Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Ninth House

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

threadybeeps's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

THAT WAS SO CRAZY WOW!!!!! Things started to feel a bit goofy for me in the last 80 pages or so but I could not put it down. Kind of struggled to keep track of all the inter-house politics but loved the world, the ghosts, the magic, etc. etc. etc. Starting Hell Bent immediately.

BRING D-BOY HOME GIRLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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msradiosilence's review against another edition

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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