A review by ineffablebob
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Ninth House is an urban fantasy, set at a Yale University where its societies are not just groupings of the powerful, but practicing magicians. Alex comes to the school as an outsider under sponsorship of Lethe, a group charged with monitoring the magic and preventing collateral damage. There is, of course, immediately much collateral damage to investigate, while at the same time she struggles with her past and adjusting to her new life. 

I found Ninth House to be well written with plenty of excitement and well-developed characters, but it definitely isn't for everyone. I'm fortunate enough not to have suffered anywhere near the way Alex did in her youth, but even so I found some of the descriptions of her past disturbing - abuse of power, sexual violence, substance abuse, emotional trauma, violent death. And it doesn't get a whole lot better in her present life, lots more of the same, although with much more opportunity for Alex to fight back. Anyone who does have such things in their past could very well find the story traumatizing. In addition to that, the way the plot wraps up has a whole host of twists that come so fast as to give the reader mental whiplash. It felt impossible that Alex had no idea of the underlying truth despite everything she went through in the bulk of the book.

So there are some caveats, but I still would recommend this one to fans of the genre.  It reminded me quite a bit of Lev Grossman's Magicians series, without the Narnia-in-drag bits. Just bear in mind that there's quite a bit of dark content that may not be for everyone.
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