Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

285 reviews

meganalysed's review against another edition

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3.5

I went into this book blind and I don’t know if it’s just the kindle version I had but there were no trigger warnings whatsoever and I really feel this book needs them! It was kinda jarring not having this context first. I didn’t really get invested until the last 20% of this - it was good, really rich world building etc. but there was just something lacking for me.

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kenziekat's review

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

4.5


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lenz's review

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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

4.0


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uncica's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

This book is right up my alley. I really enjoyed it and would have given it 4.5/5 ⭐️ had it not been for the last chapter or so. I didn't (and still don't) quite understand
how Darlington had become a demon and, more importantly, how Alex had arrived at this conclusion.
It felt like Bardugo was trying maybe a bit too hard to leave an opening for a sequel (which has been published, of course). I believe I would've liked the story better had it ended without
Darlington surviving and becoming a demon (or something??).
That being said, I still plan on reading the next book in the series.
Otherwise, it's a really interesting story with a couple of mysteries, multi-faceted characters, and a solid magic system. I particularly like how Bardugo incorporated her fictional world within the real-life New Haven/Yale campus. She played off Yale's real-world secret societies quite well. Bardugo also made it difficult to predict the resolution.
Would recommend it to anyone interested in fantasy and mysteries.

Quotes:

He didn’t know how precious a normal life could be, how easy it was to drift away from average. You started sleeping until noon, skipped one class, one day of school, lost one job, then another, forgot the way that normal people did things. You lost the language of ordinary life. And then, without meaning to, you crossed into a country from which you couldn’t return. You lived in a state where the ground always seemed to be slipping from beneath your feet, with no way back to someplace solid.

Death words could be anything, really, as long as they spoke of the things Grays feared most—the finality of passing, a life without legacy, the emptiness of the hereafter.

Peace was like any high. It couldn’t last. It was an illusion, something that could be interrupted in a moment and lost forever. Only two things kept you safe: money and power.

...harmless people high on nothing more than their own pretensions.


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notsohopelessromantic's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

5.0

I absolutely loved the first book in this trilogy. The writing that Leigh Bardugo uses in Ninth House differs so much, I feel like, from the works of the Grishaverse. This instantly captivated me and I was waiting and waiting for there to be resolution. There was some, but not everything was fixed by the end, so I am very eager to read Hell Bent.

I love Alex, and Dawes, but am craving more Darlington. The world built is truly corrupt, dark, and magical. Not unlike real life, but different enough that it has the ability to transport you into a world you'd be interested in living in. The end did throw me a bit, in a good way, with that twist. I still feel quite bad for poor North, but perhaps he'll feel a bit better in the next one.

There are uncomfortable instances throughout the book that maybe should have been prefaced with a page dedicated to trigger warnings. That is my only complaint; but seeing as I am able to push through those parts quite well, it didn't bother me in a way that would detract from the rest of the book, or my rating.

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jhuang's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

Phenomenal, thought provoking, and relevant

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midnightowl5's review

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adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0


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alexstartsthings's review

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adventurous dark 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

4.25


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cnjg88's review

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adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25


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emmiemopho's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

I bought the sequel to this book at an airport not knowing it was a sequel until I realized certain terms were not being explained. So I did some digging and borrowed this one from a friend. So glad I did that! This isn’t my normal type of story but it had everything I love. Good adventure, natural mysteries, other worldly experiences, and the best of all? Not a single romance. It had a girl as the main character being a freaking bad ass and not one man came to knock her down or lose her shine with a relationship. It was all about enjoying that mystery murder and the drama of magic. Fun read! Onto the next one! 

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