A LOCUS AWARD FINALIST! The mesmerizing adult debut from Leigh Bardugo, a tale of power, privilege, dark magic, and murder set among the Ivy League elite Galaxy “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 … 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.
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Ninth House is the best fantasy novel I’ve read in years, because it’s about real people. Bardugo’s imaginative reach is brilliant, and this story ― full of shocks and twists ― is impossible to put down.
In this mesmerizing novel, Leigh Bardugo introduces us to Alex, a high-school dropout who gets a free ride to Yale because of a unique talent. Bardugo’s New Haven is plausible and frightening, and I was one rapt reader.
I was looking for an escape, and I found one. If you like malevolent ghosts, demons, and Gothic Architecture, this one is for you. Note to self: Never step foot on the Yale campus. Maybe even all of New Haven
Sigh. The evening after I finished Leigh Bardugo’s incredible novel, I sat down to read a new book and experienced an actual moment of grief that I was done with this one. What a brilliant world Bardugo has created. Smart, intricate, fearlessly crafted, this is an intellectual fantasy/horror novel that cements Bardugo firmly in the annals of the best storytellers of this generation. Immediately shoots into my top 3 books of 2019. Just incredible.
Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House rocked my world. I could not get enough of sinewy, ghost-haunted Alex Stern, a heroine for the ages. With a bruised heart and bleeding knuckles, she risks death and damnation ― again and again ― for the people she cares about. I was cheering her on the whole way: from the first brilliant sentence of this book to the last. More, please, Ms. Bardugo.
I can’t put this book down. I’m going to buy a dozen copies and send them to everyone I know who spent four years in New Haven, CT, and watch them laugh their buns off. Ms. Bardugo has taken a rich setting and made it even more captivating.
But you don’t need to be a Yalie to love this book. It’s like a sharp, cynical Harry Potter for grownups. I’ve enjoyed myself immensely!
This is a tough book to recommend. On one hand, I thought it was brilliant and it will stay with me for a long time, but it’s not a nice book. It’s not a book everyone is going to love. And it’s not an easy book to read.
Massive trigger warnings: sexual abuse, death, and violence. Leigh doesn’t pull any punches, and this story is tragic, utterly adult, and horrible in a I-can’t-look-way kind of way.
That being said, I loved the gritty, survive-at-all-costs attitude of the heroine. The magical houses of Yale were so creepy, and yet, so fascinating. The world building is in depth. Don’t expect to just wander through this book with half your attention focused—you need to commit your mind to try and work out what is going on, and what is going to happen next. The atmosphere and tension just keeps building, until the finale is like a pot boiling over.
I’d give it 4.5 stars. It’s incredibly original, with so much mystery and magic simmering that I couldn’t look away.
This book is just fabulous. It has excellent worldbuilding; deep, dark mystery; fascinating characters that you root for even when you don’t like their choices; a twisty, original and unexpected plot that had me guessing all the way until the end. Highly, highly recommend.
NINTH HOUSE is the first book I have read by author Leigh Bardugo, and I have already purchased several other novels by her, based on the writing style alone. She captured my attention from the first page, and managed to give enough “new” information for me to process all throughout this story. The result was a novel that I hated to put down at any place.
“Rich or poor, all are equal in death . . . ”
Alex (Galaxy) Stern is a young woman that spent her life trying to hide away from the fact that she was very . . . different. She was able to see ghosts (“Grays”) from the day she was born. A curse that kept her from blending in and living a “normal” life, until the day she got an offer from Yale.
Alex would get a free ride, contingent upon her joining their secretive Lethe House, where she would help monitor supernatural events and experiments in private societies on campus.
“The greatest gift Lethe had given Alex . . . was the knowledge, the certainty that the things she saw were real and always had been . . . ”
Bardugo has constructed a complex and thrilling novel involving dynamic characters, supernatural phenomena, mysterious histories, secret societies, and danger threaded all throughout. The societies and their “origins” were so well detailed that each and every event felt entirely plausible in the setting.
“. . . This town is a peculiar one. The Veil is thinner here . . . ”
There wasn’t just one main character that stood out here. I found that many of them were so individual in their behaviors and beliefs that they were equally as important to me as Alex was.
“. . . He didn’t know how precious a normal life could be, how easy it was to drift away from average . . . ”
As the events began, I felt as if I were learning along with Alex–a student, myself–permitted entrance into possibly THE most exclusive and wondrous of societies. The stark change from the world she left behind, to the one she now sought to integrate into, was astronomical. Her character’s sarcastic wit and ability to make quick decisions helped blend this transition into something the reader could go along with.
“Maybe good things were the same as the bad things. Sometimes you just had to let them happen.”
I really enjoyed how Bardugo painted the demeanor of the privileged college students, verses those that lived in the towns just outside of Yale’s domain. The differences were illustrated in casual comments, the clothing worn, professors who had students working as hired help–all to create the sense of inequality better than words alone ever could.
“. . . there was a big difference between things being fair and things being set right.”
Then, there was the magical “world” that was Lethe–where they were tasked with overseeing the elaborate rituals involving the supernatural, mixed with the needs and desires of the rich and powerful–all done in secrecy from the main body of the common population. THIS is the area that had me hooked on every sentence penned.
“. . . That was what magic did. It revealed the heart of who you’d been before life took away your belief in the possible . . . ”
Overall, I was incredibly impressed with my first novel from Leigh Bardugo. Her writing style kept my attention from first to last page, giving just enough information at a time to keep you begging for more. The world she created was complex, and yet believable–with the elite of Yale in contrast to the world surrounding the University, you could believe that some of these people were able to pierce the “barrier” for their own gain.
“. . . needed to believe that there was something more to the world than living and dying . . . ”
Add in some dynamic, three dimensional characters, and you have a book that covers all the major bases. I plan on reading some of the author’s earlier novels, and will eagerly be awaiting her next.
Highly recommended!
This is one of those reads you experience and never forget.
I went into Ninth House knowing it would take a while to get into the book (thanks to the heads up from reviewers). I also knew it would be worth it. Leigh Bardugo is a brilliant author. Six of Crows is one of my Top 10 reads. It also took me a while to get into that world. Ninth House took quite a bit longer. It felt like I was halfway through the book before I was fully sucked into the dark and terrifying world of elite secret societies and dark magic.
This book blew me away. Some of the scenes were downright terrifying. It’s a truly magnificent book.
The one big disappointment for me was what got left out at the end. I felt disappointed not getting to find out how things went for a certain planned ritual. My neurotic mind wants to know! I’m all for a follow-up. Just sayin’!
Ninth House is one of the best fantasy novels I’ve read in years. This book is brilliant, funny, raw and utterly magnificent ― it’s a portal to a world you’ll never want to leave.
I’m going to come clean. I’m a Leigh Bardugo fangirl.
There. I said it.
Okay, moving on…
Leigh Bardugo is a serious force to be reckoned with in the young adult fantasy genre. If you haven’t heard of her or read one of her books then what rock have you been hiding under? Seriously though, when this book was announced my heart truly jumped for joy. One of my all-time favorite authors was going to not only write a book in a different genre, but she was going to write a book for a different audience. Nowadays, I know that there is a lot less distinction between young adult books and other books, but this book was well and truly going to be for adults. The possibilities rocketed through my brain until I was seeing stars. Bardugo would be able to write a truly dark story and not be hindered by traditional young adult conventions. Don’t get me wrong, I adore young adult books and Bardugo’s young adult books, in particular, are among my absolute favorites. I was just so excited to see what more Bardugo was capable of. And she didn’t disappoint.
This book truly had dark elements. There are so many triggers in this book that I couldn’t even begin to list them all. And I felt that Bardugo presented these dark elements in a very raw and real way that speaks true. The horrible things that happen in the book aren’t downplayed but neither are they glorified. Bardugo strikes a balance that makes the storytelling very genuine. There are a lot of sensitive topics addressed in this book and the one that resonated with me most was abuse and the different forms that it takes. Also, the way that different people deal with abuse or the aftermath of abuse. Also, the abuse of power is a big theme in the book.
I have some feelings about the plot. Okay, so hear me out. When I first started this book I wasn’t fully sold. It honestly took me a while to get into the story. The book is told in two POVs that are occurring on different timelines so it’s kind of confusing to the reader at first. And the reader doesn’t truly discover that they are on different timelines right away. It is revealed through the course of the story. There is also quite a bit of information that is presented to the reader at the beginning of the book so it has a very slow start. The orchestration of the POVs took some time to get used to. It took a while for all of the information and characters to click for me. Once I got in the groove of things though, it was smooth sailing. At first, I thought that the conflicting POVs were a detriment to the story but as soon as I finished the book I knew I had been wrong. The story really couldn’t have been told any other way and the crafting of it was just perfect! The wheels were really turning in Bardugo’s brilliant head because this plot was insanely clever. The way that all of the pieces fit together in the end really had me fangirling. The story was full of intrigue and had me inching toward the edge of my chair with anticipation.
The storytelling was very introspective. I normally prefer more dialogue but this approach worked really well for this story.
This book has really extensive and detailed world-building that throws you right into the world of Yale and secret societies. I was really impressed with the atmospheric way that Bardugo brought the reader into the story.
I had a hard time connecting with the characters in this book at first. Once I got used to the writing style and things started to flow better in the story though, the characters really started to grow on me. Since this is a slow-burn kind of story, it does take a while to really get a feel for the characters. Bits and pieces of them fall into place until the reader has a sense of their personalities and motivations. Alex is one of my favorite kinds of characters. A prickly female lead character with a good heart that doesn’t hold back. I am seriously a sucker for characters with tragic backstories and Alex imprinted on me pretty early on.
Darlington is another character with a tragic backstory that pulls my heartstrings, though in a different way than Alex. His backstory was no less painful than Alex’s, he just had different struggles. I liked that both Alex and Darlington showed an extraordinary inner strength that pushed them forward. These two characters seriously had so many walls to knock down. Dawes and Turner are side characters that I really took a liking to as well. I felt that all of the side characters were fleshed out well for the story and played their parts perfectly. There were a lot of side characters to keep track of, but they all had necessary parts. None of them were irrelevant and they were all very distinct.
There wasn’t really a love story in this book, like at all. But there was some really great chemistry that may one day turn into a love story? One can hope, am I right? I may be totally off base with this one, but I felt that Alex had great chemistry with multiple characters in the story. Darlington, of course, would be at the top of the list. He was her mentor and they spent a lot of time together through their jobs with Lethe. They are very much opposites, at least from the outside looking in. Darlington is prim and proper while Alex is brash and bold. They oddly complement one another though in a very pronounced way. Then there’s Turner. The detective that works for Lethe that is always bumping heads with Alex. Their conversations always made me smile. I am probably the odd man out with this one, but I totally felt an enemies-to-lovers vibe with them. I don’t know what it is about those two but they just emit sexual tension. And then there’s North. He and Alex have a very strained relationship but they also have an undeniable connection. A romantic entanglement with him would be rather hard though, because North is, in fact, a ghost. So probably no actual romance there, but I did enjoy the chemistry that they shared. Another relationship that I adored, albeit not a romantic one, was the one between Alex and Dawes. Alex and Dawes really become ride or die in this book and I am here for it all day long! At first, Dawes character didn’t really strike a chord with me at all. She was one of those characters that are disguised as unimportant but end up stealing the show in the story. She was one of those people that fades into the background, but when Alex needed her (and she needed her A LOT) she was there. Alex and Dawes formed a bond that I loved seeing. Strong female friendship is often overlooked in books and it was so amazing to see one forming with Alex and Dawes.
Overall, this book has cemented my newfound love of dark academia. This was a bloody and darkly delightful little murder mystery with a touch of the occult that really packed a wallop. If you are picking up this book and expecting something along the lines of Bardugo’s young adult fantasy books then just stop. You won’t find that in this book. This book is a different flavor of shadowy goodness. If you enjoy beautifully flawed characters, a cleverly crafted plot, immersive world-building, and fierce suspense then this book will delight you and light a spark in you. I am longingly awaiting the next installment of this series.
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Any book that deals with the secret societies of the Ivy League universities is going to appeal to me, and this one doesn’t disappoint. There’s a great mystery element here, and you get resolution for that storyline. But Bardugo also pulls you along with a larger story that will, I’m sure, play out in the sequels. Super fun book.
Atmospheric, dark, deliciously rendered, macabre, seductive, creative, fresh.
CW: graphic/explicit assault and violence. I had to lay the book aside once.
This was the best book I read in 2019. The story is heart-wrenching, unpredictable, and really scary. I’ve loved Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha books, but this is next level.
“The Ancient Eight”. The Houses of the Veil. There is a Ninth House, The House of Lethe, whose job is to keep the other Houses in line. There are places in this world that magic avoids and places it is drawn to, New Haven has an extremely high concentration of sites where magic seems to catch and build.
Galaxy Stern has lived a rough life. She is the sole survivor of a horrific unsolved multiple murders. She is offered a second chance to attend one of the world’s most prestigious universities on a full ride. She is tasked by her benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. She soon learns that their occult activities are more sinister and more extraordinary than anybody has thought.
This book is filled with magic. It’s a tale of power, privilege and dark magic. I really enjoyed this one. The ending leaves one with the hope that we may read more of Ms. Stern and her adventures sometime in the future. I’ll keep my fingers crossed!
Okay first I like to point out again that this is very much an adult book. It touches on sexual abuse including a child, drugs and many other things. It also is pretty gory, cruel and detailed in some areas. So, while this is an fantastic book in my opinion, if those themes bother you, you might want to skip this one.
This book took me a bit to get into, as I was not familiar with Yale or the secret societies within. All I know of Yale is what I saw on Gilmore Girls lol, so the setting took me a bit but after page 50 or somewhere around there it was much easier to follow.
I loved Alex, she was such a flawed character and sometimes even borderline on villain, but she stood her own. She struggled, but she was true and grew. Her self-doubt was also raw but she never gave up on things. I loved how she grew throughput the book, not just herself but the friendships she made along the way. A lot of this book introduced her to us and showed us her backstory and it really was heartbreaking most of the time.
I loved the Magic in this word, I also liked that we learned a lot of it though Alex as she learned it.
The ghosts or Greys as they called here was something I liked as well. Pretty early in on the book it’s clear that Alex can more than just see them. I was not sure how some of the things connected but at the end it came all together and made sense.
I love the friendships she makes along the way and some people I really enjoyed more, or the way they were with Alex.
Like Dawes, Mercy and even Turner, I like to see where things go from there.
Darlington, I wasn’t sure but I really ended up liking him and I’m curious to see where that all goes.
Overall, I really loved this book, even though it has some pretty cruel moments. But overall it was creepily scary and hauntingly enjoyable and I’m looking forward to book two already.
I rate it 4.5
I’ve started this book not knowing what is was about, thinking that it was fantasy for adults… Surprise, the main plot it’s a mystery about a girl named Galaxy aka Alex that can see ghosts and because of that, she can go to one of the houses of a very famous University, until one of her friends dissapears and a girl dies in stranger circumstances and Alex learns the hard way that not everything is what it seems… can’t wait for the next book.
Ninth House is the best thing I’ve read in a long time. There’s so much magic here that you’ll begin to feel it seeping into the room around you as you read, and characters so real you ’ll practically hear their voices in your ear. Leigh Bardugo has written a book so delicious, so twisty, and so immersive I wouldn’t blame you for taking the day off to finish it.
I always approach a new series by an author I love with excitement and trepidation, worried that I won’t love the new book as much as the old ones. Leigh Bardugo did not let me down. She has created a believable world of dark magic set in the real world of the Yale campus, where she serves up a plot full of dark magic, mystery and mortal danger. The main character, Alex, is my new favorite–an underdog misfit who is in way over her head but never stops fighting for her own life and the lives of those she cares about. I can’t wait for the next installment!
I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.