Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Das neunte Haus by Leigh Bardugo

169 reviews

alyxbeau's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.5

I am clearly not the target audience for this book, but I stuck through it anyways even though I should have DNFd this one and almost did on multiple occasions. 

I will put the reamainder of my review in spoiler tags to avoid people glancing at trigger warnings, but it will also contain actual spoilers. 

There was an absolutely massive amount of sexual assult covered in this book, and in graphic detail. There is a minor in an abusive and sexual relationship with an adult, rape, and drugging with substances to allow seeming consensual acts recorded on a phone. There is gory and detailed descriptions of pried open bodies as well. Honestly, those first pages after the initial chapter should have been enough for me to quit then and there, but I didn't. I thought it might get better after about 25 percent of the book, but the sexual descriptions of uncomfortable situations just got more frequent from that point on. 

At first I didn't think sny of it was for the shock factor. It seemed like the experiences our main character went through were described to us to explain her total fear at being touched by a ghost again after being raped as a middle schooler by one. But then her reaction to humans doing the same to her or trying to do the same to her, we're not as intense. They should have been. This is why I think it is all there for the shock factor now, and not included to show why her reaction was intense. Her reaction was intense only once. The trauma forgotten after that first incident at Yale.

This book is not for me. I stayed to solve the mystery of Darlington and got no satisfactory answer. I will not be continuing the series except to read a synopses of books 2 and 3, MAYBE.


 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Death, Excrement, Addiction, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Classism, Drug use, Murder, Blood, Sexual harassment, Rape, Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, and Medical content

alexijai98's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

Heed trigger warnings! 

Bardugo’s venture into adult fantasy was a good read! Weirdly predictable in the end, but still enjoyable. I’ll be reading Hellbent!

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Content Warnings

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

merylas's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative lighthearted mysterious reflective 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

4.0

I had some trouble getting into the story at first (between the flashbacks, the prompts, the writing style, and the time it took to lay a useful foundation), but once I got about a third in, the plot roots were cemented. 

This story is very twisty in a fun and interesting way. There is a lot of violence and vivid descriptions of assault which is definitely not everyone’s jam. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, and Drug abuse

Minor: Emotional abuse and Vomit

themdash's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Murder, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Self harm, Stalking, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Sexual assault, Classism, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Alcoholism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit

metaphorical_disaster's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

2.5

I don’t even know how to feel after finishing this book. 
I definitely liked it. The story itself was unique and could be interpreted many ways to reflect the world today. The characters (most of them, anyway) had been pretty fleshed out and easy to understand their choices and actions. 
My only gripe is that the first bit of the book was so very confusing. I had to reread the first 5 chapters twice because it felt like I was losing my mind. 
The story does pick up and, while there are still very confusing bits in the middle, it’s beautiful and clever and dark and hopeful all at once. 
This is DEFINITELY one of those books I would have to give a second read through to fully appreciate the story. Until I give it another go, I’m leaving it at a 3⭐️ because it’s still worth the read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Physical abuse, Rape, Addiction, Blood, Death, and Drug abuse

gabijc's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Murder, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Addiction, Drug use, and Emotional abuse

mc_castle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I don't know if I enjoyed it, but I was GRIPPED. It's was a blend of dark academia, fantasy, a commentary on the upper classes and a murder mystery. Everything bad that could happen to someone happened to the protagonist but with ghosts involved. Also was interesting pacing as it wasn't linear storytelling, especially at the beginning where you're thrown into a weird future telling ritual, where a group of students reach into a man's innards to predict the stock market prices. With NO context. I was very confused at first. Also why do college kids have so much power? Read to find out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Torture, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Bullying, Colonisation, Death, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Blood, Classism, Mental illness, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Violence, Gore, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, and Drug abuse

frawst_disasta_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.25

This book has everything I love: fully realized characters, dark moments, fantasy, and budding friendship. What it doesn’t have, which is refreshing, is romance. This is what A Discovery of Witches should have been, and could have been, if Matthew was a differently written character.

There are graphic scenes, though, and a couple descriptions left me feeling sick.

I couldn’t give it five stars, because I felt the prologue and first chapter didn’t draw me in, so much as confuse me. However, chapter two helped and I found after that, the timelines were fascinating, not just confusing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Body horror, Vomit, Blood, Classism, Gore, Addiction, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Child abuse

ineffablebob's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-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

4.25

Ninth House is an urban fantasy, set at a Yale University where its societies are not just groupings of the powerful, but practicing magicians. Alex comes to the school as an outsider under sponsorship of Lethe, a group charged with monitoring the magic and preventing collateral damage. There is, of course, immediately much collateral damage to investigate, while at the same time she struggles with her past and adjusting to her new life. 

I found Ninth House to be well written with plenty of excitement and well-developed characters, but it definitely isn't for everyone. I'm fortunate enough not to have suffered anywhere near the way Alex did in her youth, but even so I found some of the descriptions of her past disturbing - abuse of power, sexual violence, substance abuse, emotional trauma, violent death. And it doesn't get a whole lot better in her present life, lots more of the same, although with much more opportunity for Alex to fight back. Anyone who does have such things in their past could very well find the story traumatizing. In addition to that, the way the plot wraps up has a whole host of twists that come so fast as to give the reader mental whiplash. It felt impossible that Alex had no idea of the underlying truth despite everything she went through in the bulk of the book.

So there are some caveats, but I still would recommend this one to fans of the genre.  It reminded me quite a bit of Lev Grossman's Magicians series, without the Narnia-in-drag bits. Just bear in mind that there's quite a bit of dark content that may not be for everyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence

_lazyreader_3565's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Blood, Cursing, Violence, Vomit, Abandonment, Self harm, Grief, Gore, and Toxic relationship