Reviews with content warning for Forced institutionalization - Ninth House

Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

30 reviews

ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

“…this was the moment he’d been waiting for: the chance to show someone else wonder, to watch them realize that they had not been lied to, that the world they’d been promised as children was not something that had to be abandoned, that there really was something lurking the wood, beneath the stairs, between the stars, that everything was full of mystery.”

TITLE—Ninth House

AUTHOR—Leigh Bardugo

PUBLISHED—2019

GENRE—adult dark academia (plus ghosts)

SETTING—Yale

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—ghosts, the occult, secret societies, university setting, neurodivergency, sexual assault, drugs, classism

“Alex smiled then, a small thing, a glimpse of the girl lurking inside her, a happy, less haunted girl. That was what magic did. It revealed the heart of who you’d been before life took away your belief in the possible. It gave back the world all lonely children longed for.”

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

STORY/PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

BONUS ELEMENT/S—The worldbuilding with the ghosts and the magic system was really really deep and well done.—“Death words could be anything, really, as long as they spoke of the things Grays feared most—the finality of passing, a life without legacy, the emptiness of the hereafter.” This was also one of the best dark academia books I’ve ever read—all the classic literature quotes and references were so fun!

PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️—“He didn’t know how precious a normal life could be, how easy it was to drift away from average. You started sleeping until noon, skipped one class, one day of school, lost one job, then another, forgot the way that normal people did things. You lost the language of ordinary life. And then, without meaning to, you crossed into a country from which you couldn’t return. You lived in a state where the ground always seemed to be slipping from beneath your feet, with no way back to someplace solid.” Yeah.

“The current is strong and inevitably we all succumb.”

Full disclosure: for the first hundred pages I wasn’t sure I was really going to get into the story, but after Chapter 6 I was *obsessed*.

I TOTALLY understand that this book is not going to be for everyone. The content is extremely difficult and uncomfortable to sit with however I personally thought it was extremely well handled and intentional and I found Alex and her experiences to be SO goddamn relatable that I didn’t resent or question Bardugo for any of the choices she made regarding the graphic content of the story. *pause* Will I be able to handle this content in the screen adaptation of this book? That is unlikely. 😅😅

“You shouldn’t be ashamed to be different,” her mother had said when Alex had summoned the courage to ask for the name change. “I called you Galaxy for a reason.” Alex didn’t disagree. Most of the books she read and the TV shows she watched told her different was okay. Different was great! Except no one was different quite like her.”

However, one of the reasons I love Bardugo so much is that the deeper philosophy behind her books is always solid. I know she’s never going to disappoint me on that front. Not only did this book not disappoint philosophically, it had a PLETHORA of PHENOMENAL deeper philosophical themes. Her treatment of themes from neurodivergency, to classism, poverty & disenfranchisement, to abuse, to death, to college, to abandonment & isolation, made it feel as though Bardugo was reaching out through the pages to tell me that she knows what it’s like, that it’s beyond hard, impossible even, barely survivable, almost entirely hopeless all of the time and that even though all that is true, she wants me and others like me, like us, to know that whatever happens, however we feel, we’re actually *not* entirely alone, and that all our lives have *tremendous* value and that we ourselves have *tremendous* power.

“You thought you saw me. See me now.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

TW // I absolutely loved this book but I strongly encourage you to go with your gut before reading and check out the full list of CWs on the storygraph! Graphic: rape (ch 7, ch 16, ch 19), sexual abuse of a child (ch 7, ch 19), bullying, drug use & drug dealing, death & murder, feces; Brief mention: forced institutionalization, white colonization & theft of items of indigenous cultural heritage (There are definitely more so like I said, I recommend checking out the storygraph. Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Further Reading—

Legendborn, by Tracy Deonn
A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness
Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
Freshwater, by Akwaeke Emezi
Oligarchy, by Scarlett Thomas

Favorite Quotes:

“She had the eerie sense that they were dreaming her, a girl in a dark coat who would disappear when they woke.”

“He didn’t know how precious a normal life could be, how easy it was to drift away from average. You started sleeping until noon, skipped one class, one day of school, lost one job, then another, forgot the way that normal people did things. You lost the language of ordinary life. And then, without meaning to, you crossed into a country from which you couldn’t return. You lived in a state where the ground always seemed to be slipping from beneath your feet, with no way back to someplace solid.”

“…this was the moment he’d been waiting for: the chance to show someone else wonder, to watch them realize that they had not been lied to, that the world they’d been promised as children was not something that had to be abandoned, that there really was something lurking the wood, beneath the stairs, between the stars, that everything was full of mystery.”

“Alex smiled then, a small thing, a glimpse of the girl lurking inside her, a happy, less haunted girl. That was what magic did. It revealed the heart of who you’d been before life took away your belief in the possible. It gave back the world all lonely children longed for.”

“Death words could be anything, really, as long as they spoke of the things Grays feared most—the finality of passing, a life without legacy, the emptiness of the hereafter.”

“But if Beinecke was a living house of words, then it was one grand memorial to the end of everything.”

“It was strange to Alex that the smell of books was always the same. The ancient documents in the climate-controlled stacks and glass cases of Beinecke. The research rooms at Sterling. The changeable library of Lethe House. They all had the same scent as the fluorescence-lit reading rooms full of cheap paperbacks she’d lived in as a kid.”

“They talked about death like it was a breach of manners.”

“You shouldn’t be ashamed to be different,” her mother had said when Alex had summoned the courage to ask for the name change. “I called you Galaxy for a reason.” Alex didn’t disagree. Most of the books she read and the TV shows she watched told her different was okay. Different was great! Except no one was different quite like her.”

“No one could see the things hurting her.”

“He’d taken some papers out of his briefcase, an old essay she’d written when she still bothered going to school. She didn’t remember writing it, but the title read, A Day in My Life. A big red F was scrawled over the top, beside the words The assignment was not fiction.”

“This was the Connecticut Alex had dreamed of—farmhouses without farms, sturdy red-brick colonials with black doors and tidy white trim, a neighborhood full of wood-burning fireplaces, gently tended lawns, windows glowing golden in the night like passageways to a better life, kitchens where something good bubbled on the stove, breakfast tables scattered with crayons. No one drew their curtains; light and heat and good fortune spilled out into the dark as if these foolish people didn’t know what such bounty might attract, as if they’d left these shining doorways open for any hungry girl to walk through.”

“They tried to kill me, Hellie,” she rasped as she slid into the dark. That means I get to try to kill them.

“Darlington had never managed more than a grudging respect for mid-century architecture. Despite his best attempts to admire its severe lines, its clean execution, it always fell flat for him. His father had openly mocked his son’s bourgeois taste for turrets and gabled roofs.”--same lol

“Mirror magic is all about reflection and perception. A lie isn’t a lie until someone believes it. It doesn’t matter how charming you are if there’s no one to charm.”

“Halloween was a night when the dead came alive because the living were more alive: happy children high on candy, angry teenagers with eggs and shaving cream tucked into their hoodies, drunk college students in masks and wings and horns giving themselves permission to be something else—angel, demon, devil, good doctor, bad nurse. The sweat and excitement, the over-sugared punches loaded with fruit and grain alcohol. The Grays could not resist.”

“Because people who can’t be bothered with manners pretend to be amused by them.”

“You didn’t talk. You didn’t tell. That was how CPS got called. That was how you got locked up “for observation”.”

“I’m trying to keep things as normal as they can be in a world where monsters live.”

“The current is strong and inevitably we all succumb.”

“It was something they had in common, though it had never really felt that way.”

“…there was a big difference between things being fair and things being set right.”

“No one realizes how much life happens between the wounds, how much it has to offer.”

“Did they hand him the same Life of Lethe booklet? A long file full of horror stories? A commemorative mug that said Monsters Are Real?”

“We’re all racists, Dawes,” said Alex. “How did you even make it through undergrad?”

“You thought you saw me. See me now.”

“When she was fighting for her life, it was strictly pass/fail. All she had to do was survive and she could call it a win.”

“The Houses of the Veil had too much power, and the rules they had put in place were really about controlling access to that power, not limiting the damage it could do.”

“I know their names.” And names had power. She spoke them one after another, a poem of lost girls…”

Content Warnings

maricasement's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

During my first read, I absolutely tore through this book. I read it basically in one go (it was the holidays) and was reeling by the end. Leigh Bardugo managed to expertly construct a magic system and show it to us in an organic manner through the book. There is a murder, a disappearance, a mystery in the main character's past and much to uncover that leaves you wanting more at every part of the narrative.
The story isn't told in chronological order, but Bardugo is careful to indicate the time period at the start of each chapter. If there are any flashbacks, she is also very clear as to how they relate to the revealed timeline so far. Even with this care, it was hard to understand what was happening at the beginning of the story and when each part had actually occurred. It does take some getting used to, but once I identified the two main timelines and how they related to each other and to the first chapter, it wasn't too hard to keep up with it.
I really enjoyed the characters and found Alex rather refreshing. Her perspective and how it lends itself to this "dark academia" narrative was really cool, too.
Speaking of "dark", Bardugo truly embraced the "adult" label here and delved into some heavy topics. If anyone is thinking of reading this, they should definitely read the content warnings before.

During my second read (in preparation for Hell Bent) I had a similar impression. It was good to re-read the book a bit more calmly and absorb a few more bits of information that hadn't registered properly when I first read it. I like how the mystery unravels and then is sewn into place.
Another theme I was able to focus a bit more on was that of female friendship (spoilers below)

This is a running thread through the book: from the start Alex is interested in solving Tara's murder because she reminds her of Hellie, who she wasn't able to help until she'd actually lost her life. Dawes defends Alex and supports here against Sandow and Turner and takes care of her when she is sick. Alex defends her roommate Mercy, and doesn't forget to "help" all the other girls Blake abused. (I place "help" in inverted commas here because she actually hasn't supported them in any other way than ensuring their videos are deleted and Blake is humiliated.) Mercy also seeks to help Alex when she is unwell.
But Leigh isn't afraid to call women out on their failings and when they are unable to support each other. When Hellie lies to Alex and runs back to the party, when Alex neglects Mercy which leads to her being abused by Blake, when Alex's childhood friend gossips about her. And of course, the most crucial example of it: when Daisy decides to take so many women's lives just she could continue living, just out of greed.
Revenge is another theme here: revenge on those who have caused suffering. Hellie and Alex take lives at Ground Zero, payment for their abuse. Alex embarrasses Blake publicly. Alex tries to find Tara's and Daisy's killers in an attempt to exact some sort of revenge (which they got, in some ways).
One thing I will say is that there is little exploration of the actual mental and emotional long-term effects of abuse and the trauma these women have gone through. There are hints of it here and there, but Alex just seems to have moved on from being abused at 12, nothing is mentioned about what it was like having sex with Len for the first time, how it would have affected her. The same goes for Mercy. Revenge on Blake seems to make hers feel better and soon later they are going out again. She is uncomfortable in public, but it doesn't linger, it doesn't seem to be something that is still on her mind after the fact. Dawes merely goes home to get over killing a man.
The two instances where characters reflect more on the effects of their trauma are when Alex finally revisits the murders she committed and let's North in to help her and when Daisy mentions her death and all the terrible things she has done to "cope" with it.

As a whole, though, this is a story that does its best to exalt female friendship while it criticises the patriarchal and elitist institution which is Yale (as well as other famous universities).

Content Warnings

crowfolio's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Content Warnings

kristynpittman's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

theotheleo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

ltrueblood's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wonderful prose, witty dialogue, perfect pacing. It is definitely dark though- check content warnings to avoid any triggers (esp for sexual violence, revenge porn, and intimate partner violence- these are all recurring themes in main character’s flashbacks). I love how Bardugo makes you feel smart while you’re reading- she sets up details well so when they come up as a major plot point later on you think to yourself “I noticed that!!” And pat yourself on the back.

Content Warnings

_maia's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

1. Really glad I read six of crows before listening to this as an audiobook. But I had to think about it for a few days.

2. I think I just don't like books about most of the kinds of people who go to ivy league schools, but that's not the author's fault. I did see the bad guy coming well in advance but that was definitely intended as well.

3. I like character jumping, but not that with back and forth timey-wimeyness if it's also leading to a mystery plot point that the characters already know about but the reader doesn't - that sort of thing makes me want to skip to the point where they actually tell you stuff, and that's the wrong way to read it. Again, not the author's fault, just not my bag.

4. Some parts of this book felt like they benefitted from a sensitivity reader (to the good), and somewhere in the middle of the book the pace sort of changed? And then changed again towards the end.

5. The main hero Galaxy Stern is ok, although I sort of didn't believe her attraction to basically any of the men in this book, because they were all terrible. Like every time she said she found herself liking a character I was like UGH WHY. But perhaps that's because the setting was Yale, (see point 2). Also I just didn't like her, but I'm not sure I was supposed to anyway, which is fine.

6. The hero guy Darlington is, again, a big yuck for me, see point 2. (I listened to the audiobook for what it's worth, I thought the VO actors did well but made Darlington sound like an asshole, and I'm not sure I would have gotten that impression of him on the page.)

7. And yet strangely for all this I enjoyed it, and will read the next one because the magic system ended on a cliffhanger.

Content Warnings