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A review by phazed09
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Flawed, but enjoyable. The adult debut by Leigh Bardugo (I haven't read her other works, not a huge fan of YA personally) was a pleasant surprise. I'm always fond of a magical murder mystery, and for the most part Ninth House scratched that itch.
Yale and it's secret societies made for an engaging setting. The world building especially is fantastic, with a well defined system of occult magic and rituals. There is a bit of a slow build up, as a fair amount of time is spent setting up Alex's role as a sort of overseer to the other students as a way of introducing the world of the book to the reader, but once that's done, the pacing picks up tremendously, and Bardugo does a great job of weaving the mystery into the rules and societies of the world she's built.
Solid characterization, Alex, Darlington, Dawes and most of the minor characters are intriguing, if not a little tropey. I enjoyed the perspective switching with the two points of view, though I can understand how some readers may find it a little hard to follow at first. By setting Darlington's segements in the past, it allows the author to introduce lore and worldbuilding throughout the course of the novel, which in my opinion helps keep the pace of the main story (Alex's) moving at a nice steady pace.
That said, I did have issues with the way things are resolved at the end.The dean reveal was a little too obvious, and the reveal with Belbalm wasn't set up enough.
Yale and it's secret societies made for an engaging setting. The world building especially is fantastic, with a well defined system of occult magic and rituals. There is a bit of a slow build up, as a fair amount of time is spent setting up Alex's role as a sort of overseer to the other students as a way of introducing the world of the book to the reader, but once that's done, the pacing picks up tremendously, and Bardugo does a great job of weaving the mystery into the rules and societies of the world she's built.
Solid characterization, Alex, Darlington, Dawes and most of the minor characters are intriguing, if not a little tropey. I enjoyed the perspective switching with the two points of view, though I can understand how some readers may find it a little hard to follow at first. By setting Darlington's segements in the past, it allows the author to introduce lore and worldbuilding throughout the course of the novel, which in my opinion helps keep the pace of the main story (Alex's) moving at a nice steady pace.
That said, I did have issues with the way things are resolved at the end.