Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Das neunte Haus

The writing in this novel is stunning. Bardugo moves easily from highly controlled and crafted prose to snippy, sassy quips with ease. Part of the reason it took me a few hours longer to read than I would have guessed is because I spent so much time writing brilliant, eloquent quotes into my notes app. Absolutely stunning writing.

Characters: 5⭐️/5

The characters felt real and fully developed. I enjoyed how much time was spent seeing characters from other character’s perspective, giving us insight into how each character presents themselves, as well as their internal bias and judgement they push onto others. Certain characters that, at the beginning felt fairly flat, were given time and space to showcase their personalities later, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I also thoroughly enjoyed the way the female relationships were explored in this novel. The care in which these relationships were engaged made me very happy both as a reader and a woman.

Plot: 4.5⭐️/5

**Spoilers below**

I took one issue with the plot, which was the employment of a rape scene. Personally, I felt this scene was unnecessary both to the development of our main character, as well as the progression of the plot. This particular scene didn’t really fit for me and could have been written in a different way to give the same effect. My main takeaway from the scene was that it mostly read as an easy way to give our MC “trauma,” which could have been done in a number of more interesting and less triggering ways.

Otherwise, the overarching plot was entirely enjoyable to read and kept me thoroughly engaged until the end.

Who Should Read This Book?

Lovers of dark academia, fantasy and/or magical murder mystery novels
Those who want an adult fantasy read with a spark of romance and little to no spice
Readers wanting an engaging world and well-established magic system
Someone looking for a strong fantasy read with strong female relationships

Content Warnings?

Rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual content, gore, blood, vomit, medical trauma, death, abandonment, drug use, alcohol use, excrement, injury, pedophilia,

Post-Reading Rating: 5⭐️/5

I was engaged until the final page. Excited for the sequel.

Final Rating: 4.5⭐️/5

Content Warnings

zoerosebud's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-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

5.0

Content Warnings

lindsayerin's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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 Warnings

thesmutsister_emma's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

You Could Say They Were Hellbent to Figure This Out

3.75🌟/5 IF YOU ARE HERE For SA TWS FOR THIS BOOK OR LOOKING FOR WHICH CHAPTERS CONTAIN SA, THEY ARE AS FOLLOWS: Chapter 7, Chapter 14 and discussions through Chapters 14-16.
I'm going to be honest with y'all (as always). I only bought this book because I thought it was going to be a dark academia story similar to If We Were Villains or The Secret History. I went in blind (as I usually do with books) and was happily surprised. With that being said, I do have a few bones to pick. (see what I did there?)

The Characters
Alex Stern: Lord have mercy on this poor child's soul. Holy hell. I honestly feel like she was handed some bad fucking cards at some point or another. Everything this girl has gone through and then continues to go through? Shit, man. I honestly am proud of her for not giving up. I honestly loved Alex as a main character and felt like she went about things very well in this book. She has some negative self-talk throughout, but honestly, who wouldn't? She always ended up outsmarting everyone or at least not being too far behind and for a girl who has only known about all of this for about 6 months to 1 year, I'd say she's doing a damn good job.

Things I Loved
Honestly, all the characters were likable (at least the ones we were supposed to like.) I felt really drawn to Dawes, but that's just because deep deep down, all I want is for someone to have soup waiting for me at the end of every day. Honestly though, I liked the structure of the book. I enjoyed learning about the houses the same way Alex did and having that distinction between us still learning alongside Alex (somewhat) and us knowing the same amount as Alex and trying to solve this with her. It was great.

Things I Didn't Love
Here we go. This is where I am about to get passionate about things. This is also the reason my rating is so low. Leigh Bardugo is no new to the publishing industry. This is not Leigh Bardugo's first book. Therefore, I do feel as though there are some things she should have prefaced in this book, especially making the transition from YA to adult. The major thing I feel needs to be prefaced and discussed are the fucking trigger warnings. Or more simply put, the lack thereof. There are zero trigger warnings in this book despite a graphic scene of SA against a 12 year old girl, as well as another girl at a frat party. I somewhat understand the need for these situations, (I will discuss the need to frequently traumatize women at a later date) but there should have been some form of a warning considering how graphic they are. If one of Leigh's loyal readers went from any of her previous series straight to this one, this would be a rather rude awakening. I haven't even begun to talk about the graphicness of the violence in the book. Everything is very detailed, some of it unnecessarily so. This is why this book has such a low rating for me.

The Final Verdict
If you are going into this expecting anything like Leigh Bardugo's previous books, please don't. The content in this truly is created for adults and even unsettled me. If you have mentally prepared for this book and have looked into the content it holds, I truly believe you will thoroughly enjoy it. I would have enjoyed it much more if it weren't for the fact that I had to witness a very graphic SA without warning.

Content Warnings

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