Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

1017 reviews

mercurysflame's review against another edition

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

4.5

I loved alex and darlington, spending time with them in their dark world was a good time. Well done characters but get a little wandering sometimes. Non linear narratives can be a bit halting but this one came together nicely in the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, Gore, and Sexism

Moderate: Vomit, Trafficking, and Pedophilia

dirtin_me_shoes's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Drug use

Moderate: Gore, Rape, and Murder

chasinggrace's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? No

4.75

If you grabbed a golden cauldron and mixed Babel, Supernatural, Breaking Bad, and the Illuminati together, you’d get Ninth House. Dark academia turned demonic murder mystery, this book was a great surprise. While slow at points, the main character truly drives this story. Her banter, inner thoughts, and quick wit had me snorting. There’s a whole cast of characters that were difficult to follow at points, but this was a very enjoyable read that left me excited for the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Classism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Violence

elenlinde'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? No

4.75

Loved this book! The beginning is a little slow paced/confusing but it gets into pretty quick! Loved the characters and the plot and definitely did not expect the ending. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Drug use, and Classism

abigailswigert's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed that the main character is an imperfect person. Alex is a good person but doesn’t always follow the rules or do what you might expect the “good guy” to do. She fails, she doubts herself, she hurts people who did bad things, and she find love and acceptance from a group of friends who seem to get her. I’m really excited to read the next book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Rape, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

enaraccoon's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

FUCK YES. so so so good. 
The pace was both fast and slow. It was never boring or uninteresting. It didn't feel static. But the plot actually moved very slowly. You just  don't have that impression while reading. Love love love

Also I hadn't really figured anything out before you're supposed to and it all felt like plot twists or like unexpected to a degree. Very cool

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault

Moderate: Murder, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Minor: Self harm

r0r0's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Start was really slow and disorganised, should have been edited to be chronological rather than jumping. Ending was really good, saved the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Physical abuse, Medical content, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual violence, Self harm, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Excrement

hippievamp's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Addiction, Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Gun violence, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Misogyny, Racism, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Antisemitism, and Addiction

there is an intense and extremely vivid description of attempted rape on a twelve year old.

lauskireads's review against another edition

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

4.5

Amazing book and descriptions but the violent scenes sometimes felt like they were written for shock factor rather than adding to the story. I really loved the plot and the build up but it felt slightly rushed by the end. Overall though, I was totally immersed and couldn’t wait to keep coming back to the world, I fell in love with Alex and Dawes’ friendship and the world building was great. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug abuse, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Violence, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, and Sexual assault

folkofthebook's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative 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? It's complicated

4.75

Mors irrumat omnia. Death fucks us all.

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Grief, Drug abuse, Addiction, Classism, Drug use, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Misogyny, Cancer, Gun violence, and Racism