Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

La Neuvième Maison by Leigh Bardugo

49 reviews

lisa_m's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I read and loved Six of Crows and I also read and liked Shadow and Bone. I really like Leighs writing, worldbuilding and especially her way to bring characters alive. I was excited for this book but also have been wanting to read it for ages. Since finally the second book is going to be published soon I thought this is a great time for me to read 'Ninth House'.

It was not at all what I expected. I wanted to go in knowing as little as possible. I knew that this book is adult but I didn't expect it to as graphic as it was. I really liked the premise and the characters and also the mystery of it all. Just because of her writing I automatically like the book.

I do have a few issues with it though:
1. Alex's motives didn't always make sense to me. Why was she so adamant on solving Taras murder? She didn't know her, everyone told her that it was the boyfriend, even after she broke into the morgue it was clear it was the boyfriend. I just didn't understand why she would go further and further. At a certain point it was clear that there is more behind it than we thought but I do not understand why and how Alex knew that?
2. Also I felt like all side characters were just there for convenience. Especially Alex's roommates. They are so unconditionally loyal to her for seemingly no reason? I mean that is not how it usually is at uni right? Like it would make sense for them to ask her why she's never at home but not to a degree where she constantly has to come up with fake reasons & apologies, right? I wanted a bit more interaction and reason there so it actually makes sense for them to call her mum. (The thing with Brady 100% made sense though. He's a shit and deserves only the worst)
3. That might be on me, but I didn't understand the worldbuilding fully. I think it was on purpose that the big questions like 'why is there magic?' and 'where does it come from?' are unanswered. But I didn't understand the limits of the magic. It's clear that it best works in the tombs and not really anywhere else, but also things like the coin of compulsion work everywhere? And spells can be cast that influence the wider world as well? Idk I'm just a bit confused about that. Also I want to know how noone actually found out outside of the societies. How do they keep the secret?

I think I had way more questions but these are the most important ones. I am definitely going to read 'Hellbent' but if I'm being honest I'm in no hurry. Maybe I'll even wait until all (5?) books are out. The story was intruiging but it wasn't exactly my cup of tea. (Even though I love mystery, magic, university settings, academia and secret societies in books.. ?)

What I loved about the book was all the intruige and mystery. The connections weren't always completely clear to me but that didn't take away from it being fun. I wish we got to see a bit more magic and a bit less trauma but that is only my opinion. I bet for some people this was perfect.

Generally I would anyone to please read the trigger warnings for this book. There are a lot and they are really graphic as well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

beccam22's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

Read this if you like:
🔍🔪 Murder Mysteries 
🎓🕯 Dark Academia 
🪄✨ Urban Magic 

Please look at content warnings if you need to. 

This was pitched to me as a magical dark academia with Yales secret societies and while that is true I don’t think it does it justice. At its core it’s a murder mystery within the magic community of secret societies at Yale. The magic is so well done and both cozy and dark. 

I have my issues with this but I think what was well done over shadows them <spoiler/>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Blood, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

franchesca_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Abandonment

charliethebooklover's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-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

4.25

Leigh Bardugo's excellency stikes again! My journey with this author has been a whirlwind. I started with Shadow and Bone, but DNF'd the second book. I loved the Six of Crows duolagy, and then I picked up Ninth House. I first read it a few months ago, but I never finished. Then I saw it in my school libarary, and decided to give it another try. And I fell in love with it. The worldbuilding (and trust me, there was a SHIT ton of it), the characters, the mystery, and darkness and desnity that only a Leigh Bardugo book can deliver. It wasn't my favorite book of hers- that title belongs to Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom (I can't decide). But it was by far a solid fantasy book. It had flaws, of course- The pacing has painstakingly slow, and there's so much detail and worldbuilding that it overloads your brain- but nevetheless, it was great. Now this book is FULL of triggering things, so PLEASE read the trigger warnings before you read this book. It delves into very heavy topics with deatil, so please remember that mental health comes before books. Other than that, read on and have a deppressing time with this slam dunk of a book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Rape

aharper's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment

abbylk's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Abandonment

clarissa_lily's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, and Abandonment

helenferg's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Blood

Moderate: Addiction, Racism, Abandonment, and Classism

scarlettskyes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

findmeinunderland's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

5.0

Loved, loved, loved.

First of all the cover is just so aesthetically pleasing, even more so after actually falling in love with the characters…
I kind of equate it to being about Alex’s tattoos. Alex’s most prominent tattoos are the snakes that wrap around her collar bones, and I feel like they would be the epitome of her shame when it comes to her tattoos, it’s the most blatant in the macabre nature of the art on her body, spider webs are a more common choice, other things could be given an alternative explanation of importance, but not many people, especially those within the stereotypes of ivy league alumnus, have two huge black snakes curling around their shoulders. I love the symbolism of it being on the cover of the book because Alex used the stereotypes of her outward appearance to avoid attachment, when given the opportunity to flee her environment she covers them as a way of separating herself from the memories she had of being ostracized. Her tattoos later become a different kind of cover, an armor.

I saw some people Say they loved darlington but thought it was hypocritical that he judged Alex for killing someone, since at the end of the book we find out his fate is connected to the fact that he is a murderer.but Let’s be real here, his shock said more about him than it did about Alex. I think darlington unplugged or smothered his grandfather to finally give him piece, I think he colors himself as a monster because of that experience. Enter Alex, who makes him feel like someone with purpose. His whole life he turned towards magic to heal him from the trauma of his parents, I think his grandfathers death took something away from his obsession of magic and the hopefulness it represented to him, until he met Alex who reshaped his view of magic because of her abilities and what she had been through. To learn that the person who reignites your purpose in life is guilty of the same actions you hate yourself for has to be so overwhelming in that it probably completely disillusioned him.

I even saw some people say Bardugo tried to hard to be dark in her content by making Alex’s trauma explicit but failed to give the character any justice, but my response is that the entire present day timeline is Alex’s justice…. Alex was abused and violated by something the most privileged people she knew saw as a gift. It is a widely known horrible part of our reality that the world doesn’t believe or protect victims, it doesn’t protect women. The fact that so many people saw her trauma even if she didn’t want them to and completely wrote her off so they didn’t have to deal with what it meant, is the most realistic part of her character. She was poor, a woman of color, homeless at more than one point in her life…I can think of nothing more realistic that her not getting feasible, malleable justice. But to say she got none at all would be wrong, Alex’s justice was cosmic and metaphorically and more meaningful than some get in the real world, she gained a different sense of self worth imprinting herself onto Tara’s circumstances, fighting to find out what happened to tara meant acknowledging that she and Alex were one in the same— at least in The sense that the world values them the same, she became attached to Tara because she saw herself in a dead body that no one else seemed to care about and couldn’t help but imprint on that experience. Alex knew the world valued her and Tara the same, she saw the parallels between Tara and herself and yet she still came to the conclusion that Tara deserved better than what she got in death, and in life. Those thoughts are more kind than Alex was to herself on a normal basis, and maybe they wouldn’t have meant anything if Alex wasn’t the narrator but she was, she was the one aligning their value, and ultimately accepting that she deserved better than what she got out of life…Alex’s justice was aligning her value with every victim belbam took and saying that they all deserved better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Stalking, Gaslighting, and Abandonment