Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Das neunte Haus by Leigh Bardugo

688 reviews

meganemarshall's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious 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

Wow! This was amazing. First off, this was such a great concept. Taking the mysterious secret societies of Yale and then adding magic to them hooks you from the start. Then, take a main character who is the complete opposite of what you would find at Yale. Alex Stern is a high school dropout drug addict whose only talent is that she sees ghosts. Which makes her perfect for Lethe, but not for Yale. 

This book is very world building heavy and is a bit of a slow start. But I think it's action-packed once the plot gets rolling. Alex gets involved with three different mysteries that have tons of twists and turns. The last hundred pages was shock after shock after shock. 

I personally really liked the back-and-forth between timelines. It took a while to get into it, but the chapters set in fall introduced Alex and the reader into this world and the mysteries. The past chapters also helped introduce you to Darlington and get you to care for him. The winter and spring chapters were more action oriented.

There are a lot of trigger warnings in this book. It covers very heavy topics such as class disparages sexual assault, murder, shitty rich people, drug abuse, and so much more. 

I 100% recommend this, and I can not wait to pick up Hell Bent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Terminal illness, Excrement, and Vomit

charlotteaimee14's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Body horror, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Blood

j_the_human's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

HOLY SHIT THIS BOOK Y’ALL. 

Obviously this is Leigh Bardugo so I knew it was going to cook but I did not expect exactly HOW MUCH. 

Pros: 
- dark. Really dark. This is the dark in dark academia I’ve been looking for. 
- secret societies! Horrible unethical rituals!! A very traumatized girl not really given a choice but to get in the middle of it!! 
- complex, imperfect characters who you root for anyways because goddamn do they just deserve something good for once 
- REVENGE 
- 0 shying away from hard topics. Bardugo did not come to play (and please do check the trigger warnings) 

Cons:
- I think there were a few points that information was repeated almost verbatim and that was a teeny tiny bit annoying, but also most people probably didn’t read this in all of 2 days like I did. 
- I’m gonna reiterate that this is dark because if you’re not in the place for it, it could be REALLY bad 

Overall: 
I’ve not given a dark academia book more than a 3 star before but this gave me all that elitism, all that “the rich get away with it”, the “if you have what they want you can get in but never be one of them” vibe that is quintessential to dark academia, but in a way that engaged with the themes and how otherwise good people could fall foul of them, not just making everyone into cartoonishly evil people, because that’s not how the world works! This was dark and gritty and punch you in the teeth with violence and gore and horror, but kept from despair by genuine human connection and that sometimes, even on the worst days, eating junk food with a friend is enough to keep you hanging on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, and Fire/Fire injury

hsvensrud's review against another edition

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

5.0

Really really enjoyed this! Excited to read the sequel. One point that did irk me though was the references to white cotton gloves being used in handling rare books and materials. That’s false! No longer are they typically used because they dampen the dexterity of the fingers and can cause more damage to materials than clean hands can. Anywho, that’s just my one irk cause I work with rare books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Murder, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

evelynnreading's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• 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? It's complicated

2.25

Was extremely boring💀 The last 100 pages were good tho

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

itspanicszn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Rape, Violence, and Blood

janchamp's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Blood, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, and Excrement

eviethebookworm's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Gore, and Vomit

Minor: Medical trauma and Classism

bwwilhelm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Gun violence, Pedophilia, and Self harm

Okay, the list of content warnings makes this look horrific. And it is, in a way. It's a book about terrible people doing terrible things. But they get what's coming to them. It's worth it, promise 🧡

sarahcelia's review against another edition

1.0

I don’t mind an “I see dead people” story, especially when dark magic and secret societies are involved. Ninth House was way too much for me in terms of cursing, sexual assault, sexual content, etc. I read far longer than I should have because the premise of the book is so compelling. And for a little while the content that bothered me just seemed to distract from the narrative, not overshadow it. But it quickly built up to eclipsing the story for me. 

Leigh Bardugo is an excellent writer. Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom are new favorites from my reading list this year. But Ninth House was absolutely not for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual content, Blood, and Alcohol

Minor: Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism