October Book Review - Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
October is one of the best months for reading, in my opinion. The days can be bright blue with highlights of the autumn leaves, and the evenings are just chilly enough to curl up with a warm drink and a good read to pass the time. This month I decided to spend my evenings reading Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, and I finished this book on Halloween afternoon. This book had the right mix of spooky and mystery that fit the season perfectly!
Alex Stern (also known as Galaxy Stern) is a freshman at Yale, but she's got more to worry about than trying to salvage her slipping grades. Alex is also a part of Lethe House, the secret ninth house in charge of overseeing the activities of the remaining eight houses that make up the Secret Societies of Yale. These societies are full of the most elite students both socially and academically, and Alex feels like a fraud among them. When a mysterious murder happens on campus, old feelings will surface for Alex, and against the advisement of others, she begins looking into this murder. But, the more she looks into the murder, the more twisted everything seems to be. Mysterious murders, gaggles of ghosts, and secret societies are just a few of the elements of the masterpiece that Leigh Bardugo has created for us.
Favorite Quote: The magic he'd been promised would be found at the backs of wardrobes, under bridges, through mirrors. It was dangerous and alluring and it did not seek to entertain. pg 162
Things I Liked:
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and as a result, I find it hard to choose the best three things to mention, so for this review, I will be highlighting broader ideas and elements that I liked as a result.
First is the established rules of the magical system. I love a good system of magic in a story, but I especially love when the magic system has rules that must be adhered to, as well as reasons for why the rules have been established. For example, there are ghosts in this story, called Gray's by the characters, and there are certain things that repel or attract them, and by understanding what repels them the characters understand how to deal with them and prevent them from causing trouble during the rituals of the societies. Along with the established rules for how the magic works, there are rules for when it should work and how it should work, such as the nature of the nexuses of power found scattered on Yale's campus. Established magic systems elevate a story and aid to set it apart from similar stories in a way that is intriguing as well as exciting.
The next thing I enjoyed with the mastery of the English language that Leigh Bardugo has. She demonstrated this mastery in many ways, but my favorite was the inclusion of small details that would bring scenes to life. For example, "the radio - the old kind with a red line that glided through the stations like a finger seeking the right spot on the page" (pg 131). This line is a beautiful example of the small details and the unique phrases that brought scenes to life and made this a refreshing read for fall.
The last thing I loved was the realistic growth of the characters which was shown through both the actions and the dialogue exchanged between the characters. For example, Alex and Dawes are both members of House Lethe, but they did not start out as friends. But slowly, one crazy escapade to the next, you can see the growth of their friendship right up to the last quarter of the book where things begin wrapping up. I loved how gradual the growth of the friendship was, and the growth that occurred made sense.
Things I Disliked:
Even for books that I love I try to be as critical as possible, finding things that even if they didn't ruin the book for me I take issue with or things that I feel weren't as well developed as they could be. This book is no exception.
The first thing that I think could have been better was establishing the time of day and the dates around what is happening. The chapters are titled with the season when that chapter is occurring, such as "Winter" and "Spring". However, within the chapters, it was sometimes hard for me to understand the time of day that things were happening as well as how much time had passed between events. From the time of the murder to the time that Alex goes to the morgue, it feels like this should have been maybe two days that passed, but it wasn't exactly clear. I would have appreciated a slightly more solid establishment of dates and time for important events to understand how much, or how little, time passes from the time of the murder to the final resolution of the murderer being exposed.
The next thing that I have mixed feelings about was the ending of the book. I feel like the building of the bock, with the twists and the layers to the characters and situations were done exceptionally well. However, when the big ending reveal came I just felt a little underwhelmed at how quickly the big reveal was done and then how quickly it was resolved as well. The whole reveal scene and resolution felt a little rushed, to be honest as if the author might have realized she needed to wrap everything up in a way that made sense.
Lastly, the only other thing about this book that I had an issue with was that there still seemed to be one remaining plot hole at the end. I won't say what that plot hole was because it would ruin some pretty big things in the book. However, everything was resolved in the end, and it was resolved quite well, except for this one thing, and it was not the thing related to the cliffhanger ending. I am just a little disappointed by this since everything else was resolved so cleanly. I am hoping that this gets resolved in the next book, which I cannot wait to get.
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
(Mom do not read this book) I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes any of the following: murder mysteries, supernatural stories, magic with a structure, dark fantasy, dark academia, and anyone who likes realistic characters. The writing in this book was incredibly well done, with realistic characters who were flawed, interesting events that kept me guessing right up until the very end, and an ending that will have you shouting "No way!" as you read it. If you haven't already added this to your To Be Read pile I recommend you add it and move it right to the top. You won't be sorry.
