Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo Review

 Title: Ninth House

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Age Group: Adult

Genre: Fantasy/Horror

Series: Alex Stern, book one

Star Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars

I borrowed this book from my local library and reviewed it.

Trigger Warnings: Violence, rape, sexual assault, murder, gore, drug addiction, overdosing, death, suicide, blackmail, self-harm, and forced consumption of human waste. If any of these topics trigger you, I would suggest not reading this book. Your mental health always matters!

I’ll start this review by being totally honest: I initially put down this book when it first came out because I went into it blind and there were a lot of triggers. But I was curious about its sequel, Hell Bent, so I decided to try again. This book was really hard to get through; the magic system wasn’t very well explained, there was a lot of adult content, and there was more than one occasion where I had to put the book down. I was glad I was reading something alongside it, because if I hadn’t, I would have gotten very depressed. Not to say that this book wasn’t enjoyable, because it was, there was just a lot of stuff to wade through to get to the meat of the story. This is Bardugo’s adult debut, and to say it was weird is a gross understatement. I wanted to love it: Ghosts! Secret magical societies! Hot gentlemen scholars! I did like some parts of it, but it was very dark and very strange and honestly, I didn’t care much about Alex as a main character. I love Leigh Bardugo, I’d follow her anywhere, but the only reason I read this through was to go into Hell Bent fully informed. It was a good book, it just wasn’t for me.

Galaxy ‘Alex’ Stern knows that the last place she would ever belong is Yale. But after a tragic accident that nearly cost her her life, she is tapped by the House of Lethe to work magic. Because she can see Grays or ghosts, Lethe is eager to provide her a scholarship. When she meets Daniel Talbot Arlington III, affectionately called Darlington, she is his partner in magic and scholarship. But when a young woman turns up murdered, Alex and Darlington are soon caught up in a web of lies, secrets, and dangerous magic. But someone has something to hide, and not everybody will make it out alive…

I love Leigh Bardugo; I wanted to love this book. But it was just so dark and heavy and depressing. If I hadn’t been reading another, much lighter book alongside it, I would have been very depressed. I wish I’d looked the triggers up beforehand; nobody should have to go into this dark, magical thrill-ride blind. I admit the only reason I even finished it all the way was that I had Hell Bent on hold at my local library. The pacing stuttered, there were a lot of characters to keep straight, and it was also extremely difficult to remember what society did and what sort of magic. The only real redeeming part of the novel was the ending. I’m fully invested because of that ending.  The bottom line: Dark, terrifying, and more than a little confusing, Ninth House is just as much of an enigma as its protagonist, Alex Stern. Next on deck: Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard by Tom Felton!