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A review by lit_laugh_luv
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
1.0
I genuinely have very little positive to say about this... I disliked virtually all the characters, the plot was incredibly slow and largely predictable, and the pacing was atrocious. The world building takes over 100 pages to do, yet remains a jumbled mess for the majority of the book since you only really hear about the houses in tiny snippets. The setting is heavily referential to locations and streets, which never really feels immersive given how many locations are mentioned and how few of them are actually relevant to the plot. Somehow EVERY side character is introduced is somehow involved in this murder, which to me is just lazy writing and does absolute nothing to establish them as multi-faceted characters.
The mystery at the heart of this was not particularly interesting, and largely solved with hunches and/or plot elements that were convenient. The cast of characters here is SO incredibly small that you can basically identify the villains within the first half of the book. Alex is not a likeable nor interesting protagonist in the slightest, and her mixed race identity felt incredibly shoved in for no real purpose. She ends up being a stereotypical 'chosen one' and so many plot elements in this just felt derived from other fantasy novels. By the end of this, you don't feel particularly immersed in the world and you just have a fuzzy understanding of 8 other magic houses that have been referenced and poorly developed over 450 pages.
Unfortunately I'd say this is in contention for one of my least favourites of the year. The first 100 pages were an absolute snooze and I kept hearing it got better, but if anything it got worse to me with how jumbled the mystery tried to become yet ultimately just being a typical case of Occam's Razor.
I think if you're looking for a dark academia/urban fantasy mystery, [b:Curious Tides|101141871|Curious Tides (Drowned Gods, #1)|Pascale Lacelle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1677595192l/101141871._SY75_.jpg|99089026] does a much better job with a similar concept.
The mystery at the heart of this was not particularly interesting, and largely solved with hunches and/or plot elements that were convenient. The cast of characters here is SO incredibly small that you can basically identify the villains within the first half of the book. Alex is not a likeable nor interesting protagonist in the slightest, and her mixed race identity felt incredibly shoved in for no real purpose. She ends up being a stereotypical 'chosen one' and so many plot elements in this just felt derived from other fantasy novels. By the end of this, you don't feel particularly immersed in the world and you just have a fuzzy understanding of 8 other magic houses that have been referenced and poorly developed over 450 pages.
Unfortunately I'd say this is in contention for one of my least favourites of the year. The first 100 pages were an absolute snooze and I kept hearing it got better, but if anything it got worse to me with how jumbled the mystery tried to become yet ultimately just being a typical case of Occam's Razor.
I think if you're looking for a dark academia/urban fantasy mystery, [b:Curious Tides|101141871|Curious Tides (Drowned Gods, #1)|Pascale Lacelle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1677595192l/101141871._SY75_.jpg|99089026] does a much better job with a similar concept.