Goodreads Summary:
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.
My Review:
I’d planned on reading Ninth House since I found out about it’s release date (October 8th) last March, but somehow I only got around to it last week. I have loved Leigh Bardugo’s writing ever since I first read King of Scars over a year ago and this was no exception. I can’t believe I waited so long to start this book!
Ninth House had pros and cons, but I felt like most of the elements worked really well. The setting and urban fantasy take on Yale University and secret societies was definitely important to the plot and Alex’s character, so I’m definitely grateful for it. One thing I thought didn’t work as well was the flashbacks. I did like that there were flashbacks to begin with, but the format of describing them as seasons past didn’t really work for me. I don’t usually look at chapter titles or numbers, so it was definitely confusing for me, but I did like Darlington. Otherwise, I loved it!
This book is very much an adult book, as Leigh Bardugo has said. However, I would still recommend this to older teens in addition to adults. This is obviously a great book for those who enjoy witchy-type stories and urban fantasy. I can’t imagine this book being any better and I’m so excited for more from Leigh Bardugo and Alex Stern!!
Overall, I would give this book…
⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.
The Fiction Feature 