Book Review: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Synopsis:

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.

Review:

I don’t even know where to begin with reviewing Ninth House. I really struggled with this book, I can’t lie. I’d always seen such mixed reviews and I now understand why.

For the first at least ten chapters, I had no idea what was going on, but that did feel like a me problem. I don’t read “adult” books very often and when you pair that with dark academia and secret societies, my brain is fried. I still don’t fully understand the purpose of the societies, but it did get better.

The characters were so interesting and complex. As soon as you feel like you finally understand who Alex is, something else is revealed about her. Which I’m adding as a caveat here: please read the content warnings for this book, a couple of things really took me by surprise and made me uncomfortable.

I think the plot would have been easier to understand if there weren’t so many flashback chapters. It made the timeline a little difficult to follow, especially as the narrative felt the same – if that makes sense? If all of the flashbacks were from Darlington’s point of view, I think it would have been better.

I’m now questioning if I should even post this review because I’m really struggling to write it. I have no strong feelings towards Ninth House, I didn’t love it, but I also didn’t hate it. I liked it enough to finish it, but it felt like I was reading it for such a long time.

I really love Leigh Bardugo’s books but I did find it hard to connect with Ninth House, it’s quite possibly a case of right book but wrong time. I’ve been so busy lately that finding time to read has been hard. Having this happen when you’re reading a longer slow paced book is not a great experience. I am willing to give the next book a go though (as I’ve already got it) but that won’t be any time soon.