Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

229 reviews

hnicole01's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5


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avereads12's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I support women's (Alex Stern's) wrongs 

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prairieraven's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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annarak's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • 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

4.0

Very creepy, dark magic and the occult.  Demons, ghosts, and secret societies.  Not a light read.

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jodar's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Disappointing. The writing style is pretty banal for a novel that is immersed in a paranormal setting, with secret societies and an MC desperately trying to unravel a deadly mystery. It also comes across as much more YA than I expected at the outset.

I understand the MC had a depressingly bad background, but even so I found her unappealing, foul-mouthed and arrogant. I think the author was aiming at undaunted, go-getting and savvy. Perhaps it is a cultural thing? a generational thing? – but regardless, I have concluded that I am not at all the target audience!

As the CWs indicate, the novel has a lot of nastiness throughout, too. It’s not gratuitous, but be prepared for it if you decide to read it. I felt the novel improved a little from about the two-thirds mark, as some threads fell into place. And the twists within twists towards the end was a pleasant surprise, albeit a final twist unable to be deduced from prior clues by the the reader any more than by the MC until the final reveal.

As an alternative to Ninth House, I recommend Vita Nostra by Sergey and Marina Dyachenko – a truly gripping, disturbing tour de force of this genre. 

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carmencolette's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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memoriesthatremain's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5


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justineaxelle's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I don’t know if it’s the slump I’m in or if it’s the book that put me in the slump, but I STRUGGLED with Ninth House. 

First of all, that book needs a trigger warning list! I was wholly unprepared for some scenes and it didn’t sit well with me. 
Secondly, the first 60% of the book was boring and the alternating chapters on different timelines were really confusing to start with and gave the book a weird pace. Then it got really interesting but it also gave me whiplash with the number of plot twists Leigh threw in there.
Finally, I only liked Alex in that second half of the book. I wished we’d had more actual interactions with Darlington because otherwise it felt like a pretty lonely book. I enjoyed the begrudging alliance/friendship between Turner, Dawes and Alex but that’s a flimsy cast of main characters. I needed more character interactions/development and less confusing storyline. I was too focused on trying to understand what was happening and did not get attached to the characters because of that.
However, those last few chapters were intriguing enough to make me want to read Hell Bent.

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emily_zylstra02's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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


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peaceloveandmeow's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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