

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

Moderate: Dementia

Minor: Vomit

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

wilamina's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense 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

3.75

If you're picking this book up after reading the hunger games trilogy, then honestly I'd say I not worth it. Look up the basic plot and leave it at that because this book does not live up to the emotional wonders that the hunger games have. It feels like all the colour was stripped out. The best part of all the hunger games books are the actual games right? Because they're deeply emotional and everyone is running on adrenaline and a willingness to kill. But in these hunger games, barely anything happens. It's dragged on for way too long. everytime a character dies its just bland, like it's narrated by snow watching it on tv, and it reads like watching a grainy video with no sound as a character stand another then moves on. The whole thing feels like security footage being played for half the book. Then 2 thirds kf the way in it feels like the entire plot of the book is abandoned (no spoilers just look as the section title). The only redeeming factor I'd say would be knowing a little more about what makes snow tick, and why it hates 12 so much. But like I said, just look it up, don't bother going through all 517 pages. The writing style is also very elegant, but that can't make up for bland characters and lack of a cohesive plot line. It wasn't a horrible book, and the idea to write about snow was definitely a good one, but Collins could have executed it much better. 

if you ask me, I think some interesting stuff could have happened if snow had gotten stuck in the arena, there he could have maybe became part of the games, and it would definitely have amped up the plot and give  the hunger games fans much more if what they loved about the series in the first place. There's a reason many people think the series went down hill after catching fire, it's that the environment the games make is so tense that it's almost impossible to write a dry plot.

So in conclusion, the ballad of songbirds and snakes was annoying average, with few redeeming factors to warrant it a slightly higher grade, but without it's association with the hunger games, it would probably never have been shelved.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, War, and Xenophobia