Review by sapphic_in_the_stacks - Ninth House

sapphic_in_the_stacks 's review for:

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

4.25

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Alex Stern can see the dead. Her talent has gotten her noticed by Lethe, one of Yale's secret societies. Though she never finished high school, and almost died from a drug overdose that killed her friend, Lethe makes sure she's admitted to Yale so she can join their ranks. Lethe is the society that overseas the other societies, and makes sure their magical rites don't go wrong. But something has gone wrong, and now her mentor is missing in action, and someone is trying to kill her. She needs to figure out who and why, before they can succeed.

This book was very slow to start, and picked up towards the end. I appreciated the conclusion, though the book never got me quite as emotionally invested in the characters as I wanted to be. The magical elements are fairly well defined, and interesting in their scope and applications. The book is well written, and has a very interesting premise, I just couldn't quite immerse myself in the emotions and motivations of the characters. The writing was just a touch too distant for my taste.

Content Warnings