Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

La Neuvième Maison by Leigh Bardugo

857 reviews

trippyotter'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Addiction, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Mental illness, Alcohol, Drug abuse, and Rape

abbeyyyrosee'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Daaarrrk academia. Wonderfully written, compelling plot, complex characters, and a few curveball plot points - not entirely unpredictable, but there were some surprises. Beginning of the book bounces back and forth in POV and point in time; a little confusing initially since you're still learning the world, but you figure it out. You'll know within a few chapters if this book is for you - see trigger warnings below. 

Trigger warnings: rape, gore, violence, death, microaggressions, racism.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Death, Violence, Gore, Addiction, Blood, and Rape

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Racism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

robles2yggdrasil's review against another edition

Alright, I didn't finish the book because I was uncomfortable with the sexual assault and rape that happened in the book. Given I only made it to Chapter 17 (pg. 266), I loved the story and the universe and everything with the occult was great. However, the visualization of the sexual trauma was too much for me.

I added a toned-down, but inclusive overview of what transpired.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Murder, Child abuse, and Rape

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Addiction, Drug abuse, Excrement, and Cursing

Spoilers (Sexual Content and Rape): p. 122-123

This is a flashback to the main character's youth (12~13). She is sexually assaulted and raped by a ghost. While it doesn't go into every single detail, the actions are depicted and enough given to form a vivid image. Main insight: The main character learns that the ghosts, "Grays", can physically interact with and harm her.

p. 249-250, 259-260

This relates to a present roommate of the main character. Said roommate is drugged and raped during a party. A video is used to blackmail her. The main character goes to stop the blackmailing and finds additional videos of other girls. Uses slang for genital and degrading/pornographic language and imagery. Main result: We find out that the murdered victim, Tara, was making the purple drug with her boyfriend.

daralexandria's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug use, Rape, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Minor: Death

itshrewsbury's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Rape, Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Gore

Minor: Antisemitism

oleaceae_18's review against another edition

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

3.75

I thought the premise of the book was really interesting with secret societies and ghosts and things. I found it really hard to get into though, I thought the beginning was hard to follow and a lot of information overload. I honestly might read this a second time now that I've finished it and I think I'll probably like it a lot more because I'll know what's going on. The beginning switches between two POVs, but I feel like it was done in a way that was just more confusing than really adding to the storytelling, I actually liked the book way more after it just became Alex's POV.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Drug use, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Gore, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Death

alex_heald's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use and Rape

hwildy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.75

After being in a reading slump this was exactly what I needed, even though it was dark this book was painfully funny. Alex was a wonderful protagonist in the way that she was heavily flawed and often times very lost in what was happening. She was sharp witted and cruel when needed but being slowly given her story we were able to love her before we even knew her, much like Dawes or Darlington. As someone who has struggled with addiction the recurring mention, though often times being off handed or part of a bigger picture, resonated with the way my own life often revolved around those actions. Her mother was a distant character in the book and we get the sense that Alex had to distance them to not hurt her mother any more. Dawes is my favorite character in the book, I don’t care if she wasn’t that large a role, she was funny in the same way as Alex and in my opinion she is meant to be what Alex could have been. From the beginning I hated the Dean ,mostly because he was an old man but that doesn’t matter, he was a very well hidden character and I felt he served his purpose. The minor role of Mercy and her other roommate felt like another metaphor for addiction, the magic in her life is something she has to hide from her friends to protect herself and then. In many ways magic is another addiction as it does take a toll on the body but when practicing it is something of great relief and pain. I hope Darlington comes back because even though he was annoying there are clearly layers to his character. North was great, he reminds me of an older sibling and his an Alex’s constant power struggle was hilarious in the face of the ‘no interaction’ and ‘no making deals’ rules of the Lethe. The writing style was very addictive and the perfect balance between description and action. The dialogue was fantastic, mostly Alex’s. Alex’s final act in this major plot point was reclaiming her name Galaxy which she had once traded for Alex and the normality it brought. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Blood, Death, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Drug use, Drug abuse, Vomit, and Rape

Minor: Blood and Racism

star_witch's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Sexual harassment

vanitzas's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Gore, Sexual assault, Vomit, Drug use, Violence, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Blood, Excrement, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Pedophilia, Addiction, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Sexism