Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

731 reviews

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.

callmeamelia's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Toxic relationship, Death, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, and Addiction

sadboycare's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use

alexaperez's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

4.0

Getting into this book initially was a challenge. There was a lot of world building and setup involved for the plot, which was necessary but a lot to absorb nonetheless. I was also lacking interest for the first 20% of the book due to so much of what I was digesting mainly being centered around the culture at Yale, which is mostly upper class white men. (Factor in the time jumping that occurs throughout this book along with ADHD and the next thing you know, I was lost.)

However, as I said, it is necessary for the plot. The author’s work on this book feels very much like a commentary on what institutions like Yale represent (for better or for worse) and she does it well. There is conversation as the book progresses about how these institutions choose to view women, people of color, and anyone deemed to be of lower class. Our main character carries all of these qualities that institutions look down upon. Despite her mistreatment and struggles, she fights tooth and nail to understand this world she was thrown into and to survive it. Her character was the reason I powered through and fought to understand all of the detail this book contained that I wasn’t grasping. She has grit and spark.

As a reader I’m personally not used to reading books that take extra work to keep up with, but I’m happy I took the time to do so. If someone else is struggling to read this one and retain everything, I highly suggest listening to the audiobook and looking at a synopsis. Once I understood all of the intricacies of these societies and the larger mystery at hand, I was all in to continue the ride. 

The mystery of this book tied together so well at the end, and I love how the author made everything connect. It didn’t feel forced. It really worked, and I felt SO satisfied when all of the complexities of this plot linked together. 

Only knocking a star off due to my personal struggle to get into this book at the start, but this was truly a great book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Classism, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Violence

windsandhyacinths's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

akirma's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Blood, Body horror, and Classism

Minor: Vomit

kirnet's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

MAJOR TWs for SA, CSA, Assault under the influence, other sexual violence, gore, abuse. All of it, really. 

I really enjoyed the prose in this, and I ended up really loving Alex's character. I found her really compelling and was happy to follow her thoughts and actions. I love how flawed she is, as well as how she struggles to cope with it. Her relationships with the other characters are also great, mainly Dawes and North. She has a lot of on page chemistry with everyone that keeps things flowing. The story is interesting (though I did predict every twist), and the world building was interesting, but my main gripe with this book was the pacing. A lot of people mention not being invested in the book until very far in, and while I didn't have that exact problem, I did find a lot of the info dumps pretty grating. The book also spends a lot of time jumping back to the past, mostly to set up Darlington's character, or to explain parts of Alex's tragic backstory. In my opinion they happened too often and were too indulgent, really taking me out of the current storyline and investigation. I wonder if it would have been better to have made this book the second in the series, to have the first one actually show Alex and Darlington's growing relationship and ending with the cliffhanger of

Darlington getting yoinked to hell

rather than flashing back and expositing. As it stands there's too little Darlington for me to actually care about him as a character and too much Darlington for me to not get annoyed at his interruptions to the story, even if he seems like a fine character. Still, I'm excited to see where this story goes and I plan on picking up the next one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Rape, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Murder, and Addiction

kenziekat's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Sexual assault, Murder, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Physical abuse and Injury/Injury detail

lenz's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and Drug abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Sexual violence

Minor: Rape and Forced institutionalization