Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

48 reviews

elizabethc3's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

3.5

The story line was alright at best. It was hard to as there was sooo many characters that I was constantly googling too figure out who was being mentioned. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Body horror, Hate crime, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, Drug use, Mental illness, and Child death

kylasmv15's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I’ve got many thoughts and *many* opinions about this book, but I'm going to sit on them for a bit. All I will say at this time is that after managing to finish this book, there had better be a Finnick book in the works as my compensation. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, Blood, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Classism, and Addiction

Minor: Grief, Alcohol, Dementia, Bullying, Cannibalism, War, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Abandonment, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

infjkiki's review against another edition

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Gore, Blood, Gun violence, War, Medical trauma, Murder, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Animal death, Abandonment, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Drug use, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Mental illness

Minor: Cannibalism and Pregnancy

luna_is_superior's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

5.0

Coryo is a HUGE unreliable narrator, how'd he make me love him until like the last chapter????

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Drug use, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Classism, Gaslighting, Gore, Torture, Toxic friendship, Blood, Confinement, Police brutality, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Alcoholism, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Violence, War, Alcohol, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, and Vomit

jadencove's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Child death, Toxic relationship, Murder, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Violence, and War

kryfrh's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Child death, Gore, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Classism, and Addiction

Minor: Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Infidelity

keelirae113's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Classism, Child death, Blood, Animal death, War, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Colonisation, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Police brutality, Violence, Gun violence, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cannibalism, Drug use, Torture, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

cluckieduck's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.0

This book was excellent...until it wasn't.

Suzanne is an excellent storyteller, and it was great to revisit the world of Panem 60+ years ahead of the The Hunger Games. I loved the background and expansion of how the Hunger Games themselves were developed, the extra layers of detail showing the Capitol's recovery from the rebel attacks, and the morsels of call-backs (call-forwards??) to the OG trilogy kept me enthralled.

The use of President Show as the protagonist was an interesting choice. It was hard to equate the Coriolanus (or Coryo to those near & dear) of TBoSaS with the eventual antagonistic, sadistic President Snow. I was waiting for such a major cataclysmic event, and perhaps my lacklustre feelings towards the ending are because I expected something major, but I found the ending just...meh. 

I wanted and obvious turn of our protagonist from 'good' to 'evil' when, in truth, Coriolanus was always a morally grey sociopath, so there was no chance for me to be shocked into his villainous turn. I wish we could have gotten an alternate POV removed from his own internal monologue to get an outsiders perspective on his behaviours or actions. Lucy Gray would have definitely benefit from some more screen time, IMO. She was an intriguing character and her eventual arc left little to be desired. In truth, I was definitely waiting for

her to die in the Hunger Games, so having her win and then, eventually, wiping the entire games out of existence

seemed like such an odd (and kinda lazy) choice to me.

All in all, it just didn't really...go anywhere or provide anything necessary to the overall universe of the Hunger Games. What is has done though, is make me want to re-read the original trilogy because it's certainly been a while! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Gun violence, Blood, Medical content, Classism, Confinement, Death, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, Cannibalism, Dementia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, and Vomit

backwardsreesa's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Vomit, Mental illness, and Death

becca_w_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Addiction, Blood, Death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Gore, Violence, Animal death, Child death, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Vomit, War, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Torture, Trafficking, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Kidnapping, Slavery, Body horror, and Bullying

Minor: Body horror, Stalking, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Body shaming, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship