Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

316 reviews

caelinsullivan's review

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

solina's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

5.0

Lots of mystery and snark, with just a little bit of is-it-romantic-maybe-a-little to keep it fun but not too much if you're not inro that sort of thing. Super funny, with great characters you'll love. Lots of badassery. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

brianneh's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, and Classism

ece33191's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, and Murder

peace_love_on_planet_earth's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

If this had been a dark romance there would have been an abundance of content warnings. No it’s not a romance BUT it needed content warnings. I don’t appreciate having the detailed depiction of an SA of a minor come out of no where in a flashback. Warning for others before going into this, this book contains: the SA of a minor (graphic), sexual coercion of a minor, a minor in an abusive “romantic” relationship (graphic), domestic violence involving a minor, a minor abusing drugs and alcohol. When I say minor, I mean a child age 12-15. This had so many triggers for me and I would’ve liked to have been warned. I kept reading because I wanted Alex to receive some kind of validation for what happened to her but it never came. Bardugo also wrote something questionable about survivors which if you’re reading and haven’t healed or something just happened to you then I would find it extremely damaging. I would’ve liked for her friendship with Dawes to develop more but it also didn’t, perhaps in the next one. It was also slow af at the start. This isn’t fiction for some people and it can be extremely damaging. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

vickymcckey's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

I’m not a big fan of fantasy as a rule, but this book was a fun read once I got into it. It felt a tad preachy at times and at others it seemed a little “shock value for shock value’s sake”, but overall I adored the characters and world building and am definitely going to read the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm and Medical content

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

seawaypirate's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Excrement

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Murder

lateralus2001's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? No

3.25

This book took me a while to get into because of how scattered it was to set things up and going back I'm not sure if I'm glad I stuck with it. A lot of what this book tries to say about trauma and class gets washed away with how much good grace and how many resources Alex is handed. It's really hard to convince me that you're writing a character who's experiencing good things against the odds if she has personal connections to cops and school secretaries at Yale and managed to grow up in *Los Angeles.* It has interesting things it's trying to say, but I just don't know if this was the way to go about it.

I dunno. I've missed reading a lot and maybe that's why I originally rated this higher than I should've. I'm going to read the next book if only for Darlington because his story is really interesting, I just can't click with Alex.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking

sleepybythelake's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

screaming cause i actually really liked this?? Though some parts kinda triggered me :/
I'll probably update with a more... well thought review soon I think
might draw some fanart while I'm at it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Violence

russell183's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.5

(4.6)

Fun and spooky. I found the nonlinear story telling a little confusing at the beginning but then it really shaped up into a page turner. Really good world building of an underground world of privileged A-holes messing with dark force and some strong characters. I also liked the soft magic system which worked with the unknown elements of the story. I found one of the POV characters a lil grating at times and there also felt like there was a slightly gratuitous/exploitative amount of sexual violence at times which sort of tonally clashed with the like supernatural mystery vibe. But all in all a gripping macabre mystery.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Trafficking