Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Dziewiąty dom

i INHALED this book, omg. this was a VAST change of pace from shadow & bone and i much preferred it. it was very reminiscent to vicious but more complicated with it's worldbuilding and lore and a stronger theme of sexism and corruption in academia and society.

“I let you die. To save myself, I let you die.
That is the danger in keeping company with survivors.”

i LOVE alex, she's a fighter, a survivor. she is grit and teeth and isn't afraid to bite. it was really cool to see sephardic jewish rep and seeing ladino used in magic. darlington is naively pretentious but unavoidably loveable. this is yet another case of i don't know who i want to be or be with more lol. let the bi panic ensue.

“All you children playing with fire, looking surprised when the house burns down”

i would say the first maybe 10-20% or so was slow for me. not bad but i didn't feel driven until a certain point was hit - and then it took off from there. bardugo's creativity in constructing the houses of lethe and crafting how certain magics fit in with them, intermingled with an undercurrent of demonology and other deathlore, and the weaving of race/class/gender politics within a town and society that is very much built for a specific demographic to come out on top was masterful. i also, despite the sometimes grim scenarios, found myself still huffing in a laugh at the dry humor that tended to come from alex.

“I want to survive this world that keeps trying to destroy me.”

i'm excited to jump into book 2 asap!

Time to go to hell

Content Warnings

callmeamelia's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging fast-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? No

3.75

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sarahschuster's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense

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

5.0

The writing style was a little difficult for me (long sentences with lots of metaphors and descriptive words, vocabulary and references that I had to look up). But the characters were interesting and the plot was so compelling and well fleshed out that I felt the book still deserved 5 stars.

I had an inkling early on that Belbalm was evil and would be the big twist at the end of the book but I didn’t come close to predicting the truth.

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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 against another edition

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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 against another edition

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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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