A review by miak2
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 
Mors irrumat omnia. Death fucks us all.


The Six of Crows duology was one of my favorite reads a few years ago, but as I read Ninth House, it was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that it was written by the same author. I shouldn't have been; all of the things that worked for me in that duology were present here: interesting magic systems, compelling characters, complex and interesting plots. So I commend Bardugo for being able to go such a different direction in her first adult book and still work the magic she's known for.

Ninth House was mysteries on mysteries on mysteries. So many overlapping storylines that we were slowly given answers to over the course of the book. And with so many moving pieces, I was worried that the ending would fall flat for me. And at first, it did. After a specific scene towards the end of the book, I went..."that's it?" No ma'am, it was most definitely not it.

I liked how the crux of the mysteries reflected on the way that powerful people wield their power to stay in power. How there are groups of people that are consistently taken advantage of in order to maintain existing power structures, and the way that opposing voices are silenced. Which was made especially poignant given that the magic existed across these historical societies, not freely available for anyone and everyone to access. There was also a lot of interesting discussion on how we as a society write people off as lost causes, without trying to understand the factors that led them to their situation.

I also appreciate so much that Alex was not your standard, cookie-cutter main character for a fantasy series. Especially with her being in her first year at Yale, it would've been so easy to write the "perfect, straight-A young student gets dragged into a world she didn't know existed" type of character. But Alex brought a completely different type of character, one that pushed the bounds of morality that was needed to move much of the plot forward.

The story was definitely confusing at first and slow to build. As I mentioned, there's a lot of different overlapping stories, which means that there was a lot of groundwork that Bardugo needed to lay. I spent much of the book being confused, but still intrigued enough to read on. And, like with the Six of Crows duology, I appreciate that the Alex Stern duology looks like it'll be two separate, yet interconnected stories. 
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