A review by jasminn_perez
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-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? No

3.0

the pacing of this book was incredibly slow and the first hundred pages were so fucking boring. I don't know shit about Yale and there was so much Yale history tied into the story that I thought was so confusing. I didn't know this was going to be a murder mystery until it was a murder mystery lmao. I rlly hate murder mysteries and I feel like this one had no interesting parts about it other than that it had to do with magic. also every single problem that Alex had was just solved by magic that was so convenient. I liked the magic it was really fun but it maybe should have had some limitations? buuuut I think that the way that magic was used was very realistic. like I can see people misusing the magical drugs. I loved Alex sm I have the biggest crush on her. like she was so funny I loved her lil witty one liners. I liked darlington too but I wasn't too attached to him tbh. I LOVE DAWES SM. I love her. the way that her and Alex' s relationship developed was so cute n I love them. I was so frustrated I wanted darlington and Alex to get together so bad. I literally made that its own tab category bc I wanted it so bad. I literally might only read the second one for the romance of it bc I have never needed anything more. bardugo was teasing me too I know she was. there were way too many side characters that I don't remember half the names of. I also didnt really understand the houses and I don't really think that's on my stupidity. there were so many and I was supposed to remember what they did and who was in them?? miss Leigh expects too much of me. something that I found so weird was mercy and what she went through. something very serious and traumatizing happened to her for what ? it seemed like that only happened to move the case along. the fact that by the end of the book she was just so willing to go to a party again and push everything under the rug was unrealistic and represents sexual assault experiences horribly. it felt like the only reason why she was written was to be sexually assaulted. I'm not even gonna talk act the weird slightly racist comments I just don't want to. last thing i will say is that the way that alex and darlingtons titles of dante and virgil tie so beautifully into the story and its genius and i think its gonna b even better in the second one. I think I'm just so in the middle with this book. I didn't hate it but I also didn't love it either.
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