Book Review: Ninth House

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.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Leigh Bardugo didn’t disappoint with this book. It had everything I came in looking for: mystery, fantasy, ghosts, and wow was it dark. I’m not surprised with that at all, especially since this is a new adult novel and from how dark Six of Crows was (I mean Kaz’s backstory is dark). 

I love Alex. I love that she’s fierce and unafraid to take what she needs and stand up for girls that can’t defend themselves. The feminist power in this power was perfect. I was hoping that Dawes and Alex would become friends because I am so sick of seeing female characters pit against each other and they became friends! It made me so happy to see it. 

To be honest, I liked pretty much everything about this novel. There’s nothing that I can really pinpoint for being lackluster or just okay. The only reason this book wasn’t given five stars from  me was because it isn’t something that I would re read. 

I was not expecting that ending. It was a little sudden which is another reason why I didn’t give this book five stars. I mean Belbahm is a soul eating Wheeler like Alex? First off, I wasn’t expecting Belbahm to have much of a role other than helping Alex out and then to find out Alex and people like her can possess living bodies? It was something to process for sure. 

I was not surprised, however, about Darlington potentially coming back in the sequel as a demon. Maybe if I hadn’t read Bardugo’s other books I would have mourned him more while they implied he wasn’t coming back but she made some other characters come back from the dead in some of her other books (Mal I’m looking at you.) I’m not mad about him coming back though. I really like Darlington and hopefully the romance him and Alex grows? I mean it was hinted at throughout the book.