Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

316 reviews

charlotteaimee14's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Blood

j_the_human's review against another edition

dark 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

HOLY SHIT THIS BOOK Y’ALL. 

Obviously this is Leigh Bardugo so I knew it was going to cook but I did not expect exactly HOW MUCH. 

Pros: 
- dark. Really dark. This is the dark in dark academia I’ve been looking for. 
- secret societies! Horrible unethical rituals!! A very traumatized girl not really given a choice but to get in the middle of it!! 
- complex, imperfect characters who you root for anyways because goddamn do they just deserve something good for once 
- REVENGE 
- 0 shying away from hard topics. Bardugo did not come to play (and please do check the trigger warnings) 

Cons:
- I think there were a few points that information was repeated almost verbatim and that was a teeny tiny bit annoying, but also most people probably didn’t read this in all of 2 days like I did. 
- I’m gonna reiterate that this is dark because if you’re not in the place for it, it could be REALLY bad 

Overall: 
I’ve not given a dark academia book more than a 3 star before but this gave me all that elitism, all that “the rich get away with it”, the “if you have what they want you can get in but never be one of them” vibe that is quintessential to dark academia, but in a way that engaged with the themes and how otherwise good people could fall foul of them, not just making everyone into cartoonishly evil people, because that’s not how the world works! This was dark and gritty and punch you in the teeth with violence and gore and horror, but kept from despair by genuine human connection and that sometimes, even on the worst days, eating junk food with a friend is enough to keep you hanging on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, and Fire/Fire injury

morganmills15's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse and Rape

hsvensrud's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Really really enjoyed this! Excited to read the sequel. One point that did irk me though was the references to white cotton gloves being used in handling rare books and materials. That’s false! No longer are they typically used because they dampen the dexterity of the fingers and can cause more damage to materials than clean hands can. Anywho, that’s just my one irk cause I work with rare books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Murder, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

itspanicszn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Rape, Violence, and Blood

mealexc's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

A book you won’t want to put down. The plots and twist of this book were wonderfully unpredictable. At first it was to follow the time change in between chapters but it comes to a cohesive ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Grief, and Toxic friendship

eviethebookworm'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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Gore, and Vomit

Minor: Medical trauma and Classism

zia_c's review against another edition

The prologue and the first chapter read like it was written high on marijuana. Smh! There's so much unnecessary info dump and random cut offs of narrations that I couldn't comprehend where the hell the author was going with the narrative. 

The heroine came out to me as a self centered, self righteous, harmonal teenager. Why? You may wonder. It's because she's whining about one thing or the other every two sentences and thinking about Darlington on every third. She's also kinda dumb and annoying.  Idk how the hell she got the job when she can't even follow basic instructions and endangered a group of people with her because of her rampant monologues of fuck knows what. 

I don't think I can continue further because it's really hurting my brain to understand the story and the character. Even mathematics never gave me this kinda pain. 

Anyway, this book was a part of a book club this month that's why I gave it a flip. I hope others enjoy it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Blood, Vomit, and Medical content

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

freshbatchofbooks'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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape

caelinsullivan's review against another edition

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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Self harm, Sexual violence, Excrement, and Classism

Minor: Vomit, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis