Ninth House - FutureLab

Trade Paperback, 459 pages

English language

Published Oct. 19, 2020 by Flatiron Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-75136-2

(1 review)

Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. In fact, by age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bedside, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. Their eight windowless “tombs” are the well-known haunts of the rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street’s biggest players. But their occult activities are more sinister and more extraordinary than …

Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. In fact, by age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bedside, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. Their eight windowless “tombs” are the well-known haunts of the rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street’s biggest players. But their occult activities are more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive. They tamper with forbidden magic. They raise the dead. And, sometimes, they prey on the living.

15 editions

Elias reviewed Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (Alex Stern, #1)

I guess I will be reading the next one...

4 stars

Content warning General spoilers

TL;DR — I liked the setting a lot, but the story around Galaxy left much to be desired

Galaxy and her story were average at best. I never found myself caring for her much, even after it was revealed what had actually happened at Ground Zero. I know some folks mentioned that the amount and kind of trauma she went through disrupted their suspension of disbelief, but honestly I feel like it's plausible enough. Life is a bitch and then you die, as the saying goes. I just feel like we never really saw her being herself — she was always responding to the plot's desire to wipe her and the others getting to the bottom of what happened out. I genuinely felt more attached to North, since we had some look into how he was feeling before his death and a real look into his motivations. His desire to feel alive again was charming.

I just wish we had spent more time with Belbalm and building up some curiosity about her. I know it's supposed to be a twist, but I feel like the twist should (at least to some degree) slot into place when you look back at the story.

I'm glad Darlington isn't dead, honestly. Kinda curious what kinda murder or other large sin Bardugo is going to put on him in the next book. I do think it is important that Darlington was thought dead for a bit — it gave Galaxy that push she needed to not be looking to others and being within her little cocoon of this more comfortable life.

Anyway. North ended up being kinda precious to me and I liked the interactions with him a lot. 4/5 in spirit for the new blorbo.