Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Das neunte Haus by Leigh Bardugo

27 reviews

losemeliketheocean's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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: Murder, Violence, Rape, Sexual assault, and Addiction

Moderate: Vomit and Drug abuse

Minor: Toxic friendship

fantaiil's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Rape, Violence, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcohol, Gore, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Blood, Classism, and Cursing

Minor: Torture, Islamophobia, and Toxic friendship

csmall73's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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

5.0

Dark intriguing mysterious 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Vomit, Trafficking, Torture, Sexual violence, Rape, Pedophilia, Excrement, Classism, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Death, Murder, Medical content, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Medical trauma, and Violence

thequiltyreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Hoping between the 2 time lines was a little confusing at times but I enjoyed this murder mystery with a twist of a lot of ghosts thrown in the mix.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

mattiedancer'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? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Writing: 5⭐️/5 

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Gore, Medical content, Sexual content, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

Minor: Toxic friendship, Classism, and Stalking

booksandcurlz's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.75

The start of this book was slow, I had stopped reading once or twice before I decided that I would try the audiobook which made the experience better. 

I did like Galaxy “Alex” and her flaws made her feel real. Now Darlington felt so self-righteous and entitled he was just impossible to like, I am not sure if this is just how Bardugo writes her heros, but I felt for Darlington the same I felt for Mal on SaB. Trust me a loathe book Mal. Back to the review of this book.

I loved the setting, the dark academia with the secret societies and the magic was fun to listen to at times. I felt so bad for Alex in not having a connection with her late father’s family. 

The mystery - this was probably my favorite part of the book since I love sleuthing in books and solving cases like the one solved in this book. I like that this part of the storyline has resolved by the end of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Death, and Drug use

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, and Toxic friendship

natgoe's review against another edition

adventurous 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Death, Gore, Drug use, Violence, Toxic friendship, Murder, and Blood

veragrom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

If you start reading this book and you struggle to understand everything withing the first three chapters, I get it. Stick to it, it's worth it. Eventually, there will be more magic; eventually, you will find out more about all the dropped names and societies; eventually you'll get used to the jumping in times and characters. It takes a while to really get into it, but it's absolutely worth it! I think you'll get to like everyone, including Alex. Brilliant work. What I love most about it, is that the magic in this book is believable. I think if magic was a real thing, all the stuff they did in the book and all the problems connected to it would absolutely happen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Gaslighting and Stalking

queenstaves's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Rape, Trafficking, Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness

The author uses rape, date rape, sexual assault, sexual trauma, etc. in a way that reads as trauma being a character flaw/trait instead of a part of an emotional arc. It is used in a way that reads as "edgy flavor" and not the horrifying things they are. They are used to position the protagonist as an edgy savior. She "gets revenge" for women being date raped by forcing the men to eat shit (literally), and it's used as this "I really showed them!" kind of moment. It is a gross use of the content.

lizzieinmt's review against another edition

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I struggled to figure out what this book was really about, but on reflection I believe it's about the struggle for and abuse of power. And how people are willing to maintain, commit to and sacrafice themselves and others for power, often a power they don't fully understand. This is reappeared for us in the book over and over each time it becomes a larger and higher steaks example. I did enjoy it and it falls comfortably (or rather nice and uncomfortably) into dark academia. I do have a few criticisms that I feel didn't pull their weight in the story, but overall it was a compelling read with a heavy, deep magical feel.

I think the use of rape as a plot point repeatedly through the book did show the misuse of power and illustrate terrible people. But I don't think this was the only way that could have been done and I did feel that even with the big revenge ar "ground zero" she was really trying to make up for rape as a plot point. Like, why is murder and emotional/physical threat and mistreatment not enough? Why throw that in to. Didn't ruin the book but did make me like it less than other dark academia novels for sure

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Blood, Addiction, Rape, Alcohol, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Colonisation, Excrement, Gore, Violence, and Mental illness