Get to Know the Book
Title:
Ninth House
Author:
Leigh Bardugo
Published: 2019
The Story at a Glance:
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. By age twenty, in fact, 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 elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies.
My thoughts…
★★★★★
At first, I thought Ninth House was just ..okay. For maybe half the book, it felt a bit slow. Stille enjoyable but it jumps back in time a lot which is important for the world and character building, but I felt like it could move a biiiiit faster.
The story was also darker than I expected, and some scenes will probably stay with me forever, in a ‘this is an image I don’t really want in my head’ kind of way. 💀 So, as I read I was thinking “This will be a 3 star, maaaybe a 4 star read for me.”
But about half way something shifted. The deeper I got into the story, the more hooked I became. The last third of the book completely blew me away. Every time I thought, “Okay, now I’ve figured it all out,” another twist would hit and reveal yet another layer. The mystery and world-building are so cleverly constructed(!) I kept being surprised right until the end.
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