Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - La Neuvième Maison

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

La Neuvième Maison by Leigh Bardugo

175 reviews

oawithyou's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

alittleoverrated's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

God, I don't know if I've read many books this well paced. The story is engaging from the beginning, no lull in the middle or end or anything. Kept me going the whole time. The world is so engaging despite being about academy. Alex is one of the most loveable MC I've ever read, she made the whole story barely and fun and made me feel like I was the one with yale scholarship, out of my depth. She just like me for real?!?!?!? The world building was amazing without feeling fussy or overstuffed. The dark academy hit I wanted without the normal amount of pretentiousness of a self assured character. Here story is haunting and relatable and it's so easy to fall into headspace. And darrington is a lovely little delight. On of my favorite aspects of this book is similar to my favorite part of harrow the ninth, which is the unsaid presence of another character. The just nawing weight of someone there who isnt. You don't even have to mention darrington in some sense to tell that even if it's just in her head, alex feels him there.

I know a lot reviews I've seen say this is boring and just a set up for the rest of the series which to that i say... Not really? At least no the boring part. It very much does feel like a very long pilot if this were a TV show. It's a lot of set up and introduction getting you adjusted. But I'm by no means upset. It was a whole meal, it did not leave me wanting in any way that makes me think it is incomplete or unwhole. It's a starting pitch to get us ingrained in the world and let us wait for the next ball coming our way. I think it was nice to not have book try to do too much, especially coming off of reading a book that had just done that.

(Please read the trigger warnings on this book it's intense)

Content Warnings

anastashamarie's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

⭐5/5. (This might end up being one of my favorites of 2023.)

⚠️THIS IS NOT A YA SERIES, IT CONTAINS MATURE THEMES. I've seen a lot of folks surprised by the content; I lost trigger warnings in my "considerations" section below to help make an informed decision

📜I need to start of by saying that I've never read anything by this author, even through the Grishaverse has been on my TBR for a while. Other than knowing that Leigh Bardugo is widely loved and that it was a dark academia fantasy (which is quickly becoming a fave subgenre of mine), I went into this totally blind. And man, did I thoroughly enjoy it.

🔮 Why was it great?
• The world building is awesome. Soft magic system with lots of paranormal/supernatural elements. Realistic but "off" setting. (Someone said Stephen King, and I could see that.) Very immersive, likely influenced by the author actually holding alum status at Yale.
• Interesting story weaving: Alternating timeframes (before to now) and perspectives (Darlington's vs Alex's) showed how the MCs worlds intertwined. The confusion, slow reveal of the world, and missed references make me relate to Alex more (though I already do in a lot of ways -- first gen college student at "fancy" university, imposture syndrome, trying to balance my personal sh*t with my school work and overwhelming job). Excellent literary choice in terms of matching tone and theming to info given.
• Gentle exploration of classism & privilege in higher ed. Nothing has heavy-handed as some dark academia can be, but very present through in a way that enhanced the story and character development.
• I related to little pieces of a lot of the characters, which made a lot of this hit close to home. The emotions in this hit hard for me. Also, I especially loved Dawes; she speaks to my PhD candidate heart in a way few other characters can.
• I switched between the audiobook and the paperback due to time constraints on this. Both are great options.

🐍 Considerations if you want to read it:
• This is an ADULT paranormal crime novel. There is no romance in it, but it definitely covers adult themes. TWs: blood, violence, drug use, death, overdose, sexual assault
• Early parts of the book felt a little slow, almost like a minute-by-minute play of present day, like watching it unfold IRL, boardering on slice-of-life if your life involved secret societies. I don't mind this, but I know a slow build isn't everyone's cup of tea.
• A lot of folks complained about "not understanding the references" which is sort of the point. Alex is confused, and I think in a lot of ways we are meant to be too to understand that. I also think the extra details/history/lore that you can look up are part of the fun because this book is very well researched and a lot of what's included has toes to real life things. It's almost worth two reads: one for the plot and one to go back and dig up everything they reference. But I don't think the homework is at all necessary if you go in with the understanding that you don't NEED the details to grasp the plot.

📖 I don't have any criticisms. I just absolutely adored this one.

Content Warnings