A review by pencilknot
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

4.0

4.25 stars

This is my first ever dark academia book... and I liked it! The action, mystery and slow reveal of clues left me hooked and on the edge of my seat, but the story also suffered from info dumping and messy plotline.

A few chapters in, I gave up on trying to remember all the terms and locations mentioned in the story. It got better as time went on, but it made getting through the first chapters difficult. The plotline was addicting when you were in the midst of the events, but when you sit back and analyze it you realize that so many things seemed to come out of the left field. The central mystery in the story had a satisfying conclusion, but a side mystery suddenly took center place in the last chapters of the story, making the ending feel scattered.

Overall, Ninth House was a fun read, but one whose seams start to fall apart after the final page. Perhaps a reread will allow me to find clues I've missed the first time around and make me like the book more.

My Brain during the Last Chapters:
SpoilerIn the last 1/3, the story drags you around so fast that it feels like whiplash. Oh, so Blake killed Tara! Wait, the murders of the girls are related to the creation of nexuses of power so it's Sandow! Wait, but Beldam is apparently Daisy and she's actually the one responsible for the creation of the nexuses because she can consume souls? And we killed her by somehow drawing from the power of all the Grays on campus to draw out the souls of the girls she killed? Oh and guess what? Darlington is a demon now and we're going to hell to get him back!