Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Ballada ptaków i węży by Suzanne Collins

454 reviews

woods_corinne's review against another edition

fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Medical trauma, Grief, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Violence, Gun violence, Alcohol, Blood, Death, War, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Medical content, Child death, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Confinement

readwithsarah's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

I loved being able to get inside Snow's head and understand his thoughts and how he becomes the man we see later on. I loved all the hints to the later books. I still don't think anything can be compared to the original Hunger Games but I really enjoyed this!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Classism, Gun violence, Addiction, Animal cruelty, and Police brutality

amaralh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Death, War, and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, and Genocide

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Pregnancy, Animal death, Classism, Addiction, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Cannibalism, Miscarriage, and Sexual assault

lexoxo106's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Death, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, War, Confinement, Classism, Violence, Child death, Police brutality, and Alcohol

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Death of parent and Vomit

samcsmith's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Murder, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Blood, Vomit, Alcohol, and War

isabelle_mary's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

Knowing the story of the hunger games I have always wondered what made Snow so evil and after reading this book I was blown away with his story. I was worried that the author was going to take the approach of making you feel bad for the villain, but instead she does the opposite. You don’t feel bad for Snow, he makes his choices all on his own and you do not feel any sympathy towards him and that is what makes it so good. You see how the evil is made and it is written so well. Lucy Gray is a beautifully written character and it is so sad she has to be apart of Snows rise to evil. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Hate crime, Addiction, Child death, Murder, Violence, Alcohol, War, Death, and Gun violence

arce's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Child death, Racism, Death, Gun violence, and Torture

Moderate: War

Minor: Drug abuse and Medical content

wcndereads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

It was sick (negative) knowing Snow's thoughts as he indulged into his love for power.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Drug use, Suicide, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Toxic friendship, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Classism, Blood, and Torture

hnagarne's review against another edition

4.5

The Snows were an elite family before the war, building their capital on weapons manufacturing in District 13. But with the rebellion and the subsequent fall of the thirteenth district — including the death of Coriolanus Snow’s parents — the Snow family fell from prominence. Now subsisting on cabbage and beans to survive, Snow, his cousin Tigris, and the Grandma’am are hoping Coriolanus Snow’s academic success can pull them from poverty and land them back on top. 

Snow finds himself mentor to District 12’s girl, Lucy Gray Baird, a task he immediately detests. He’s a Snow, why does he deserve to mentor a tribute from a district so poor, and the girl, at that? His opinion changes when he sees her Reaping ceremony and it continues to evolve as he weasels his way into the tribute holding area and beyond. Eventually he comes to believe she might love him, and he might love her back. How, then, does he expect to see her through the Tenth Hunger Games?

There are times you might think Snow isn’t so bad. He

tries to save the life of Arachne Crane when her tribute slits her throat, and he sneaks food and gifts to Lucy Gray before the Games begin

. He also takes pity on Sejanus Plinth, a District 2 kid whose family moved to the Capitol after quickly rising to power when the Capitol’s weapons manufacturing shifted to District 2 post-rebellion. Snow lets everyone call them friends, and he tries to save Sejanus's public image on numerous occasions.

But Suzanne Collins gives us so much of Snow’s inner dialogue, and we see that he is a boy driven by greed, power, and the need to control. He

tried to save Arachne not because it was right but because there were cameras, and he needed to appear like a good classmate. He hates Sejanus for deriding the privilege he now has as a student in the Capitol. For throwing away the opportunities he’s been given and for being ungrateful for the power his father has

. Most of all, even though he appears to love Lucy Gray, we see him internally driven by a need to possess her. He hates when she mentions

her lost love Billy Taupe

, and he feels jealous and possessive whenever anyone fails to recognize that Lucy Gray is his. This girl sings and drops snakes down mean girl’s skirts and claims to be from a wayward group of musicians belonging to no one - not the districts, not the Capital - and he wants to claim her as his own.

Overall, this book was way less sympathetic to Snow that I feared. I thought this would be one of those villain origin stories that overly rationalizes the villain, making them more sympathetic than need be. Fortunately, I don't think this was that. Even though he may seem to care about people, he's also willing to throw them away at a moment's notice if he feels like it might be more beneficial to him. 

A thematic observation I enjoyed:

He has no moral compass, but is guided by his father's old compass. He doesn't exactly have a moral compass either.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol and Animal cruelty

littleflowerly's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Gun violence and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: War