Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo Series: Alex Stern #1
Published by Flatiron Books on October 8, 2019
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Paranormal, Fiction / Occult & Supernatural, Fiction / Thrillers / Supernatural
Pages: 448
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781250313089Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. In fact, by age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most prestigious universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?
Still searching for answers, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. Their eight windowless “tombs” are the well-known haunts of the rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street’s biggest players. But their occult activities are more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive. They tamper with forbidden magic. They raise the dead. And, sometimes, they prey on the living.
So, most of you probably know my journey with Leigh Bardugo hasn’t been smooth sailing. I took an immediate dislike to Shadow and Bone, so much so that I vowed to never read anything written by her again. Well, that obviously didn’t stick. My friends finally convinced me to watch the show, and then I wanted to read the Six of Crows duology, loved it, and went on to read the King of Scars duology (I did buy the LitJoy Crate special editions of King of Scars). I was definitely excited to dive into the world of magic and secret societies at Yale and for the most part it was enjoyable.
I definitely found the story and plot really well done in this novel. It was fascinating and engaging! It does take a minute to set up the characters and world-building, as well as keeping up with the time jumps in each chapter. I really liked how there was a supernatural murder mystery that was the main thrust of the novel, as well as the mystery surrounding Alex herself and the handling of Darlington’s disappearance. As I was reading it, I kept wondering how this was all going to come together and make sense. But by the end, it all does.
The characters were definitely interesting. I did like Alex’s character, a young woman from the wrong side of the tracks, that has all this power that Lethe wants. However, it did feel like a cop-out that Alex’s father is Hispanic, but she doesn’t know her father and therefore knows nothing of her Hispanic heritage. She’s also of Jewish descent but that’s not brought up either besides a few Ladino phrases her grandmother taught her. Alex as a half-Hispanic, Jewish woman who can see Greys (ghosts) plays into the magical n**** trope too much for me not to mention the harmful stereotype this causes. All of this to say, it’s difficult to read a book about power imbalance and the haves and have nots, especially when it’s set at an Ivy League University, and not have this brought up. Yes, Tara Hutchins, the murder victim, is also from the wrong side of the tracks but besides that we don’t really see anything about going after the societies and those in power. I mean Alex does yell about it to Darlington after their first ritual, but for the most part, Alex’s background are more like after thoughts with her upholding the systems of power.
Darlington is our classic prep school college boy. While yes, his family has no money left to their name, he still has the name itself that opens a ton of doors (along with being white). I didn’t hate Darlington, he was either boring me or infuriating me. The privilege he has and holier than thou attitude grated on my nerves way too much for me to truly care about him. I wanted to know what happened and the mystery of his disappearance but that was it.
The ending was satisfying with answering the major questions surrounding the murder of Tara. At the same time, I needed to immediately read Hell Bent to find out what happens with Darlington.
Leave a Reply