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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
Dannnnngggg. Everyone told me this was good, and they weren’t wrong. Loved the protagonist, with all her rough edges. Great premise. Totally movie worthy. Like Indiana Jones but with ghosts and spoiled frat boys (and girls, to be fair). Fast, fun and ultimately really enjoyable read. I’ll likely pick up the sequel.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Leigh Bardugo is rapidly becoming a favourite author of mine. I love her writing and the unique stories she is telling.
I loved Alex as a character (though I hated her name), how she was not perfect (she struggled, messed up, and wasn’t always positive about what her next steps would be), but she had a drive and confidence that kept her going. I also loved Darlington, though he wasn’t part of the main story and more just a world building device, but he still felt like a compelling, interesting character. When I learned he may be gone for good, I was genuinely affected by it.
I figured out some of the reveals fairly early on, and knew that the ‘ending’ was not actually true , but I did not see the final twists coming. Also, the ride this book took was enjoyable enough that even though I knew what might happen, I was still intrigued to see how they would come about.
Can’t wait for the rest of the series!
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
I really did enjoy this book; it's a fun, easy read with lots of interesting fantasy elements and an intriguing mystery at its core. I don't think it's a book you NEED to read, but it's a nice book to pass the time. I also think that despite it supposedly being adult fiction, it's written in quite a Y/A style (some of the dialogue I rolled my eyes at) which is not surprising since Bardugo is a Y/A author. The only thing that, in my mind, keeps it under the adult label is the graphic/ inappropriate content. This is not necessarily a problem though, I think it just depends on taste. If you like Bardugo's other work I'd give it a go.
I will say that so much happened in the last 100 pages that I felt like I had whiplash. There were so many things being thrown at me, many that sort of came out of nowhere, but to a point that I didn't really care because we would uncover something and then either a few pages later it's revealed "actually, thats NOT what happened" and we uncover the REAL truth, or it would all be solved super fast. For example, I found it hard to care about Belbalm being Daisy all along because I hadn't really cared that much about where or who Daisy was and as soon as she became interesting Alex quickly defeated her because of course she has the power to defeat everyone. Sometimes less is more and I just don't really think that needed to be a plot point. Maybe that is nit-picky, but whatever, I still enjoyed the book and will read the next one, but that is still a criticism I have.
In general I thought it deserved a good 3.75, not life-changing but still a fun read.
In general I thought it deserved a good 3.75, not life-changing but still a fun read.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Bardugo amazes me again with her incredible writing and characters in Ninth House. It surprises me that other readers rate this book so low, but I think it's because Ninth House is a very different read from Bardugo's other beloved series. Ninth House is dark and takes on adult themes that give the characters a lot of depth and complexity. The attention to the details and history of Yale make Ninth House such a wonderful read, but also makes the beginning of the book very slow. As a reader, you have to stick through the long bit of setting building early on before you are rewarded with more action. Regardless, I highly recommend this book for those who love "dark academia" and complex main characters.
“Impossible to put down” — Stephen King about “Ninth House”.
“Somebody, please, put me down” — Me, whilst reading it.
And after one and a half months,
Oh gosh where do I start…
This book suffers from self-identity crisis. It wants to be a thriller, a crime novel, a horror, Dark Academia, a suspense, a fantasy novel but it was written as if Young Adult author was trying to dip his toes in more Adult type of beat.
Oh wait… Bardugo IS an YA-author? Swear to God I didn’t knew anything about that. Like I just picked it up because of Stephen King and his son Joe were recommending it on the cover. And I also have a friend who is a huge fan of Leigh Bardugo.
Welp, even my fan-friend tells me that it sucks. That should you tell something.
It’s written so poorly and so pretentious. Narration dragged on where our MC did little to nothing, while action-packed scenes were a paragraph or one page long at most.
Murder mystery, that was what partly helped me not DNF it, can be solved literally as it was happening. I had so much hope that I was wrong because that would’ve been so blatantly bad in terms of writing but here it is.
Get ready for rape scenes every 50 pages or so, too.
And if one of the rapes was actually character building, then others were just for sake of it. And we could’ve brushed that off if it wasn’t so graphically written.
I’m no snob about rape scenes in books, even with the most obscene and graphic ones, but here I couldn’t help but to roll my eyes each time I smelled it coming. They were in no way necessary for the reader, these rapes were solely used to advance the plot.
Somewhere deep inside, “Ninth House” had a great potential. Especially in Darlington chapters (even though even they are very reminiscent of “Supernatural” series). Maybe it’s just my high hopes that kept me waiting to unravel something that would leave me boquiabierto, like every other suspense induced book I’ve read did.
Sadly it falls short. Premise for a sequel is very weak and very movie-sequel alike. I might read it in the future but I think I’ll just check the summary or ask my friend about it.
“Somebody, please, put me down” — Me, whilst reading it.
And after one and a half months,
Oh gosh where do I start…
This book suffers from self-identity crisis. It wants to be a thriller, a crime novel, a horror, Dark Academia, a suspense, a fantasy novel but it was written as if Young Adult author was trying to dip his toes in more Adult type of beat.
Oh wait… Bardugo IS an YA-author? Swear to God I didn’t knew anything about that. Like I just picked it up because of Stephen King and his son Joe were recommending it on the cover. And I also have a friend who is a huge fan of Leigh Bardugo.
Welp, even my fan-friend tells me that it sucks. That should you tell something.
It’s written so poorly and so pretentious. Narration dragged on where our MC did little to nothing, while action-packed scenes were a paragraph or one page long at most.
Murder mystery, that was what partly helped me not DNF it, can be solved literally as it was happening. I had so much hope that I was wrong because that would’ve been so blatantly bad in terms of writing but here it is.
Get ready for rape scenes every 50 pages or so, too.
And if one of the rapes was actually character building, then others were just for sake of it. And we could’ve brushed that off if it wasn’t so graphically written.
I’m no snob about rape scenes in books, even with the most obscene and graphic ones, but here I couldn’t help but to roll my eyes each time I smelled it coming. They were in no way necessary for the reader, these rapes were solely used to advance the plot.
Somewhere deep inside, “Ninth House” had a great potential. Especially in Darlington chapters (even though even they are very reminiscent of “Supernatural” series). Maybe it’s just my high hopes that kept me waiting to unravel something that would leave me boquiabierto, like every other suspense induced book I’ve read did.
Sadly it falls short. Premise for a sequel is very weak and very movie-sequel alike. I might read it in the future but I think I’ll just check the summary or ask my friend about it.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated