Scan barcode
evilspazcookie's review against another edition
0.25
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
unburnt_bela's review against another edition
Dark academia it's more than a setting, it's a critic toward elitism inside intellectual and cultural settings.
This book isn't a critic. To me, it's a fantasy story about a Yale graduated where "what if Yale's secret societies had dark magical powers, with very edgy characters as protagonists?"
And this is a problem that I've seen multiple times with fairly successful YA authhors: to have an adult book does NOT mean "watch how many trigger warnings I can sum up into this bad boy." (Trigger warnings that originally published weren't included in the ARCS giveaways).
The multiple heavy-topic themes are just thrown in for shock value, without any care to dive deeper in the consequences that would give respect to actual victims.
Needless to say, to read this as a Latina was so deeply hurtful I had a panic attack that made me stop reading with care and just spiteful sweeping across pages to read the ending.
Alex could've just been Jewish, coming from poverty, and NOTHING would've changed in the plot. For her to be ambiguously Latina it's just to justify the bad traits she has, and oh boy she has a LOT.
- Bad at school
- Enters Yale as a replacement, because she could have never entered by her own merits.
- Too dumb to learn Latin.
- Refer herself as "shit that sticks".
- Drug addict.
- And the root? All because her (Latino) father abandoned her.
All the themes in this book just make up space of nonsense.
That includes a revenge scene reminding of "Spit in my grave" where Alex
This is wild, man.
Plot-related aside, this book it's boring up the last third.
Bardugo it's an established author and it's shows: because to waste half the book in narrating things that already happened and that the readers are already aware of? Unbelievable.
Here the murder it's a setting to info-dump about the characters. A rather annoying strategy I've seen Bardugo has started to settle comfortably in since King of Scars after the success of Six of Crows.
The problem? I don't care for any of the characters in Ninth House. They're not charming, or witty, or funny. I don't care about their tragic backstories (TM).
Her writing it's very good, but here it feels snobby and over the top. One thing it's to weave the atmosphere and another it's to show off.
Anyway, with this book I end my decade-long relationship of devotion toward Leigh Bardugo's work. Once brilliant and refreshing, now coming crashing down since it's peak with Six of Crows, landing messily with the King of Scars fiasco, and buried into Dante's Inferno with Ninth House.
0.5 stars ⭐️, for "trying".
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Excrement, Antisemitism, and Murder
greenan26's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Excrement, Trafficking, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Racial slurs, Vomit, Medical content, and Medical trauma
the_unmaker's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Minor: Racial slurs, Sexual content, and Forced institutionalization
euphvrian's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, and Classism
klsreads's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.75
Starting with cons: Due to the setting at Yale, this book runs the high risk of making its readers feel dumb sometimes. Leigh Bardugo went to Yale for undergrad, was in Wolf's Head, and also researched the h e l l out of Yale's history to make a cohesive, believable backstory. The depth of information fell flat to me as someone who doesn't care about the architecture and alumni of Ivy Leagues. It was a good plot device to show Darlington's intelligence, but occasionally read as, "Look at how much I thought this out and how smart I am!" She toes the line between knowing how grating academics can be and becoming an insufferable know-it-all herself (I understand this bc I am a huge nerd, currently in grad school, and can be academically insufferable). There are probably a ton of references I didn't understand (I'm sure some of it was written for English buffs and Yale students). This makes the book a bit too long, imo. Also, the chapters skip around in time and I don't think that was necessary, though it wasn't too hard to follow.
To be fair, Bardugo's world building ability is unbelievable, and I thought all of her main characters were unique, real, and multifaceted.
Pros: Pretty much everything else. Fun magic system, spooky dark academia, ghosts, sentient houses, whodunit, powerful misfits, revenge, a bi (?) female lead, extremely developed world, and a twisty-turny plot.
Important to note - this book is DARK. Like, graphically dark, and sometimes very gross, and often sad. Check the TWs/CWs.
Leigh Bardugo is an excellent writer and I highly recommend this if you like second chances, dark academia, and magical murder mysteries. It feels like this book was set up to knock the next one out of the park - I can't wait to start the sequel!
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Forced institutionalization and Xenophobia
aimeeanastasia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Excrement, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
joensign's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Domestic abuse, and Misogyny
Minor: Racial slurs and Antisemitism
katemarie99's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Bumping up from 3.75 stars to a nice even 5. Loved this so much more the second time around. So much complexity, so many layers. The themes really came through and I will be thinking about this book for a long time. Trigger warnings: sexual assault, rape, gore.
Kinda gave me Addie LaRue vibes, but this succeeded where that one fell flat for me. I'd like a sequel, please.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Excrement, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Classism
starweather's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.25
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Excrement, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail