Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Het Negende Huis by Leigh Bardugo

201 reviews

addie's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Sexual assault, Murder, Death, Sexual violence, Blood, Toxic relationship, Grief, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse and Addiction

Minor: Animal death

risaleel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Drug use, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Addiction, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Classism, Racism, Suicide, Alcoholism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Gaslighting, and Cursing

Minor: Bullying, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders

whiterabbit_metta's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

This is a fantastic book. While it is often heavy and hard topics, it is well done. I'm glad I read it and will read the sequel.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Murder, Sexism, Sexual content, Body horror, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Blood, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Slavery, Sexual assault, and Vomit

Minor: Abandonment

patienceholmes's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

4.75

Want to make it very explicit that the SA referenced in the content warnings in one instance refers to a minor/p*dophilia. The scene is very graphic. Be safe. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Murder, Sexual assault, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abandonment, Gore, Grief, Sexism, Torture, Racism, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Medical content, Vomit, Antisemitism, Cancer, Classism, Cursing, and Gaslighting

dealfea's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

This story was much darker than I had anticipated. There was quite a lot of violence on page and I think content warnings would have been useful. 
Storywise I quite liked the book. I enjoyed the murder mystery, the supernatural elements and the magic system in use. It also felt quite culturally relevant with some obvious criticism of the rich kids being able to get away with anything.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Death, Child abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Grief, Blood, Addiction, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, and Drug abuse

desiderium_incarnate's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

Once again, Leigh Bardugo proves to be amazing. No honestly, this book was very exciting. Ghosts and demons and death and mystery, all wrapped with an academia bow. I'm in! 
Really excited for the next one. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Stalking, Vomit, Toxic relationship, and Violence

faduma's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

1.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Misogyny, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Alcohol, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Violence

msradiosilence'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

TLDR; 2.25 rating, Bardugo used her Latina character to fulfill racist stereotypes, and I genuinely dislike the use of sexual assault as plot points.
Content warnings at the bottom. :)

I have quite a few gripes with this one. Listen, I love dark academia as much as the next Master’s student, but I don’t like authors writing outside of their lane.

There’s been a ton of (very fair) criticism about Leigh Bardugo, a white person, writing from the perspective of a Latina woman who has the ‘did not earn her place’ stereotype at a prestigious university. There are PLENTY of racists out there who 100% believe that Black, Indigenous, and other people of color don’t earn the spots they have at colleges and universities, and are rather only there because they’re being used to meet a quota, and subsequently taking the spot of some deserving white person, which is entirely FALSE. This is RACIST. And this is

EXACTLY how Bardugo wrote it.

Alex didn’t “earn” her spot, she was given it,

and robbed Darlington of his ability to choose the next Dante.

Also the only Black character is a cop? And don’t get me STARTED on the assault storylines. PLURAL.

This is a huge issue, and one that GREATLY dropped my review of a book I think I otherwise would have enjoyed. Secret societies? Yes, give it to me. Murder? Absolutely. A character that can see ghosts? Hell yeah. But it’s all overshadowed by the fact that Bardugo chose to write a character like Alex. 

I’ll probably read the second one, considering I have it already, but I don’t think I’ll be buying the others. If I’m really pressed about the mystery, I’ll just google it.

Rating: 2.25
Would I recommend? No. I refuse to recommend books I disagree with on a morality issue. 

Content warnings: Rape (implied, discussed), Sexual Assault (on page), Child Rape (on page), Gaslighting, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Overdose, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder (on page), Violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Racism, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, and Gore

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Violence, Body horror, Drug use, Racism, Vomit, Grief, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

naturally's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.75

for the longest time, i've held the opinion that leigh bardugo's work is adult fiction with YA packaging. in ninth house, i feel as though her creative voice was/is given the space to run free. and, honestly, i enjoyed most of the journey that ninth house took me on, as a reader.

BE WARNED: ninth house is NOT a light or easy read. the topics touched upon are very distressing, and the writing is overflowing with information. at times, it feel like i was reading a historical text book about yale, secret societies and new haven. the pay-off was definitely worth it, though. the real meat and potatoes of the plot is served up after the first hundred pages? the meal was plentiful! the mystery and suspense surrounding tara's murder and darlington's disappearance sucked me in, and i didn't want to put the book down...

as a supporter of both women's rights and wrongs, i really appreciated alex. she was a fascinating anti-heroine. her slow-burning friendship/alliance with dawes and turner were highlights. plus, there was a tension between alex and darlington that...ngl i was a fan of. very intrigued to see how that will develop because the origins of their sexual attraction to one another (whether they will ever admit to it) was pretty f*cked up??

i'm suspecting that darlington will be just as morally "tainted" as alex when he returns from hell in book 2. the revelation that he has committed an act of murder and was thus turned into a demon was...definitely a jaw dropper. my prediction is that he murdered his grandfather (with permission) so that he could hang into black elm idk

however, where ninth house fell short for me, is that alex's sense of moral justice toward the end never felt 100% believable to me. the young woman we are introduced to is understandably crooked and willing do whatever she has to do to survive/never return to her old life. i had a hard time believing that she would be so dedicated to upholding the function and strict rules of lethe. following on from this, the knowledge that hellie and alex were besties does a lot of the heavy lifting. on the actual pages, there is little to no development given to their actual friendship. alex's past was very f*cked up and drug addiction was a huge part of that...yet alex has virtually no inner conflict about being surrounded by drugs and alcohol? i get that her relapsing would have interrupted the flow of the story too much, but i was shocked that alex was able to get/stay clean so quickly, and that there was no temptation considering the drug culture at yale...

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Vomit, Body horror, Excrement, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Addiction, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Racism, and Mental illness

Minor: Antisemitism

chronicacademia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

I am a wreck. I am devastated. I am almost 100% sure this is my new favorite book ever. I am currently lying on my floor in a puddle of my own tears trying to feel normal again. How am I supposed to move on when this book exists???? 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Vomit, Body horror, Drug use, Excrement, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Death, Abandonment, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Racism, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Minor: Cancer