Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

167 reviews

annemoon's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Drug abuse, Blood, Addiction, Rape, Drug use, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Vomit, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Pedophilia, Bullying, and Gun violence

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Infidelity

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. 

---

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.

lauralee2909's review against another edition

An egregious amount of sexual assault and rape of underage girls and young women 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia

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. 

---

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

mollyelyn's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Brilliantly executed, wonderfully dark. Starts slow, but oh my gosh the twists had me reeling. Those last 100 pages or so were so captivating, i couldn’t put it down! I grew to love the characters and deeply feel for them. Leigh Bardugo has an excellent way of crafting complex, twisted protagonists who are certainly not good people (in any sense of the word) but are just so very human

(except when they’re not)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug use, Physical abuse, Medical content, Addiction, Death, Body horror, Cursing, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Gore, and Grief

Moderate: Pedophilia, Gun violence, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Sexual content

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. 

---

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

reddragon07's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Addiction, and Rape

Moderate: Pedophilia

jelliestars's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Drug use, Gore, Medical content, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Antisemitism, Classism, Excrement, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Misogyny, Gun violence, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Cancer, Colonisation, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Infidelity, and Slavery

csofi_najarro's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.25

Me devoré Ninth house en un solo día, no podía parar de leer. Al principio si me costó adentrarme al libro porque todo era como “qué está pasando??? Me salte un capítulo o qué??” Pero ya cuando inicia la investigación, el libro se siente súper rápido, sentía que yo estaba en Yale con Ale tratando de resolver el misterio. Amé a Darlington, Turner y Dawes tiene un lugar especial en mi corazón. No fue un 5 ⭐️ por dos razones 1. Habían undertones de clasismo en todo el libro y undertones de racismo. Por qué es necesario usar frases como “his head cracked like a piñata” o “if you stay in the sun much longer, you are gonna look all Mexicana”?? Por qué tienen que usar a la comunidad latina para hablar de temas delicados y alimentar los estereotipos? Por qué no puede haber representación latina en plots relajados y casuales? Hasta había partes donde se me olvidaba que Alex es biracial porque la representación fue un desastre. 
2. Siento que, a pesar de ser dark fantasy, Bardugo menciona temas muy delicados a la ligera y en algunos caso podrían haber sido omitidos.  

como lo qué pasó con Mercy, cuál era la necesidad??? Sé que era para introducir la razón de Blake para atacar a Alex pero, esa escena tan traumante me desagradó un montón. De ahí está el hecho de que lo hizo comer literalmente excremento HUMANO asco! Aunque tengo que admitir que sí grité que se lo merecía. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Addiction, Blood, Rape, Death, Excrement, and Murder

Minor: Pedophilia

kllyholt's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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

4.5

I was not expecting this- in the best way. Bardugo’s writing has come really far since the Shadow and Bone series- books that I found to be enjoyable. This book felt exceptional- where the other books I’ve read were maybe lacking in something here and there, this one has it all- witty dialogue, interesting plot and plenty of twists that kept me intrigued. 

One other thing  - content/trigger warning for an explicit scene of child sexual assault. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Rape, and Sexual assault