Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Das neunte Haus by Leigh Bardugo

272 reviews

hellyeah_tessa's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

2.0

Took me a while to get into, was very very confused for about 2/3 of the way (which could be blamed on me starting this book while I was running a fever but ah well). Would have given 3 stars but it's a minus one because there's no TW at the start of the book, and it does contain an explicit r*pe scene.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, Vomit, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

charlottesreadingweb's review against another edition

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

4.25

I thought this book was fun! Fresh story in a market crowded with dark academia content. I would have preferred less emphasis on Alex's past, and more details about the eight houses, but that's just me. Worth a read if you're looking for an elevated adult fantasy that is still rooted in reality, the occult, and myth. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Murder, Drug use, and Physical abuse

chamaeleontis's review against another edition

dark 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

Pretty slow start, but when it gets going, it gets GOING.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Child death, Cursing, Sexism, Violence, Rape, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Racism, Addiction, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Blood, Death, Excrement, Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug use, Murder, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

cre8withcait's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual assault, Body horror, Rape, Drug abuse, Addiction, Blood, Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Violence

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

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

sarahschuster's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, and Death

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

kileyjojo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

Content Warning: This book depicts several sexual assault scenes in detail.

This was a fun read. It was a little difficult to get into in the beginning but the middle to end was super suspenseful and interesting. The ending felt like it fumbled the ball just a bit but overall I enjoyed the book. It takes a while to get into it but the payoff is worth it. If you like realistic fantasy and the paranormal, this is the read. 

In terms of the content warning, a lot of the SA scenes feel very rushed and used only for shock value. In the moment, they are relevant but they seem to just disappear and never have any other message behind them when all is said and done. They are all very shocking and it makes it very difficult to want to continue the read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Violence, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Rape, Grief, Sexual assault, Drug use, Gore, Murder, Sexual harassment, Body horror, Pedophilia, Addiction, Cursing, Death, Excrement, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship