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roshans's reviews
58 reviews
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
3.5
I'm not completely sure if this deserves a 4 or something closer to 3.5. Edit: made it a 3.5
First of the central themes of the abuse of privilege and power come off as a little condescending coming from.... well a privileged white women. Especially considering the villain, this book really reads as Bardugo using a traumatized brown character to preach to other privileged white women.
That aside, like most of Bardugo's female protagonists, Alex is a survivor of rape and honestly reading under aged girls get assaulted is getting a little tiring. In addition Alex has been assaulted by multiple people, bullied, abused, and has been using illicit drugs for five years. None of this trauma (save for her rape) is actually dealt with however, she has no problem making friends, seems to largely trust authorities, and doesn't suffer from her years of taking drugs at all. The book doesn't do much more than acknowledge these horrors. I do like Alex as a character overall though she's abrasive, she's tired, she just wants to be safe for once. She tries to roll with the punches and when it's time she punches back. Unlike others with her archetype she's not impulsive, she thinks her actions through, even if the decision ends up being a stupid one.
Darlington. I don't understand why he's so well loved. He's bland a pretentious. He's the ever boring sad lonely rich kid trope. No clue why any of the characters (or other readers) like him. He's not bad, he just doesn't deserve half the hype he gets.
First of the central themes of the abuse of privilege and power come off as a little condescending coming from.... well a privileged white women. Especially considering the villain, this book really reads as Bardugo using a traumatized brown character to preach to other privileged white women.
That aside, like most of Bardugo's female protagonists, Alex is a survivor of rape and honestly reading under aged girls get assaulted is getting a little tiring. In addition Alex has been assaulted by multiple people, bullied, abused, and has been using illicit drugs for five years. None of this trauma (save for her rape) is actually dealt with however, she has no problem making friends, seems to largely trust authorities, and doesn't suffer from her years of taking drugs at all. The book doesn't do much more than acknowledge these horrors. I do like Alex as a character overall though she's abrasive, she's tired, she just wants to be safe for once. She tries to roll with the punches and when it's time she punches back. Unlike others with her archetype she's not impulsive, she thinks her actions through, even if the decision ends up being a stupid one.
Darlington. I don't understand why he's so well loved. He's bland a pretentious. He's the ever boring sad lonely rich kid trope. No clue why any of the characters (or other readers) like him. He's not bad, he just doesn't deserve half the hype he gets.
Another issue I had were the motivations. Alex has a semi believable reason to be doing all this, but a lot of the other characters just seem to be doing things just because the plot necessitates it, particularly one of the villains.
The plot is a whodunit, I'm not an avid reader of that genre, even so I can't say it was amazing or anything. One specific twist was rather obvious, Alex figures it out half way through, most readers could probably guess at it even earlier. Alex eventually (briefly) dismisses it but it's rather obvious. A few other twists are obvious even if you're causally reading over the story. I'm not saying that's bad but the book spends a lot of time beating around the bushes which makes it drag on.
Overall I can say I enjoyed the book and will be reading the next installment but Bardugo really needs to work on the motivations and deal with Alex's trauma more fully
The plot is a whodunit, I'm not an avid reader of that genre, even so I can't say it was amazing or anything. One specific twist was rather obvious, Alex figures it out half way through, most readers could probably guess at it even earlier. Alex eventually (briefly) dismisses it but it's rather obvious. A few other twists are obvious even if you're causally reading over the story. I'm not saying that's bad but the book spends a lot of time beating around the bushes which makes it drag on.
Overall I can say I enjoyed the book and will be reading the next installment but Bardugo really needs to work on the motivations and deal with Alex's trauma more fully
A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston
4.0
the ONLY desert-girl-is-forced-to-marry-king-who-kills-his-wives because there is NO RAPE AND NO ROMANCE. This is a story about women and women protecting other women. Its well written and people other than the MC actually do things. Most importantly the people actually seem to care that their women are being killed and DO something about it.