Review: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

 

It has been such a long time since I’ve last reviewed anything and I find it to be quite fitting that my year-long hiatus is broken by none other than Leigh Bardugo. One of the first books that truly got me into reading was Shadow and Bone, otherwise known as book one in Bardugo’s young adult fantasy The Grisha Trilogy (now being turned into a Netflix series…I feel as though we’ve come full circle). That being said, I must warn everyone now that Ninth House is very much NOT a young adult novel, nor should anyone feel that they must read this book simply because they enjoyed anything Grisha related. It is full of triggering content that is not geared towards young readers—things like (multiple) sexual assault, overdose, and homicide. However, that’s not to say that this book is only a graphic depiction of trauma. In fact, I found this to be an inspiring story for those who are victims and have felt silenced or ignored. This is not the first time that the author has written about abuse, particularly abuse against women, but I found this to be the most prolific in regards to discussing the aftermath of it all. 

I think that Bardugo handles these situations well, and I also believe that it is important to not shove these things under the rug and pretend it doesn’t happen…even in a fantasy novel where ghouls exist. The contrast between the horrors of the ‘other’ realm and the horrors of the modern world were vague, which is thought-provoking since I found the most traumatic experiences occurred in the scenarios where magic had little to no influence—something that speaks to the overall theme of the book as a story of survivors (even for the ones who didn’t necessarily survive, i.e. the “Greys”). 

The novel begins with Galaxy “Alex” Stern, a wayward Los Angeles native who awakens in a hospital room and is seemingly given a second chance at life far unlike any she’s ever known. She attends Yale and discovers nine secret societies all of which are part of the occult, dabbling in dark magic that often requires the sacrifice of a towns person for the benefit of performing rituals and conducting dangerous research. Half of the campus is unaware of the obscurities concerning the eight houses of the viel, but Alex is taken into what is considered the overseer of the occults—the Lethe house (also, the title, the ninth house). There, she is tasked with cleaning up the dirty work and keeping the bodies from appearing all over campus. However, Alex also has a particular affinity for seeing ghosts, known as Greys, that originally attracted the dean to her hospital bedside in the first place, much to Lethe’s leader Daniel “Darlington” Arlington’s annoyance. 

Darlington is one of those characters who appears a certain way upon introduction and becomes something completely else by the end of the story. I personally love him and find myself craving the second book because I’m so curious to see what is going to happen in regards to the aftermath of his actions in Ninth House. Without spoiling the book, I will say that there is a certain scene which unfolds at a Halloween party hosted by the Manuscript House where a massive amount of symbolism and foreshadowing (in my opinion) is revealed (also, the Manuscript party is described very whimsically and I think if I had to choose which society to join it would be there)…and this is probably when I realized I really love Darlington, particularly his bizarre relationship with Alex. 

I made a mental note not to bring up Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History” in this review…but seeing as that is my favorite book, I really can’t resist. Much like Tartt’s ‘dark academia’ aesthetic, Bardugo also portrays the forlorn and incredibly troubling atmosphere of a campus cult driven by idealism and nefarious behavior. However, unlike “The Secret History”, this book tackles the social division between class and race on a far more raw level. Alex is biracial and there are many scenes where she expresses her concern over appearing either too much or too little of one ethnicity, similar to her struggle between trying to fit into Yale while simultaneously resenting the overt privilege on display. 

One of the few issues I experienced with this book was the sluggish beginning, which I’ve noticed a few other reviewers also mention. At first, I was hooked because of the rich style of Bardugo’s writing. But then it became apparent that not much was occurring in the first portion of the story, and there was plenty of name dropping and information dumping that did little to help build the setting—rather, it confused me and I felt as though I needed to write down the names and backstories of certain people in order to follow the rest of the plot. But don’t worry! The story does eventually pick up, right around the time when the first corpse is revealed. From then on out, I was turning the pages at rapid speed. Another thing that was likely meant to add to the mystery of the plot, but actually confused me a little more, was the time jumps between chapters. The book fluctuates between seasons and goes back in time on several chapters. 

On a more mundane note, I found this to be a really nice transition for Bardugo’s style. As I’ve mentioned before, this is definitely an adult fantasy story…yet I found a lot of quirky and intriguing hints of previous Bardugo tales hidden within this text and it warmed my heart. (Another side note: the author definitely has a knack for never using a characters ‘true’ name and I think that’s wonderful.) Her writing style has always been unique, but I think Ninth House truly sets Bardugo apart from other authors. All in all, I can’t wait to read her next novel! 

And like all of my positive book reviews, I hope to create a spotify playlist for this story within the week! I’ll post a link once it’s live.