With Ninth House, Bardugo creates a vivid version of Yale where magic is hidden in the shadows, but very much alive. Her characters are survivors, not heroes and especially Alex makes very unlikable decisions because of this. Some readers called her writing cold, but I think it informs us about the brokenness of her characters and why they make the decisions they make. Bardugo doesn’t shy away from lingering on the aftereffect of sexual assault, drug abuse and the supernatural. Ninth House is a sadder story than any of her other books, in that it faces trauma more realistically. I really like that Bardugo stepped away from YA for this one. The entire atmosphere of the book was just completely ‘my aesthetic’ and it felt a little bit like it was written just for me. I devoured the book in under a week, needing to know what had happened to Alex’s mentor Darlington and what on earth was going on with Alex herself. So I would recommend Ninth House to people who enjoyed the Joshua Jackson movie The Skulls, people who love secret societies, college stories and don’t feel too uncomfortable with heavy subject matter. However, I do think the backlash is a little unwarranted, as both the Grisha trilogy and Six of Crows deal with very difficult subjects as well and everyone loves the Darkling and Kaz even though both are – at the very least – morally gray people. Some of her YA readers didn’t like the darker elements in Ninth House, so keep that in mind if you aren’t a fan of that either. Bardugo’s other novels are also pretty dark, but as YA they don’t go too deep into scarring territory. Ninth House is a very dark book and definitely not a YA novel. I’m a little hesitant to recommend this book to lovers of Bardugo as there has been quite a lot of backlash. So if that’s not your cup of tea, beware of boredom. I’ve been reading some reviews to figure out what other people did find boring and what I gather is that they call it a slow read with a lot of narration. But that description doesn’t really do the book justice. The most boring thing I can come up with about Ninth House is that, on the surface, it’s a girl with special powers story. Yale is filled with secret societies that perform actual magic and somehow it is now her job to make sure no one gets hurt. Alex grabs the opportunity to escape her old life but is not prepared for what it will entail.

When she wakes up in the hospital someone from Yale is at her bedside, asking her to join a secret society that keeps the other secret societies in check. To escape their glares, Alex turned to drugs, living on the street from a young age and ended up as the only survivor in a mysterious multiple homicide. As long as she can remember, she’s been able to see the dead.

“I want to survive this world that keeps trying to destroy me.” What is this book about?Īlex is a freshman at Yale, but woefully out of place there.

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