Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

6 reviews

lovosii's review

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

bigfootsbiggestfan's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Classism, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, and Self harm

Moderate: Cannibalism

melongin's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Mental illness, Cannibalism, Child death, Murder, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Alcohol, Colonisation, Racism, Blood, Drug use, and Classism

Moderate: Self harm, Police brutality, and Suicide

Minor: Stalking, Dementia, Bullying, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, and War

thattheatrekid's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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

4.5

Loved this book! I still don’t feel sympathy for Snow; he’s still a sleazeball; but I do understand why he is how he is. His fundamental view of the world is just wrong which caused him to become the monster he was. A great read (did it in 1 night!) and I liked the glimpse of Capitol’s past and the early version of the Hunger Games. The plot moved well. However, sometimes the direction Snow went with some decisions or outlooks just didn’t make sense with the rest of the context. It felt more like Susanne was trying to get him to the spot of a believable villain than to weave a story where the progression to get there was natural. But! Overall loved it and would definitely read it again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Torture, Child death, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Cannibalism

Minor: Vomit, Police brutality, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, and War

wilamina's review

dark mysterious reflective tense 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

3.75

If you're picking this book up after reading the hunger games trilogy, then honestly I'd say I not worth it. Look up the basic plot and leave it at that because this book does not live up to the emotional wonders that the hunger games have. It feels like all the colour was stripped out. The best part of all the hunger games books are the actual games right? Because they're deeply emotional and everyone is running on adrenaline and a willingness to kill. But in these hunger games, barely anything happens. It's dragged on for way too long. everytime a character dies its just bland, like it's narrated by snow watching it on tv, and it reads like watching a grainy video with no sound as a character stand another then moves on. The whole thing feels like security footage being played for half the book. Then 2 thirds kf the way in it feels like the entire plot of the book is abandoned (no spoilers just look as the section title). The only redeeming factor I'd say would be knowing a little more about what makes snow tick, and why it hates 12 so much. But like I said, just look it up, don't bother going through all 517 pages. The writing style is also very elegant, but that can't make up for bland characters and lack of a cohesive plot line. It wasn't a horrible book, and the idea to write about snow was definitely a good one, but Collins could have executed it much better. 

if you ask me, I think some interesting stuff could have happened if snow had gotten stuck in the arena, there he could have maybe became part of the games, and it would definitely have amped up the plot and give  the hunger games fans much more if what they loved about the series in the first place. There's a reason many people think the series went down hill after catching fire, it's that the environment the games make is so tense that it's almost impossible to write a dry plot.

So in conclusion, the ballad of songbirds and snakes was annoying average, with few redeeming factors to warrant it a slightly higher grade, but without it's association with the hunger games, it would probably never have been shelved.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

mscalls's review against another edition

challenging dark informative tense medium-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, Xenophobia, Addiction, and Cannibalism