Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

257 reviews

khandle3's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

the reviews based on expectations for snow and tigris miss the point of the book … collins is clearly showing how a known villain, through both nurture and nature, came to be. there can’t be resolution in this book because we already know snow’s fate from the original trilogy. villains are always more interesting.

it’s strange to read this in a time when american politicians are financially and vocally supporting mass genocide of palestinian children (and humans, generally). what do their villain origin stories look like?

(-1 star for the first part dragging slightly, -1 star for lucy gray being a pick me — we get it girl, you aren’t capitol or district — throughout the story, +1 star for

lucy gray figuring snow out and sending a snake to bite him

)

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britwalsh16's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I loved the hunger games trilogy, but this book about Snow, just wasn’t it for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s well written and everything; but it’s just Snows character, we all know he’s a villain, but he spends the first 75% of the book pretending to be the good guy, & it just doesn’t fit him, it was driving me crazy! The book started out trying to paint him as a good guy. He’s not! Like Snow in this book doesn’t understand why they keep doing the hunger games, yet he’s the biggest supporter in the trilogy!! & he’s not a fan of the manipulations that come from those in power; but in the trilogy he’s the KING of manipulations. We’re supposed to believe it’s the same character, but it doesn’t feel like it, his personality is so diff. I love a good villain origin story, but this one seemed so far fetched. Atleast until the last quarter of the book where he finally started showing his true colors & became the heartless villain.
Maybe it’s just me cause Snow was never a villain I loved to hate. He was always on par with characters like Umbridge from Harry Potter. They don’t deserve redemption, & that’s what this book seemed to try to convey for most of the book atleast. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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neurospicy_mama's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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hannahcstocks's review against another edition

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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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jasperw's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense slow-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

3.5

When I first read the book I mostly enjoyed it. There were a couple things about the ending that bugged me, but overall I thought it was a really good showcase of Snow as villain main character, and the way Collins wrote it was really impressive. That said the movie was so bad, it took away some from the story. I may reread it again someday and see if enough distance from the movie changes it.

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