Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

162 reviews

thenoodlevore's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I think the book tackled some difficult issues well and I could identify with some of the complex feelings of the characters. I appreciated the honesty in it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Classism, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Body horror, Sexual violence, Rape, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Grief, Gore, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Excrement, Gun violence, Bullying, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Body shaming, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Car accident, Death, and Terminal illness

valjeanval's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

4.0

I enjoyed this more than I expected. I’m so tired of magic schools, and I think that the responsibility heaped on college freshmen is probably the weakest part of the book, but the characters and mystery manage to carry the story anyway. It’s much more horror than I was expecting, so be wary of that if you are easily creeped out, but overall a good book. I’m not sure I liked it enough to read the sequel, but I mostly enjoyed this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Rape, Blood, Grief, Excrement, Sexual assault, Addiction, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Mental illness, Vomit, Cursing, Drug abuse, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Murder, Gun violence, Death, and Sexual violence

quinnpjd930's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Death, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Murder, Medical content, Gore, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Rape, Body horror, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Murder, Misogyny, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Addiction, Body horror, Classism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Death, Drug use, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Violence

Minor: Physical abuse, Body horror, Blood, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Rape, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Death, Misogyny, Murder, and Violence

bethanie_l's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.5

I loved this book. I would think about it at work and be excited to get back to it. I was going through a lot of dental treatment when I read it and I actually looked forward to the wait time just so I could read more. 

I really enjoyed learning the rules of this world and seeing how the relationships progressed. The mystery was really good too. I wouldn't classify this as a horror like I'd thought it was, more like a supernatural mystery thriller. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Excrement, Murder, Violence, Addiction, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Classism and Terminal illness

To avoid the rape scene skip over when she

goes to the bathroom while on a trip with her class. Depending on how much you can handle aftermath, start again when they find her or, if more sensitive to aftermath, when they discuss her mom trying to be understanding.

katemarie99's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

2024 UPDATE: 
Bumping up from 3.75 stars to a nice even 5. Loved this so much more the second time around. So much complexity, so many layers. The themes really came through and I will be thinking about this book for a long time. Trigger warnings: sexual assault, rape, gore. 

Kinda gave me Addie LaRue vibes, but this succeeded where that one fell flat for me. I'd like a sequel, please. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Gore, Pedophilia, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Murder, Sexism, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Medical content, Sexual content, Body horror, Classism, Grief, and Rape

sugar_pill's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual violence, and Rape

Moderate: Addiction, Classism, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

aimicampbell's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Rape, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Addiction, Cursing, Vomit, Blood, and Gore

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

madinhoa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Vomit, Forced institutionalization, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Classism, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Suicide, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, Alcoholism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Suicide attempt

maddiereadswords's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

1.0

Let's get this out of the way first: I picked this book up because it was recommended by someone who LOVES it, and if I hadn't wanted to give this a fair shot for them, I would have dropped this book by 200 pages in and never looked back.

My biggest problem with it is that you can just tell this is the first adult novel by a YA author, and I don't say that to disparage YA at all!! It just feels like Leigh Bardugo wanted so badly for this to be an Adult Novel with Adult Themes, but rather than actually writing a story that engages on an adult level with complex themes, she just decided to throw in a bunch of drug use, body horror/gore, and graphic sexual assault to remind you that her characters are Adults in College. (Check the content warnings on this one if you need them!!) It was just way too much, and yet it did nothing? Like, Alex is a recovering drug addict, but at no point in time does that actually affect her as a character except to remind the reader of her fucked up backstory, even though she's constantly exposed to and using all kinds of magic drugs (and has no qualms about using them on others). Also, as an MC she's literally just so boring. All the characters kind of are tbh, and there's so much telling instead of showing about characters. We're told blatantly that Dawes likes taking care of people, like Bardugo doesn't trust the reader to put that together from context clues. We're told that Darlington's a gentleman, but he's really just a mediocre white guy with money (literally do not get me started on Darlington, he was such a nothing character to me and the fact that he's the fan favorite is disappointing, but not surprising.)

As for the plot, it's WAY too slow. I know even the people who love it say that it picks up like 100-150 pages in, but first of all, it should not take a third of the book for things to actually get moving. That's straight up just bad pacing. Also, the dual timelines were entirely too much. It took so long to catch up to the present, and the way the flashbacks were inter-spaced, it tended to disrupt any momentum in the actual story. Even when it did "pick up" it still felt like was crawling along at a snail's pace up until the very end. And speaking of the ending, it was SO unsatisfying. It was a mediocre resolution to a bad mystery because it wasn't like there was enough information thoughtfully woven into the story to encourage the reader to put together actual clues; it was all just withheld completely until the two (TWO!!) villain monologues at the very end which is just super frustrating.

Also let's be so fucking honest here: Leigh Bardugo thinks she's saying a lot about privilege, class, race, and gender at Yale, but she's not actually saying anything. This is a world where secret societies of privileged students use and abuse those they see as below them, but in this world, they're using magic to do it, so it's different. Also in this world, a woman is secretly behind it all, so actually the secret societies were never the problem, and we don't have to actually interrogate whether they should be allowed to continue to operate. It's such a nothing point, but it's said like she really thinks she's done something. Sure, Leigh, whatever you say.

This was such a disappointing read for me. I'm genuinely so glad that so many people love this book so much!! But it was definitely not for me. Literally the only thing that saved it from being a 1 star was that sometimes her prose was good when she wasn't beating me over the head with empty statements about characterization or waxing poetic about fucking New Haven. (I get it, you went to Yale! I do not care!!)

All of that being said, I am indeed still going to read the second book because the person who recommended it to me has insisted the second one is better, but I'm not optimistic it'll actually change my mind. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Rape, Physical abuse, Gore, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Classism, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Death, Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, Excrement, Pedophilia, and Violence

jeffreydgrant's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Classism

Minor: Vomit and Excrement