Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

381 reviews

aliengirlreads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Child abuse, Murder, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal cruelty, Death, Police brutality, Child death, and Confinement

Moderate: Grief, Addiction, War, Medical content, Classism, Alcohol, Animal death, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Death of parent, Dementia, Vomit, and Blood

hereiskyra's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.0

This was not a bad book, I just don’t know if I’m the best audience for it. I went into this pretty blind discounting the fact that I know Snow turns out to be a villain in the Hunger Games and that this is essentially his origin story. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t really like any of the characters. I felt as though Lucy Gray wasn’t a well-rounded character and her and Coriolanus’ relationship felt very forced and almost impersonal as the reader. 

And I personally hated that it was all from his perspective (even though obviously it’s his story) because he as dull and I was barely even rooting for him. 

I kind of worked out the majority of what was going to happen around 60% in and after that I was just waiting for the hammer to drop and something to happen. But, even that felt fairly anticlimactic once it was said and done.

Now, I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy this at all because it wasn’t terrible! It wasn’t a good romance and it wasn’t even a great villain origin story but… it was cool to be in the world again and to see what the world was like so soon after the war rather than decades after it. 

I’m still and forever putting my vote in the “tell Haymitch’s story” box. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Confinement

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, and War

sam_gartley91's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective 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

5.0

I love this book and how it connects and explains things that lead to things happening in the original trilogy. Such wonderful descriptive writing! You both kind of feel for Snow but also really hate him. And you ultimately know where he ends up. But you still have that hope that he might change, that the circumstances might change him, that Lucy might change him!! He is such a narcissist but also blame the capital and his upbringing for making him this way. I’m glad he ultimately didn’t end up with Lucy because although he may have felt like he loved her, he just wanted control. Control so thus power over things was his main love and objective and motivator. And although we know he becomes the big bad you see him against the back drop of their poverty and the horrible adults in the school that make him look almost nice. There were definitely a lot of topics and discussion a that are brought up in this work of fiction that we as individuals and as a society really need to look in the mirror at and reflect on how they are similar to our current situations. This book at time reminds me 1984 with the constant war for the government to have control over the people. Definitely will ruminate on this one for a bit. I feel for Sajamus’s whole story line because he actively fought against it all and sadly believed Snow was his friend which contributed to his end… Felt for Tigeress too. Hoped she got a better life and learned beyond her situation. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Cannibalism, Blood, Gun violence, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug use and Vomit

Minor: Death of parent

olive_ia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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: Gore, Confinement, Blood, Murder, Classism, Torture, Child death, Violence, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cannibalism

Minor: Alcohol

debstrain's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

3.5

The writing is wonderful. Only lost a star because I found it a little slow to start out but totally worth it for the ending and all of the background info on The Hunger Games.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Classism, Child death, Murder, Death, Violence, War, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Gore and Addiction

Minor: Cannibalism

melist6's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Classism, Blood, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, and War

acadiaclar42's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

This was wonderfully done. The intrigue, the mystery, the suspense-- it was a delightful and emotional read. The plot moved swiftly and yet Snow's character development was hidden. Lucy Gray's character was especially interesting.

Her disappearance made me want to reread the whole thing and look for clues as to why and how she left.

I can't wait to watch the movie, as I've heard complimentary things about it as well.
All in all, this tied quite well into the Hunger Games Trilogy and is definitely worth the read.
 
For first time readers- If you're new to the Hunger Games franchise, I suggest you read those first, as this won't make sense/will spoil the plot of the trilogy.

/16 March 2024/ UPDATE: Holy smokes the movie was amazing. 10/10 for sure. The tension between Coryo and Lucy Gray was palpable, and the soundtrack was incredible. Even if you're not a huge HG fan or didn't care for the book, you HAVE to see the movie.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Death, Drug abuse, Murder, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

Moderate: War, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Vomit

lovosii's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, War, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Body horror, Classism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Physical abuse, Self harm, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Dementia, Eating disorder, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Bullying, Cannibalism, and Drug use

ehmannky'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I think this is a really fabulous look into how right-wing radicalization happens.  From the get-go, we see how someone is nurtured into believing others are lesser, that certain people "deserve" to live in squalid conditions while others "deserve" excellence, how someone can present a facade of care to get what they want. Snow sucks, he sucks from the get-go, but it's so interesting to see the ways these traits, that if he had people around him trying to nurture him to be empathetic, might not have become so dominant. But he's primed for fascism and he dives into it. I think what's so excellent about this book is that Collins humanizes him, and I think that makes his character later on much more poignant. I also like that it shows that people who do awful things are human, and that not many people are as far removed from Snow as they'd like to think. It also shows the Capitol as a place that had to be created--like they weren't beloved from the get go. It's a lot more morally complex than I think a lot of YA usually is, and I really liked it. It's just a really good philosophical work in a YA package. 

I did think at times some of the writing felt a little heavy-handed, but after seeing some of the Goodreads reviews where people seemed to miss the point of this book I think they needed to be. Truly baffled that people look at a book about how a person and society enter into a descent into tyranny and horror and not get that you're supposed to be horrified and sad by the end of it. 

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and War

lilawsahar's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

First off, I would like to state that I wrote a letter to Susanne Collins in 2009/2010 about writing another book, so I’m going to be delulu and say I inspired this book 13 years later haha. 

Wow, what a crazy backstory for Snow.

I can’t believe that Snows family was directly responsible for the start of the hunger games/the development of what the hunger games became. For him to have the experience of how horrid the games were, by being placed inside of them, and he still threw kids in there time and time again shows how truely horrid he is.  Also him to fall in love with his victor and still have the ruthlessness to kill her even though she had survived that traumatic event just shows how he never cared for anyone but himself.

Do not read this book if you think it’ll be a light read. It is not. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Murder, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Grief, Child abuse, and Torture