A review by cady_sass
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This was so completely not what I expected. I prefer to go into every book as blind as I can, I knew this was dark academia with some magical realism and that it was set at Yale. That’s it. In the first few chapters I was so confused and backward that I started over to make sure I didn’t miss something important, but it’s purposefully confusing for the beginning which can be hard to get through. It’s shocking to me that this came from the same mind that wrote Shadow & Bone, in a good way. The RANGE! This is one of those books with a premise so unique and a world built so deeply that you can’t begin to wrap your mind around how the author did it. I’m extremely impressed. Each character was so well crafted and explored EXCEPT for Darlington, which is what keeps this from being 5 stars for me. For being such a key player in the plot, we don’t see nearly enough of him or learn enough about him. The end feels less believable because we saw from his perspective and yet never had a single thought about this subplot, which would’ve been a huge, life altering factor for him. Either way, really enjoyed and will pick up the new sequel. 
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