secret societies and ghosts and hell beast, oh my!

Book Review: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

There is nothing so distinctly distressing to me than being caught up in a series only to have to wait – sometimes years – for the next installment. I am not good at managing the strange sadness and longing that accompanies this wait. This is why I make a rule of not reading series - especially if the series is unfinished.

This being said, I decided to throw caution to the wind and give Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo a try. Now, I knew this was the first in an unfinished series but I thought what the hell it might suck.

Reader, it did not suck.

I devoured the entirety of Ninth house like a hell beast. I sat on my couch and found myself transfixed. Over the course of a few days I travelled to New Haven and found a wonderful guide in Galaxy (Alex) Stern. She is our problematic protagonist who’s drawn into the world of managing the mystical rituals of the secret societies of Yale. She is a girl with the ability to see the dead, who is haunted by her past, trying her best to survive in a world that is so unlike the one she has known. I found Alex gruff and difficult and impossible not to like. The magic and esoteric world Bardugo crafted felt grounded and strangely believable. I found myself eager to suspend my disbelief in a way that I sometimes find hard to do. It is actually one of the reasons my tastes moved away from the fantastical in favor of stories that reflected the world around me. Brilliantly Bardugo uses the very real emotional lives of the characters to inform the magic of this world. Mystical date rape, magic ritual as a way to acquire power, and murder by compulsion is both otherworldly and all too real.

The story follows a formula familiar to that of the literary world of dark academia, it starts with the confession of violence on the part of our heroine and then winds back the clock. The rest of the novel dances between seasons towards the inevitable end (which is also the beginning). The story very satisfyingly comes full circle and we are left hanging with a rather brilliant final line that sets up the action for book two.

As someone that is hesitant of fantasy but a huge fan of Donna Tartt this book was an enthralling and delightful surprise. It is a well constructed and considered piece of fiction that uses both plot and character to drive the narrative forward. This book is not perfect, but like it’s heroine I couldn’t help but love it anyway.

I’d highly recommend throwing caution to the wind and diving head first into the world of Ninth House.