Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Ninth House

for the longest time, i've held the opinion that leigh bardugo's work is adult fiction with YA packaging. in ninth house, i feel as though her creative voice was/is given the space to run free. and, honestly, i enjoyed most of the journey that ninth house took me on, as a reader.

BE WARNED: ninth house is NOT a light or easy read. the topics touched upon are very distressing, and the writing is overflowing with information. at times, it feel like i was reading a historical text book about yale, secret societies and new haven. the pay-off was definitely worth it, though. the real meat and potatoes of the plot is served up after the first hundred pages? the meal was plentiful! the mystery and suspense surrounding tara's murder and darlington's disappearance sucked me in, and i didn't want to put the book down...

as a supporter of both women's rights and wrongs, i really appreciated alex. she was a fascinating anti-heroine. her slow-burning friendship/alliance with dawes and turner were highlights. plus, there was a tension between alex and darlington that...ngl i was a fan of. very intrigued to see how that will develop because the origins of their sexual attraction to one another (whether they will ever admit to it) was pretty f*cked up??

i'm suspecting that darlington will be just as morally "tainted" as alex when he returns from hell in book 2. the revelation that he has committed an act of murder and was thus turned into a demon was...definitely a jaw dropper. my prediction is that he murdered his grandfather (with permission) so that he could hang into black elm idk

however, where ninth house fell short for me, is that alex's sense of moral justice toward the end never felt 100% believable to me. the young woman we are introduced to is understandably crooked and willing do whatever she has to do to survive/never return to her old life. i had a hard time believing that she would be so dedicated to upholding the function and strict rules of lethe. following on from this, the knowledge that hellie and alex were besties does a lot of the heavy lifting. on the actual pages, there is little to no development given to their actual friendship. alex's past was very f*cked up and drug addiction was a huge part of that...yet alex has virtually no inner conflict about being surrounded by drugs and alcohol? i get that her relapsing would have interrupted the flow of the story too much, but i was shocked that alex was able to get/stay clean so quickly, and that there was no temptation considering the drug culture at yale...

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lkoepke's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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chronicacademia's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

I am a wreck. I am devastated. I am almost 100% sure this is my new favorite book ever. I am currently lying on my floor in a puddle of my own tears trying to feel normal again. How am I supposed to move on when this book exists????

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devmerc's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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nerdy_reader_9571's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

While the story is very dark, I found the author’s decision to start in the middle of the story and to build to the main story in a series of flashbacks from the point of view of two of the characters to be very engaging. The story had plenty of twists and turns, and I can’t wait to pick up the sequel.

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camille_llv's review against another edition

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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

4.5

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anastashamarie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

⭐5/5. (This might end up being one of my favorites of 2023.)

⚠️THIS IS NOT A YA SERIES, IT CONTAINS MATURE THEMES. I've seen a lot of folks surprised by the content; I lost trigger warnings in my "considerations" section below to help make an informed decision

📜I need to start of by saying that I've never read anything by this author, even through the Grishaverse has been on my TBR for a while. Other than knowing that Leigh Bardugo is widely loved and that it was a dark academia fantasy (which is quickly becoming a fave subgenre of mine), I went into this totally blind. And man, did I thoroughly enjoy it.

🔮 Why was it great?
• The world building is awesome. Soft magic system with lots of paranormal/supernatural elements. Realistic but "off" setting. (Someone said Stephen King, and I could see that.) Very immersive, likely influenced by the author actually holding alum status at Yale.
• Interesting story weaving: Alternating timeframes (before to now) and perspectives (Darlington's vs Alex's) showed how the MCs worlds intertwined. The confusion, slow reveal of the world, and missed references make me relate to Alex more (though I already do in a lot of ways -- first gen college student at "fancy" university, imposture syndrome, trying to balance my personal sh*t with my school work and overwhelming job). Excellent literary choice in terms of matching tone and theming to info given.
• Gentle exploration of classism & privilege in higher ed. Nothing has heavy-handed as some dark academia can be, but very present through in a way that enhanced the story and character development.
• I related to little pieces of a lot of the characters, which made a lot of this hit close to home. The emotions in this hit hard for me. Also, I especially loved Dawes; she speaks to my PhD candidate heart in a way few other characters can.
• I switched between the audiobook and the paperback due to time constraints on this. Both are great options.

🐍 Considerations if you want to read it:
• This is an ADULT paranormal crime novel. There is no romance in it, but it definitely covers adult themes. TWs: blood, violence, drug use, death, overdose, sexual assault
• Early parts of the book felt a little slow, almost like a minute-by-minute play of present day, like watching it unfold IRL, boardering on slice-of-life if your life involved secret societies. I don't mind this, but I know a slow build isn't everyone's cup of tea.
• A lot of folks complained about "not understanding the references" which is sort of the point. Alex is confused, and I think in a lot of ways we are meant to be too to understand that. I also think the extra details/history/lore that you can look up are part of the fun because this book is very well researched and a lot of what's included has toes to real life things. It's almost worth two reads: one for the plot and one to go back and dig up everything they reference. But I don't think the homework is at all necessary if you go in with the understanding that you don't NEED the details to grasp the plot.

📖 I don't have any criticisms. I just absolutely adored this one.

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