I've just come across a simile that is interesting because it's not doing what the author thinks it is, though it's close enough that most readers would move right past it without realising. CW for description of an injury:

She forced herself to walk instead of run, her bones scraping against each other like a violin bow.

Violin bows do not, in and of themselves, scrape. They need a violin. And while "scrape" is a good word for the bones part, it's not something I'd associate with what a violin bow does. Violinists aren't up on stage scraping out music. We can intuit what is meant by the simile so most people wouldn't give it further thought, but on closer inspection it isn't successful. It's only half there, to begin with -- a solitary violin bow in want of a violin. It's also misaligned with the sensation it's trying to describe -- are musical instruments the strongest way to emphasise what is going on here? Maybe they are, if the musicality is harsh and discordant, but that isn't part of the simile as it stands.

The writing in Ninth House has been very solid, so this particular example is more a reminder that a fallible human wrote this. I've been coming across this kind of thing more and more often, though, so think it's worth drawing attention to in general. As readers it is not our job to compensate for the failings of an author's writing or an editor's inattention.

Please stop telling me Alex avoids looking directly at the Grays. I know. I paid attention the first time, and the second time, the third, the fourth…