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A review by fulltimefiction
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
1.0
When this book was released, I just knew I wasn’t going to like it so I never added it to my tbr. However, I was seeing lately positive reviews of it and thought why not. After all, it won the GR 2019 FANTASY awards. Now I’m not sure if they mistook best for worst.
DNF at 60% and if a book failed to make me even mildly interested by the 60% then I can very much 1 star it and not give it my extra benefit of the doubt star. And anyway, my friend told me the ending and it wasn’t worth finishing the book for it.
ALSO, LOT’S OF TW/CW!! Can we normalize counting drug use as such (I don’t see it mentioned enough)? And oh, rape by supernatural stuff. I really wouldn’t have read this book if I knew Alex used to take heroin shots. I don’t like reading about drug users because authors rarely portray the reality (will explain that later on).
So yes, I do have lots of anger towards this book. It won the 2019 best fantasy awards for goodness’ sake!
Before I start, let me clear out one thing:
I love fantasy. I love Urban fantasy, it’s one of my most read fantasy subgenres. I also like dark academia. I also enjoyed Soc by Leigh Bardugo. Thus, I didn’t dislike this book for any of those reasons or I’m not a “fan” of Bardugo (I wouldn’t say I am but also not why I didn’t like this one). It’s also not an “it’s me not you” case. Ninth House is simply not a good book.
So let’s see. Why isn’t it a good book?
1- It’s so painfully obvious that this is written by a YA author. Such authors (SJM included) don’t write “adult” books. They try to make their books look and sound adult. At least in their first tries. At the bottom, this book has obvious YA vibes. But it can’t be shelved as much. Other than the fact that the main characters are over 18, ugly stuff happens:
- A 12 yo is graphically raped by a ghost (wtf? I was shocked enough that I didn’t feel anything but what. the. fuck.) ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I mean… why? It’s disturbing and messed up but not in a way that impresses readers… it was completely useless and only serves to make that character have a “tragic” past more than she already does.
- Alex used drugs to mute the Grays (ghosts) that only she can see. Okay, look. I’m very uptight about drugs. I have witnessed firsthand what it can lead to: suicide. But a lot of times former drug users go to rehab and overcome their addiction. It is not an easy process. And yet, our deal Alex never suffered from withdrawal! Never felt addiction! Of course, she’s too strong for that! It never even occurred to Bardugo that drugs lead to addiction even if the person was the main character! This pissed me off especially because it was mentioned that Alex has used “needles”.
2- the boredom. Oh, it’s so so so boring. I could’ve stopped at any point and did not give a shit about what happens to the characters.
3- While Alex wasn’t annoying, I didn’t feel anything towards her (nor Darklington -ha- for that matter). I was unimpressed. She’s a character that lacks depth and I didn’t find anything to like about her.
4- Did I mention that I didn’t care about anything in this book? Not the characters, not the plot, and certainly not the world-building.
5- I don’t think a 480 pages book as big but in Ninth House, very little happens. Very very little. I also think that the dual timelines didn’t work well for this book. It would’ve been better if everything was told in chronological order, maybe then I would’ve cared about Darlington’s disappearance. Seriously, I can sum up the pages I read in a few paragraphs while covering everything important.
6- For someone with a such a traumatic past, Alex’s trauma only pops up when it would serve the plot to make it more dramatic. Speaking of which, lots of failed drama in this book. Bardugo tried to make some events “shocking” or “horrifying” yet she was trying too hard and it showed.
7- I really can’t name one thing I liked. Not even the Dark Academia. Maybe if it wasn’t for the monotonous note of the book, I would’ve been more interested but yet another aspect of Ninth House that didn’t impress me. At all.
Briefly, I truly don’t understand the rave and hype surrounding this book. I rarely DNF book and yet I couldn’t read one more page. I even switched to the audio but I realized that I’m truly wasting my time by forcing myself to read a book I don’t like. Unexperienced readers of the “adult” genre might find this book “fancy” “refreshing” “appealing” and while I think it good for them (after all I really wanted to like this book too), it’s certainly ridiculous for me. There’s a billion light-years difference between this book and the UF giants and even “adult” fantasy books written by established authors in this genre. I had no idea this book is going to be such a mess or I wouldn’t have read it in the first place.
Am I being harsh? Maybe. But this book gained so much popularity. I’m pretty sure the fact that it’s written by Bardugo made many readers see the book in a different light. And yet, so many better adult fantasy books out there with fewer sales and much higher quality. But when was the publishing world fair? Never I think. Also, it won GR choice awards so yeah, I won’t be nice. This book sucked and I don’t recommend it if you haven’t guessed that already.
DNF at 60% and if a book failed to make me even mildly interested by the 60% then I can very much 1 star it and not give it my extra benefit of the doubt star. And anyway, my friend told me the ending and it wasn’t worth finishing the book for it.
ALSO, LOT’S OF TW/CW!! Can we normalize counting drug use as such (I don’t see it mentioned enough)? And oh, rape by supernatural stuff. I really wouldn’t have read this book if I knew Alex used to take heroin shots. I don’t like reading about drug users because authors rarely portray the reality (will explain that later on).
So yes, I do have lots of anger towards this book. It won the 2019 best fantasy awards for goodness’ sake!
Before I start, let me clear out one thing:
I love fantasy. I love Urban fantasy, it’s one of my most read fantasy subgenres. I also like dark academia. I also enjoyed Soc by Leigh Bardugo. Thus, I didn’t dislike this book for any of those reasons or I’m not a “fan” of Bardugo (I wouldn’t say I am but also not why I didn’t like this one). It’s also not an “it’s me not you” case. Ninth House is simply not a good book.
So let’s see. Why isn’t it a good book?
1- It’s so painfully obvious that this is written by a YA author. Such authors (SJM included) don’t write “adult” books. They try to make their books look and sound adult. At least in their first tries. At the bottom, this book has obvious YA vibes. But it can’t be shelved as much. Other than the fact that the main characters are over 18, ugly stuff happens:
- A 12 yo is graphically raped by a ghost (wtf? I was shocked enough that I didn’t feel anything but what. the. fuck.) ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I mean… why? It’s disturbing and messed up but not in a way that impresses readers… it was completely useless and only serves to make that character have a “tragic” past more than she already does.
- Alex used drugs to mute the Grays (ghosts) that only she can see. Okay, look. I’m very uptight about drugs. I have witnessed firsthand what it can lead to: suicide. But a lot of times former drug users go to rehab and overcome their addiction. It is not an easy process. And yet, our deal Alex never suffered from withdrawal! Never felt addiction! Of course, she’s too strong for that! It never even occurred to Bardugo that drugs lead to addiction even if the person was the main character! This pissed me off especially because it was mentioned that Alex has used “needles”.
2- the boredom. Oh, it’s so so so boring. I could’ve stopped at any point and did not give a shit about what happens to the characters.
3- While Alex wasn’t annoying, I didn’t feel anything towards her (nor Darklington -ha- for that matter). I was unimpressed. She’s a character that lacks depth and I didn’t find anything to like about her.
4- Did I mention that I didn’t care about anything in this book? Not the characters, not the plot, and certainly not the world-building.
5- I don’t think a 480 pages book as big but in Ninth House, very little happens. Very very little. I also think that the dual timelines didn’t work well for this book. It would’ve been better if everything was told in chronological order, maybe then I would’ve cared about Darlington’s disappearance. Seriously, I can sum up the pages I read in a few paragraphs while covering everything important.
6- For someone with a such a traumatic past, Alex’s trauma only pops up when it would serve the plot to make it more dramatic. Speaking of which, lots of failed drama in this book. Bardugo tried to make some events “shocking” or “horrifying” yet she was trying too hard and it showed.
7- I really can’t name one thing I liked. Not even the Dark Academia. Maybe if it wasn’t for the monotonous note of the book, I would’ve been more interested but yet another aspect of Ninth House that didn’t impress me. At all.
Briefly, I truly don’t understand the rave and hype surrounding this book. I rarely DNF book and yet I couldn’t read one more page. I even switched to the audio but I realized that I’m truly wasting my time by forcing myself to read a book I don’t like. Unexperienced readers of the “adult” genre might find this book “fancy” “refreshing” “appealing” and while I think it good for them (after all I really wanted to like this book too), it’s certainly ridiculous for me. There’s a billion light-years difference between this book and the UF giants and even “adult” fantasy books written by established authors in this genre. I had no idea this book is going to be such a mess or I wouldn’t have read it in the first place.
Am I being harsh? Maybe. But this book gained so much popularity. I’m pretty sure the fact that it’s written by Bardugo made many readers see the book in a different light. And yet, so many better adult fantasy books out there with fewer sales and much higher quality. But when was the publishing world fair? Never I think. Also, it won GR choice awards so yeah, I won’t be nice. This book sucked and I don’t recommend it if you haven’t guessed that already.