Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

251 reviews

hannahcstocks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Eating disorder, Death, Alcohol, Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Deportation, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Xenophobia, Body horror, Child death, Cannibalism, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Classism, Drug abuse, Confinement, Dysphoria, Gore, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Slavery, Stalking, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, and War

mandoriin's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

2.75

coriolanus snow is such an incel 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Physical abuse

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Death of parent

elenabluenette's review

challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Medical trauma, Body horror, Murder, Violence, Xenophobia, Death, Blood, Child death, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Grief, Police brutality, Abandonment, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Dementia, and Drug abuse

mle11's review

dark tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Police brutality, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Abandonment, Dementia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Vomit

theirgracegrace's review

dark mysterious 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

4.5

Quite literally judging a book by its cover, I had originally written off this one as a cash grab by Collins due the success of The Hunger Games. I have never been so pleased to be proven wrong in my life.

The story follows a tense summer in the life of Coriolanus Snow, the tyrannical president that we meet in the main trilogy sixty-odd years later. He is eighteen years old and slated to be mentor to Lucy Gray Baird, a Covey girl living in District 12. He develops an infatuation with her early on, and much of the book is given over to how he tries to keep her safe before and after the 10th Hunger Games. 

The characterization of Coriolanus is incredibly moving, showing how the idealistic teen has his critiques of and subtle attacks on the Capitol used against him and against Lucy Gray. It crushes his spirit, and turns him into the monster who betrays everyone and trusts no one that we later see. Nostalgic nods exist to the main series are plentiful, as it appears that the young Coriolanus was instrumental in the implementation of much of the horror of the Games. 

All-in-all, a wonderful (if stressful!) book that played with my expectations just as cleanly as the Games themselves. I would heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the main series and wants to hear a tale of how it started!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Confinement, Alcohol, Body horror, Child death, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Sexism, Blood, Vomit, War, Xenophobia, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Miscarriage, and Bullying

Minor: Excrement and Infidelity

Two of the tributes contract rabies and it is described in detail when they suddenly show symptoms in the arena. Snakes (including snake attacks, one of which is fatal) are common in the book, as the title suggests. There are two hangings of criminals that occur in the book in the latter portion

bxnny's review

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Murder, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Death, Body horror, Blood, Animal cruelty, Child death, Deportation, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Toxic friendship, War, Xenophobia, Animal death, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Slavery

Minor: Chronic illness and Excrement

ladybanecourt's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-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

5.0

✨5/5✨

"Snow lands on top."

This was such an interesting book!! It is easy to hate Snow from reading the first Hunger Games books as it gives us the impression that he is just downright evil. But this prequel, set from Snow's life from before, gives us key points about his character, past, and motivations. Definitely a good read.

P. S. Sejanus is my favorite character fr

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Police brutality

Moderate: Drug abuse, Addiction, and Torture

Minor: Classism, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder

clairemitchell's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

Those last 45 minutes were INTENSE. The betrayal. The cruelty. Snow slips into becoming a tyrant as easily as putting on a glove. He’s full of red flags from the start that are nurtured by circumstance and hubris. 

Oh my gosh!! The murders! He does it so casually! You know how bad Snow is from the original Hunger Games , but whoah…awful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Blood, Gore, Murder, Body horror, Classism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War

Minor: Cannibalism

catsbreadbikes's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative medium-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

3.0

This book has big "you were named for the bravest man i ever knew" energy for most of the way. I liked learning the history of Panem, but thjs would have been better served as a fictional "history" text, similar to The World of Ice and Fire for the game of thrones books. Being a fictional narrative with a young president snow as the protagonist detracts from the experience of this book, and the choice to have SANTINO FONTANA narrateand NOT have him perform the songs is downright baffling 🤷 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Classism

Moderate: War, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Alcohol, Blood, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Medical content

Minor: Police brutality, Torture, Cannibalism, Child death, Bullying, and Death of parent

whitne_ey's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Police brutality, Child death, Classism, Death of parent, Blood, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Gun violence, Genocide, Toxic relationship, War, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Cursing, Drug abuse, Confinement, Vomit, Addiction, Drug use, and Alcohol