Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo is the first book in what I believe is going to be a young adult duology.
Galaxy “Alex” Stern, is not your usual Yale student. She is covered in tattoos, has a history of drug and alcohol abuse, is poor and just generally from the “wrong” side of town. After a horrific incident lands her in the hospital, she is offered a second chance, to attend Yale with a full ride scholarship. What’s the catch?
For the duration of her time at Yale, Alex must work with “golden boy,” Darlington, to monitor the activities of Yale’s secret societies. But these societies lean toward the occult and Alex’s history with “grays” is both a blessing and a curse.
When one of these societies steps out of line, will Alex have what it takes to keep everything under control while maintaining control over herself?
This is actually the second time I’ve started this book. The first time, I couldn’t get into it. It was just too slow to start. But this time, I enjoyed it. I think a lot of this is due to the audio book, I’m not quite sure the paperback would have captured me quite as much.
This book is dark and kind of gritty. Honestly, I don’t know how many times a character can believably get her ass kicked and still prevail, no matter how many magical interventions there are. A lot of shady things happen in this book and a lot of shady things are brushed under the rug. That’s one thing Alex has going for her, she big on not letting people get away with things.
That being said, I really wanted to like Alex as a character. I like I good rough edged, tough, female character but there’s something about her that just gets on my nerves. And there is absolutely no way her roommates or fellow Yale students would believe half of the lies she says.
I did thoroughly enjoy the twists at the end and only saw one of them coming.
Overall, this one gets 3.5 stars from me–the audio might even bump it up to 4.
That’s all for now!
-M-