Ninth House

by Leigh Bardugo

I found this treasure at a Goodwill in Apache Junction, AZ. If you have the time to go through the generally unorganized bookshelves at a thirft store, you can find some great titles! NINTH HOUSE is Leigh Bardugo’s first foray into adult fiction, though I might argue that SIX OF CROWS and KING OF SCARS are barely YA.

It is about Alex Stern (short for Galaxy, NOT Alexandra) who finds herself thrown into the elite world of the Ivy Leagues when she is given the chance to attend Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. The reason she, a drug-addicted deadbeat in the streets of Los Angeles, is given this opportunity: She can see the dead.

At school she is initiated into the Ninth House amongst Yale’s secret societies. Their house was created to keep the eight other houses in line, since they all dabble in various forms of the occult.

I previously mentioned the town’s name, as New Haven itself really becomes its own character in the book. The use of its history, layout, and architecture gives it life in a way New Haven notoriously lacks.

I will be honest, I didn’t like the beginning very much. It jumped around in the timeline and felt like it was just a grab for the readers’ attention. It wasn’t until later in the book that I saw the benefit of such a structure. It flips between her time before Yale, her fall training with Darlington, and then her winter dealing with the aftermath of some previous events (no spoilers!). By doing this we can uncover who she was before, alongside the recent and current events unfolding before us. It is really quite clever. I would never accuse Leigh Bardugo of anything but. The SIX OF CROWS duology is a spectacular, and one of my favorites in print and in audiobook. Her ability to fold character development into the plot enriches both ingeniously.

I would recommend anyone who loves the author to read this one; it is not to be missed! If you haven’t jumped on the Bardugo train yet, this is a great start. It is a supernatural, mystical, gothic semi-horror that can find itself comfortable amongst a variety of readers’ shelves.