A review by pumpkinpiespice
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.
Anything after first 3 paragraphs has spoilers 

Opening: 
already kinda lost on this one. The book opens up already with no introduction. I usually don’t enjoy introductions so this certainly wasn’t bad, except for all the various buildings names and references made. Seems like this book was written for a specific group of students who went to “elite” universities and could relate to a lot of the buildings on Yale, but as someone who attended a state university very recently, I was a bit lost on all the names. Also, some of the vocabulary used in the book tripped me up a bit, which added more to the difficulty in visualizing what was going on. So far, this book gives a very “high society” feel to romantasy which is pretty cool.

Off the bat, I didn’t really like darlington. He kinda said inside jokes that no one really understands which tbh…same, except mine is with obscure internet memes and his is with ✨the classics ✨ and ✨magic. He basically has mind reading skills, which was a bit weird, especially the way he’d keep on judging responses of Alex. Maybe I’m a dumbass, who’s bad at reading and understanding others, oh wait, I am. Well considering he’s one of the big men on campus and in college I was pretty unpopular, it’s suffice to say he was a bit extraordinary and out of touch for me. I definitely can see why other people do like him. 

I liked Alex, but again, I didn’t like how much she was able to get away with at the beginning. Sneaking around a cop feels a bit too easy. 

>100 pgs in: 
Wow! She really can write trauma chapters well. How she showed the mc slowly falling into her addiction was a solid 4/5 but it definitely felt a tad bit unreal at times. The sexual assault scene was so poignant.

Investigation part of the book is a part that really wasn’t for me I suppose. Although I like the various colleges set up and multiple factions vying for power, the whole murder investigation, I didn’t care for, mainly because the author didn’t give a thread to follow in beginning. Even after finding out more about the situation, it still felt very whatever to me? I hate to read into the authors intention but I’d imagine I’m supposed to be like “where’s Darlington and what’s up with this girl” but I’m just more interested in what the other societies’ cultures are. Guess I wasn’t bought in.

Jeez, Darlington is definitely not my cup of tea for a co main and a potential love interest. Personally, I’m not into the nerdy type and sometimes, he comes off as really pretentious. I feel this is further echoed by a lot of the jargon in the book and opaque references, but i guess I’m not the type of audience for the book. No problem with that, this is just more of a personal thought for me. Darlington romance is very whatever to me. Reads a bit like Gale from Baldurs Gate 3. My second least favorite companion behind shadowheart.

The Dawes and mc friendship arc felt a bit too predictable for me. MC reveals what she’s been hiding to a higher up and Dawes supports her and it’s “us against the world”. Eh whatever. I was hoping for more of a difficult relationship between mc and Dawes as well as more struggle with the main character. Maybe I’m into the main character struggling and not succeeding in romantasy. 

>200 pgs in:
I am convinced I might receive a diagnosis of severe cringe disorder from this book. So basically, it’s even more of the “us against the world” in this book. Classic of the elders are against us, the other societies are against us, hell, even me as the reader is against the main character. Also, the mc is getting a bit shoe horned with her “badassery” that she developed from “her dark past”. The author will just randomly introduce some weird road block (or write herself into one) to what the mc is trying to do and then have her do something “badass” and then have some severe trauma from her past essentially back up how she got those skills. Getting real close to DNFing from cringe. Reads a bit too much like a YA novel to me (comes off a bit like *im not like other girls*, just with a TON of unnecessary lore added to it (with slightly difficult language) that makes it a bit hard to parse through.

252: had to dnf, there is simply no way I can get through the rest of the book at a very snail pace and not much stakes. I don’t really care much for the characters or really much of the story. I am happy that others have found their niche with this book, but I must say…not the case with me. Into the next one.

2.5
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