Before I even get into this, I’d like to emphasise that this book is definitely an adult novel. It tackles very mature themes and talks about some topics that are very triggering for some. Leigh Bardugo has been very open about this on her Twitter, if you’re curious. Specifically, Ninth House talks about drug abuse, child abuse, sexual trauma, and deals with some things in very graphic ways. If any of these topics make you uncomfortable or trigger you, please approach this book responsibly. The opinions expressed in this review are my own, but again, use your own judgement when deciding if this is the book for you.
Now, on to my review!
You know that feeling you get when you’re first working on a puzzle, that nagging impulse that you’re close to an answer and yet you still can’t see the full picture? Ninth House is very much like that, except by the end, you’re no closer to a full picture, and there’s so many more questions than proper answers. That said, you might not want to know the answers…because the story is about monsters. Ones that frighten and chill you to the bone, but there are also these hidden little monsters. The type of monsters that lurk in the back of your mind and whisper horrid thoughts. The monsters that you pretend aren’t there, or think you’ve hidden away until you wake up at 2 or 3 AM and they’re filling your belly with terrors that make you burrow further into your bed. This book is full of broken humans. Broken in spirit, or mind, and just trying to survive.
The story itself is about Galaxy “Alex” Stern, an unusual addition to Yale’s freshman class. Raised in Los Angeles by a hippie mom, she dropped out of school early and fell face first into a shady drug dealer boyfriend, dead-end jobs, and some more horrible things. At twenty, she’s the sole survivor of an unsolved multiple person homicide, but while she’s recovering at the hospital, she’s offered a second chance: attend an elite school on a full ride. However, the gift comes with a catch. She must act as a witness to the activities happening within the secret societies of Yale. These secret societies, called “tombs” cater to the future rich and powerful players, from Wall Street to Hollywood. Unfortunately, their activities have taken on a more sinister undertone as of late, and their impact will have more disastrous and far reaching consequences than we could ever imagine.
I’m honestly not sure where to begin with this review. There’s so much about this book that I can’t talk about because it will spoil some aspect of the story. However, the writing was captivating, and really holds on to you. It has been a really, REALLY long time since I woke up with nightmares from reading something before bed…but this book managed to do it. It sneaks up on you, because it doesn’t seem as though anything expressly horrific is happening, until you’re sitting in the dark with your own thoughts. The world building is impeccable, Yale and New Haven are imbued with this life of both the living and undead. Everything is so vivid, and the grays even more so.
The layers involved in the making of this book are truly complex, both in the world, as well as with the characters. Alex is a marvel, a young woman marred by the world that never kept her safe, that has secrets buried deeper than most graves. And yet, you see this faint glimmer of hope underneath that cynical and distrustful mask. There’s a young woman who cares. Her interactions with some of the characters in this book were really wonderful to read, because it shows Alex working through some very tough stuff. Delving into her past is where you’ll find all of the horrible things that have happened to her, and is why I mentioned the trigger warnings at the beginning of the book. There’s also Darlington, who’s an exquisite enigma of a young man. So many questions about him, and the barest of answers can be found in this book.
There are a lot of things about this book that I truly wish I could share, aspects that I loved to see examined very carefully, especially the magic system. There’s so much going on there, you’ll want to pay attention. I’ve actually gone back a few times and re-read some passages that felt unclear until I got to the end of the book. I still have way more questions than I have answers, but there’s so much more that I hadn’t seen before that I can’t wait to explore in the next book.
Some of the themes that are tackled in this book aside from the ones that accompany triggers, are those of privilege, power, and race. How, if left unchecked, it can run rampant and dismantle entire lives for the sake of tradition. Leigh Bardugo looks at this theme from all perspectives, and isn’t afraid to look it right in the eye and tear it down. She also tackles gender issues with finesse, and some of my favourite lines of the book come from some of those interactions. There’s also the morality struggle. Good or bad don’t necessarily fit into the equation here, it’s more about the perception. I like seeing Alex’s struggles with this especially. Everyone’s so determined to paint her one way, when the reality of it is, there’s so much we don’t know about her yet.
I’ll admit that the pacing of this book feels a little off, mostly in that it’s laying the groundwork for what’s to come. I don’t find fault with that, only in that I feel that other readers will find this a little difficult to get through. With the story being told in moments of past seasons as well as the present season in the story, sometimes, it could be a little confusing. Other than that though, I really can’t wait for the next book.
My rating for this book is a 9/10. I had to finish this book in broad daylight, but that didn’t make those monster’s any less frightening. It just made sure that I could beat them away and not wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. I definitely recommend reading it, if you’re willing to take this journey.
Ninth House is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of October 8th 2019.
Will you be picking up Ninth House? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
The mesmerizing adult debut from #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo
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.
