Reviews tagging 'Mass/school shootings'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

8 reviews

rchulin1's review

adventurous hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Wow just wow it's hard to not get popular books spoiled but even so l still was surprised. I really was able to transport myself into the games into district twelve on a whole other level. The ending was so surprising I could definitely feel Snow's insanity building something | kept thinking about was the title: the ballad of songbirds and snakes. So at first I assumed the title was to be about Lucy's time in the hunger games the battle between her innocence and her violence which is true in a sense but I feel like the true symbolism was that Snow eventually became another snake Lucy tried to handle in a way. So Lucy is the songbird and Snow is the snake. Throughout the entire book we see Snows internal battle with the mentality he was raised with being a child of the capital and the mentality of someone on the outside although he was only in the Games for a small moment the entire book was in a way his own game. He was stripped of his innocence his way of seeing the capital through rose colored lenses into truly seeing and not only not fearing the capitals ideals but embracing them. A few times he mentions how he impulsively does things and those impulses are his inner self trying to break through even with him aiding Lucy it just shows how selfish he is he saved her for his own benefit. Lastly I deeply appreciated the small nods to the other hunger games books "May the odds ever be in our favor", the meadow song, his dislike of mocking jays, Katniss! I can deeply see how he changed the hunger games and the role he played in the beginning he dislikes how the tributes were transported in cargo holds and in the other books we see the tributes now being in a far fancier train. We see the peacekeepers being more harsh and we see how the arena changes every year so that the former years games doesn't play a role in this years and so on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Animal death, Classism, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Murder, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child death, Confinement, Death, Toxic relationship, War, Blood, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Police brutality, Cannibalism, and Mass/school shootings

kendra_taylors_version's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Alcohol, Vomit, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Child death, Classism, Addiction, Grief, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug use, Violence, War, Blood, Cannibalism, Death, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Medical content, and Suicidal thoughts

luna_is_superior's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

Coryo is a HUGE unreliable narrator, how'd he make me love him until like the last chapter????

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Drug use, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Classism, Gaslighting, Gore, Torture, Toxic friendship, Blood, Confinement, Police brutality, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Alcoholism, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Violence, War, Alcohol, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, and Vomit

sav_22's review

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Death, Blood, Animal cruelty, Slavery, Vomit, Torture, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Grief, Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Dementia, Death of parent, War, Colonisation, Classism, and Excrement

issyd23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious 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

5.0

Collins lands on top! So glad this prequel has kept its fire 5💥 

APKAB All Peace Keepers Are Bastards

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Classism, Drug use, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Death, Gaslighting, Cannibalism, Confinement, Death of parent, Deportation, Grief, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Gore, Animal death, Violence, War, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Slavery, Stalking, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Torture, and Toxic relationship

brookey8888's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

I’m so glad I enjoyed this. I didn’t really know what I was expecting going in, but it wasn’t this. I found this so interesting to see how Snow formed and came to be. It was interesting to see how the hunger games and the capital evolved to what it was in the original trilogy. In my opinion this doesn’t t make you synthesize with Snow in fact it made me hate him more because it shows he was basically always the way he was but not as extreme. I really liked Lucy and the convoy as well as some of the capital kids who had empathy. I was actually shocked at a lot that happened and this was kind of gruesome which I don’t know why but I wasn’t expecting that. I would say if you enjoyed the Hunger Games trilogy pick this up, but know it’s obviously an unlikable character. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, Dementia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

cait's review

adventurous dark informative mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Police brutality, Sexism, Slavery, Stalking, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Child death, Confinement, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Torture, and Toxic friendship

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

5.0

Masterfully done

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Murder, Police brutality, Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Animal death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Alcohol, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Confinement, Gore, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Death, Stalking, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death of parent, War, Infidelity, Vomit, Dementia, and Cursing

Minor: Pregnancy and Cannibalism