Reviews with content warning for Gore - Ninth House

Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

598 reviews

vavocado's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious 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

3.75

Content Warnings

callmesheets's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

The plot starts out a little slow and it took me about a quarter of the way through to gain an understanding of the world building. However, the pace picks up pretty quickly closer to the halfway point of the book. I found it also takes some time to get to know the main characters and start caring about them but I think the author does a great job of building the suspense and shares easter eggs about the plot and characters throughout.

Content Warnings

nebraskanwriter's review against another edition

Go to review page

1.0

Content Warnings

em_1920's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

4.5

Content Warnings

merbears's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

bellascheider's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

I would like to start by saying that in terms on thematics, this book was right up my alley. Dark occult fiction with a murder mystery? Perfect.

I absolutely loved Alex, which I know is an unpopular opinion, but I tend to fall in love with morally grey bad assess with dark pasts. I loved Darlington, which, considering we didn’t see much of him, means the author did a fantastic job conveying her characters.

Now the bad: I literally had to read the first 40 pages twice. Reading the back of the book, I assumed we were going to start with Alex’s journey in CA and follow her to Yale. Instead, we were tossed right into the story. Not just the story, the END of the story. There was so much new terminology that the main character already knew and I obviously didn’t. Usually we learn with the character but the audience doesn’t get that luxury and has to piece it together themselves. Now that the book is over, I do appreciate the extra mystery of having to put the timeline together, and figure out the way the societies operate. However, I know that to some people it could be too frustrating to finish.

In addition to it being confusing in the beginning, the story unfolded pretty slowly until a little after half way. But, considering the author intended for the series to be a long one, it makes sense why she took a lot of time to build the world.

I loved the concept of Ninth House, and it really scratched the itch of needing a thriller/dark fiction/horror novel. However, the speed and confusion took it down a couple notches. I’m excited to start Hellbent, and now that I know what’s going on, it’ll be much easier to follow. I got high hopes!

Content Warnings