Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

6 reviews

shellind75's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Confinement, Gun violence, Hate crime, Body horror, Death, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, Child abuse, Classism, Ableism, and Animal cruelty

paigeinabook's review

adventurous challenging dark reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I never thought Suzanne Collins could get any Suzanne Collins, but she did! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Vomit, Drug use, Sexual content, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Ableism, Child death, Gaslighting, Stalking, Cannibalism, Classism, Death, Toxic relationship, Genocide, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic friendship, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Grief, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Torture, and War

nialiversuch's review

challenging dark emotional 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Murder, Classism, War, Addiction, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Gun violence

Minor: Vomit and Suicidal thoughts

erikalv97's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Death, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Violence, Classism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Slavery, Cannibalism, Blood, Grief, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Bullying, Alcohol, Addiction, War, Toxic friendship, Ableism, and Toxic relationship

kt2e56's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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

3.0

Not as good as the original trilogy, but a good read regardless. I think my biggest issues are with the fact that its central character is someone we already know from the future. I

t seems like Collins had to go back on quite a bit in order to make this narrative fit in with what she already told us in the original trilogy. 

I’d say that some other issues with this book are that most of the characters are just…flat. Dr. Gaul with her ridiculous nursery rhymes is too cartoonish of a villain, Lucy Gray is a manic pixie dream girl (which on the one hand makes sense because we’re seeing her from Snow’s POV, but that doesn’t make her any less grating), the rest of the Covey and their weird country bumpkin way of life are equally as grating and Snow himself has zero shades of gray. He’s awful all the way through (I’ll get back to this).

The most interesting characters by far are Sejanus Plinth and Dean Highbottom, both of whom I kind of wish had been the POV characters for this prequel.

BUT I will say that in terms of politics and big picture ideas, this book is way more ambitious than the original trilogy. Yes, Snow is a bit one note but I *do* actually appreciate that. He’s a fascist, point blank. He’s an elitist bigot whose family has fallen on hard luck but we don’t ever have to feel sympathy for him because he STILL clings to that bigotry even though it’s glaringly obvious that The Capitol is to blame for his family’s trauma. It’s also VERY interesting that Collins doesn’t even attempt to hide the links between fascism and misogyny. 

Let’s talk real world for a second and how commonplace it is for alt-right young men to be drawn to their worldviews because of an innate sense of entitlement not only with wealth and the economy but with women as well. A big part of fascism is controlling women. It’s never a surprise when an alt-right extremist has a history of domestic violence. Never.

And Collins making it abundantly obvious that Coriolanus doesn’t truly LOVE Lucy Gray but seeks to own and possess her is actually really great. There’s no love story here. We know Lucy Gray is doomed from the moment she’s in his clutches. He wouldn’t have done ANYTHING for her if he didn’t want to fuck her so badly tbh.  This was so obviously going to end one way and I’m glad that Collins didn’t chicken out and went for it and avoided giving him a change of heart although I wish she wasn’t so ambiguous with it. 

The ending as a whole was another issue for me. It felt a bit rushed and convoluted and I wish Snow’s meeting with Highbottom was stretched out just a little more as opposed to stuffed into the epilogue.

All in all though, this was a solid read and I’m sure I’ll be seeing the movie in the Fall. I’m curious if Collins will be expanding even further on this world or not… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Violence, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Gun violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Misogyny, Police brutality, Blood, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Torture, Medical trauma, Murder, War, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Trafficking, Mental illness, Addiction, and Medical content

chronicacademia's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

I was expecting The Hunger Games 2.0 But Make It a Villain Origin Story and instead I got the world’s worst protagonist, too many descriptions of cabbage soup, and at least a hundred songs.

The world building was good. This book could have (and should have) been an almanac of information to expand The Hunger Games world about how the games developed over time, which would have been more interesting than 500 pages of Young Pre-President Snow complaining about how much his life sucks in the Capitol because he can’t afford his penthouse rent. 

Also, this might be the first book I’ve read in preparation for a movie adaptation where I really hope the movie is not accurate to the book. Because if it is accurate to the book, half the movie is just going to be me sitting in a theater watching Coriolanus Snow sitting in a theater watching the world’s most boring Hunger Games. 

I am so disappointed in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Cannibalism, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Ableism, Child death, Classism, Grief, Murder, Police brutality, War, Violence, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Death of parent, and Gaslighting