Reviews with content warning for Murder - Ninth House

You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

1120 reviews

grunzy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous 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

4.5

This was a dark adventurous story on the surface, led by the twists of magic. But beyond the veil, it is a scathing read on institutions like Yale, and the dark sides of privilege. Artfully read, I loved every second of this book. And a bonus of an interview with the author and lead narrator!

Content Warnings

meganemarshall's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

Wow! This was amazing. First off, this was such a great concept. Taking the mysterious secret societies of Yale and then adding magic to them hooks you from the start. Then, take a main character who is the complete opposite of what you would find at Yale. Alex Stern is a high school dropout drug addict whose only talent is that she sees ghosts. Which makes her perfect for Lethe, but not for Yale.

This book is very world building heavy and is a bit of a slow start. But I think it's action-packed once the plot gets rolling. Alex gets involved with three different mysteries that have tons of twists and turns. The last hundred pages was shock after shock after shock.

I personally really liked the back-and-forth between timelines. It took a while to get into it, but the chapters set in fall introduced Alex and the reader into this world and the mysteries. The past chapters also helped introduce you to Darlington and get you to care for him. The winter and spring chapters were more action oriented.

There are a lot of trigger warnings in this book. It covers very heavy topics such as class disparages sexual assault, murder, shitty rich people, drug abuse, and so much more.

I 100% recommend this, and I can not wait to pick up Hell Bent.

Content Warnings

shannan1773's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

Content Warnings

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.0

Content Warnings

raefoth's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

This world is so interesting and rich and I can’t wait to dive into Hellbent! I really liked the character work and the magic system/world building, but I feel like the multi timeline was very jarring for the first third of the book. I fully thought “Last Fall” meant the academic year before for 2/3 of the book lol. I also felt like the use of the SA felt very trauma porn to me, and was just there as a plot device which was frustrating. Ultimately a good fall spooky read but falls a little short of being an amazing one.

Content Warnings

j_the_human's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

5.0

HOLY SHIT THIS BOOK Y’ALL.

Obviously this is Leigh Bardugo so I knew it was going to cook but I did not expect exactly HOW MUCH.

Pros:
- dark. Really dark. This is the dark in dark academia I’ve been looking for.
- secret societies! Horrible unethical rituals!! A very traumatized girl not really given a choice but to get in the middle of it!!
- complex, imperfect characters who you root for anyways because goddamn do they just deserve something good for once
- REVENGE
- 0 shying away from hard topics. Bardugo did not come to play (and please do check the trigger warnings)

Cons:
- I think there were a few points that information was repeated almost verbatim and that was a teeny tiny bit annoying, but also most people probably didn’t read this in all of 2 days like I did.
- I’m gonna reiterate that this is dark because if you’re not in the place for it, it could be REALLY bad

Overall:
I’ve not given a dark academia book more than a 3 star before but this gave me all that elitism, all that “the rich get away with it”, the “if you have what they want you can get in but never be one of them” vibe that is quintessential to dark academia, but in a way that engaged with the themes and how otherwise good people could fall foul of them, not just making everyone into cartoonishly evil people, because that’s not how the world works! This was dark and gritty and punch you in the teeth with violence and gore and horror, but kept from despair by genuine human connection and that sometimes, even on the worst days, eating junk food with a friend is enough to keep you hanging on.

Content Warnings

morganmills15's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny 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

Content Warnings

kshammel's review against another edition

Go to review page

TWs: for folks considering reading this book, know that it reads like an exploration of violence, trauma, and grief with a mystery, dark academia genre with some fantasy elements. There is a lot of on- and off-page violence: assault and battery, coercion, murder, including a scene describing a child sexual assault (about 26% percent in, pgs 122-123 with reference until pg. 125 in the original paperback edition for those hoping to skip), a lot of which felt gratuitous at times and might be tough or triggering for some to read.

Content Warnings

lex_is_bookish's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

required reread for fall season, one of my favorite books

Content Warnings

hsvensrud's review against another edition

Go to review page

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? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Really really enjoyed this! Excited to read the sequel. One point that did irk me though was the references to white cotton gloves being used in handling rare books and materials. That’s false! No longer are they typically used because they dampen the dexterity of the fingers and can cause more damage to materials than clean hands can. Anywho, that’s just my one irk cause I work with rare books.

Content Warnings

More...