“Ninth House” by Leigh Bardugo

I’ve got some serious catching up to do on my book reviews if I’m going to hit my target of 30 for this year.  Reading the books is not the problem.  Taking the time to reflect on whether and why I did / did not enjoy the read is a bit more challenging (but something I want to practice).  Plus…reviewing other writers’ works helps me refine my craft.

One caveat – how much I personally enjoy or do not enjoy a book reflects my own personal tastes and interests, but I try to be as objective as possible with any praise or criticism.

This week, I am thrilled to review Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo.  It is hands down the best fiction book I’ve read in a long time (well, the best fiction book I’ve read that is not by the amazing Elizabeth Chadwick in a totally different genre– I’ll review one of her books for the next go-around).  Synopsis is below:

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 bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world's most prestigious 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.

Needless to say, I will never experience the Yale campus the same way again .

Sustain:

·      The story. So…I really enjoy edgy (and somewhat dark) stories about the supernatural as well as mysteries that straddle the line between the possible and improbable.  Ninth House scratched all of those itches for me and then some without becoming a full out horror story.  My brain was fully engaged in understanding and trying to solve the multitude of puzzles woven into the fabric of the main storyline, and I actually liked the quick POV switches from chapter to chapter – they allowed me to understand the characters and background better. 

·      The world building.  The story kept me on the edge of my seat, but the prose was so wonderfully descriptive that I slowed down my reading speed in order to better savor the fascinating, intricate world of Yale’s mystical secret societies.  Having visited Yale’s campus a few times during my academic journey, I could visualize the physical and human geography of the place, but with the special twists of fantasy woven in.  Honestly, I wanted to be part of that world, and, thanks to Ms. Bardugo, I felt immersed in worlds on both sides of the veil…that is until real life interrupted.

·      The characters:  With one glaring exception (see the “Improve” section), the primary and secondary characters had plenty of depth and humanity woven into their various stories and, interestingly, they collectively covered a wide stretch of the American human experience.  I don’t know if I like Galaxy Stern as a heroine, but I enjoyed learning about her (I felt that way about several of the characters), and I was thrilled when the character I most empathized with (Pamela Dawes) began showing some rebellious sparks.  True to one of the book’s key themes – that nothing is rarely as it seems—the characters’ unique personalities, gifts, and failures unfolded so gradually that I barely noticed their transformation until I started the book from the beginning.  Absolutely brilliant.

Improve:

·      The climax / reveals. The only time I struggled with the story was towards the end – when the author made all of her impressive and surprising reveals.  I like complex plots, and this was definitely a complex plot with several twists and turns.  However, the big reveals were all condensed into a single scene at the end of the book, and I had to re-read that particular chapter multiple times before I felt like I understood what had happened and why.  In my opinion, the author could have dropped more breadcrumbs earlier in the story about who the perpetrators were, would have made the climactic chapter easier to follow.

·      The unexpected antagonist.  I don’t want to spoil the book for readers, so I will not name the character that I am referring to here, but one of the antagonists felt flat – they were somewhere between mercenary and bloodthirsty and too easy to hate or dislike.  Also, I personally abhor unintelligent villains, and this particular villain struck me as clumsy and grasping – luck and magic kept them safe rather than cunning or intrigue.