Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo
I really did have a good time with this. I've been told for months by multiple people that I would like this book and honestly? They must know something about me because I did!
At first I was admittedly tentative... Super special admittance into Yale... Weird Main Character vibes name... possibly forced romance between her and the mentor character... I gripped my book tentatively in horror, wondering whether I would enjoy this and my fears were both averted and subverted. I came to warm to Alex as a character- she's got a little bit of that MC forced badassery and there's a few issues I have with her particularly towards the end but I'll go over that in a sec - her personal story is really gripping and tragic, her abilities of interaction with the Grays or ghosts is very interesting and I felt myself invested in her enough. The problem is that she's more or less second fiddle to Darlington imo. I really loved his character, he filled far less pages than Alex but definitely made an impact. I still can't get over that Alex basically allowed him to get got because he managed to work out what happened between her and Helly. But hey, we love our protagonists complicated. I actually just enjoyed the platonic thing they had going on before things went South. Literally I guess.
Turner and Pammie were worth noting- I definitely had a soft spot for Turner because his feelings about all of this is absolutely valid and correct. It was also nice to have the contrast of a very straight-laced and moral character thrown into the mix, helping for the greater good. Pammie's budding friendship with Alex was very sweet too.
On behalf of the mod team, I feel like I should apologize for the content in this. In all honesty, we try hard to make sure that books are appropriate before we get to voting but sometimes things genuinely slip through the cracks. This book is ADULT and very stressful. More or less the entirety of Galaxy's past is a written horrific panic-attack, that scene with the bathroom ? The magic presented between the different societies is genuinely really interesting to me - though of course when the 'subservience drink' was thrown in the mix, I knew that something bad was going to happen I thought that the initial ritual involving the surgery to read stock trends was cool and on brand for what one would imagine a dark society to do. I don't really have any complaints about how the houses, power structures, history and general vibes for the Yale societies were, it was all very much my cup of tea. It's got a little bit of that 'Harry Potter' energy but I didn't find it off-putting or too fantastical, just enough to fit with the tone.
Loved the ghosts and how they exist in the world, how they're repelled by anything that reminds them of death - carrying gravedirt, reciting poetry about death, places full of death are usually void of ghosts. Generally I was just really sold in how Bardugo presented this piece of worldbuilding - doubly that Alex's issues completely stemmed from how they affect her and that drugs were treated as a means to cut her off from the constant bombardment of the dead.
The mystery was fun, I liked that part of what drove Alex to helping the victim was almost like a 'what if' for her because of how she too, walked a similar path. I didn't have any problems with the pacing for the most part- I totally get that it's a little on the slower side but I was a big fan of the narrative choice to skip between different seasons of the year to explore the current events and the past. Generally I thought the writing was great, I think some of the dialogue was a little...clunky? Weird? I think it falls under the general problem of trying to make Alex sound too cool, I found it generally a little embarrassing - like when she was threatening a member of the shapeshifting house? Idk that might have just been me but Alex occasionally reeked of MCitis. Not being a Mary Sue but things generally just fell into her lap sometimes, repercussions only sometimes happened for her and although she's not intended to be likeable necessarily, it was a real draw back during some of the tenser moments in the Winter plotline.
Most of my negative takes come from how the pacing picked up a little too much towards the end, it felt like A LOT was suddenly happening at once. I really didn't know what to make of the conclusion because... why was Alex special? Did those girls not want to live hard enough that they couldn't fight Daisy off? I did like that we got some conclusion with North and that mystery (I also enjoyed North a lot as a character, specifically imagining the Kennedy style accent I gave him). I figured that Alex was not alone in how she can see ghosts but still it felt rushed, I'd argue that the whole pseudo-ending with Alex being disenchanted with the fact that nothing would really come from the investigation and that the houses involved would get a slap on the wrist/fines when a girl lost her life was a bit more interesting in a grounded way.
