Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Cover Art Courtesy of Goodreads

I am so mad at myself for taking so long to get around to this book. The hype surrounding this one was real, with good reason. When I heard what Ninth House was about, I had to snatch up a copy even though I've never actually read any of Leigh Bardugo's other books. It's basically the type of book you would write if you wanted to set a trap to catch me.

Secret societies and the occult? Seeing ghosts? Magic? Murder and some pretty disturbing rituals? A girl named Galaxy? COUNT ME IN. This one does need trigger warnings for murder, drug abuse and overdosing, rape (including rape of a child) and other sexual assault, racism, medical procedure descriptions, gore and other graphic descriptions. I know that sounds like a lot, but if none of those are triggers for you this book is an intensely wild ride.

In Ninth House, Galaxy (Alex) Stern has just begun at Yale. After surviving a traumatic and harrowing incident, she was offered a deal she couldn't refuse: free education at Yale in exchange for using her "gift" to monitor the secret societies on campus. But when she agreed, she had no idea what exactly it would be that she was policing.

I completely ate this book up. I was constantly torn between wanting to put it down to savor the experience and get to read it for a longer period of time and fly through it. I ended up giving in and flying through it. I loved seeing Alex grow and fight her own demons and really come into her own. I really enjoyed Darlington's character and would have loved getting more of him. I was fascinated learning about the different secret societies and their different types of magic. It's dark. It's heavy. It's twisted. But it's fascinating.

I honestly got a lot of City of Ghosts (Victoria Schwab-Cassidy Blake series) vibes from this one, but with a much more adult tone. 

Ninth House will also be developed as a TV series from Amazon, and Bardugo has also said there will be a sequel, so I'm super excited to get more Alex Stern content!

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars