Ninth House book review

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Published by Flatiron Books on October 8, 2019
Pages: 459
Goodreads

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 worse. By age twenty, in fact, 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 elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.

I have such a love-hate relationship with Leigh Bardugo. I absolutely despise the Grisha trilogy but love Six of Crows and I’m sad to say that Ninth House has fallen somewhere in the middle. This book wasn’t bad and there were definitely aspects that I really loved but there was nothing that blew me away. I really wanted more from this book and I felt like by the end I was just happy it was over, I think I’m going to try and read the next one in physical form and see if that changes my enjoyment level. But overall I enjoyed it but there wasn’t anything groundbreaking throughout.

The main character in Ninth House is Galaxy “Alex” Stern, who is this tattooed misfit trying to find her place in the posh and elitist world of Yale. I think I would have preferred Alex as a character if there hadn’t been so much going on around her, I did think that her character development was well done. However I do think there were parts in her character arc that ended up being well-developed and others that were left a little half done. I kinda wished that there had been less going on and that there had been more focus on the characters and the friendships and the relationships. I really loved Dawes as a character and the way she grew all the way through and the way she deals with the ongoing crisis. I really began to admire her and I hope we get to see more of her in the following books.

The best bit out of Ninth House for me was the mythology and the magic system. I really loved the fact that the magic was basically politicised and seen as a way of making money rather than a fantastical element. I really loved the different houses and working out which one was which and the different magic they end up practising and how they have managed to survive the many years. The twist at the end was surprising and I really think it added something extra to the story.

For me, the worst bit of Ninth House was the fact that there was SO much going on and not all of it was explained as well as it should have been. There was a lot going on with all of the different houses, the crimes and all of the different characters. I struggled to connect with the characters and what their point of view was because there was so much else going on and to keep track off that I struggled to see what was actually going on and what was important.

I am going to hold my opinion on this one, purely because if this was a standalone book I wouldn’t recommend it at the moment. I am holding out hope for a great second book and fingers crossed this one has laid a great foundation for the series.

Have you read this one? What did you think? Let me know!