I originally wrote this review in January 2020, back when this website was still a twinkle in my eye (ahh I miss those pre-COVID days). I love, love, love this novel:

Leigh Bardugo is a bestselling YA writer known for her “Grishaverse”, an alternate universe she has created through her novels, starting with the Shadow and Bone trilogy, continuing with Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom, and more recently King of Scars, which is based on Tsarist Russia and is full of magic and the supernatural. Her books are being made into a series on Netflix (yay!), and I highly recommend them, if you are into the YA genre.

When I first heard that she wrote an adult novel, I wasn’t immediately excited. I realize that adult novels can contain magic and the supernatural, but that’s not what I think of when I think of adult novels, and I don’t read a lot of adult novels with supernatural and/or magical plots. For some reason I expected Bardugo’s “adult” novel to be completely different from her YA novels and more grounded in (our) reality. When I realized that it would, in fact, contain supernatural elements, then I became eager to read it, and I had a really hard time putting down this novel until I finished it.

Ninth House is a great book, it just doesn’t feel like an adult novel. Although it is based on a version of our reality (set at Yale University, where Bardugo graduated from, she name drops real people, like Anderson Cooper, Jodie Foster and a few former US presidents), it is a reality steeped in magic and the supernatural (a ghost known as the “Bridegroom” becomes an important character in the novel) and the protagonist, Alex Stern, is barely out of her teens at twenty years old. I don’t think this is a novel that will appeal to a lot of adult readers, unless they like the YA genre, or novels with ghosts and magic.

Even if you are not into the YA genre, I’m going to ask that you give Ninth House a try. Yes, there are ghosts and magical high jinks, but at its heart, Ninth House is a good old-fashioned mystery (this book seriously ticks all the boxes for me).

Alex Stern is a high school dropout who is given a chance to attend Yale University because of her ability to see ghosts, called “Grays” in the novel. While also attending class, her job is to monitor Yale’s secret societies that practice occult activities. There are eight different societies that specialize in different areas of the occult, all explained throughout the novel, such as prognostication (prophesizing), shapeshifting, logomancy (word magic), etc. One night a young woman is murdered, and Alex decides to investigate because she thinks that one or more of the societies might be involved. This is the mystery that propels Alex’s story, but there is also the concurrent mystery of what happened to Alex’s mentor at Yale, Daniel Arlington, aka Darlington. He is missing at the beginning of the novel, and the novel bounces back and forth between Alex’s present and the past, told from Darlington’s point of view, from when Alex first arrives at Yale to the night when Darlington disappears.

At first, I wasn’t sure if I liked the character of Alex. At the beginning of the novel, she is sullen and not very motivated; you can understand Darlington’s frustration of being saddled with her. But as she investigates the murder mainly on her own, she becomes a more confident and wily character. There is an enjoyable subplot where she gets revenge on a frat guy who uses magical drugs to make women (including one of Alex’s roommates) do what he wants while he films them.

Bardugo does a great job of creating an alternate, supernatural version of Yale University. The secret societies and the different types of magic associated with each one of them are well thought out. Alex’s interactions with the Grays and the lore that Bardugo has created with the Grays is interesting. I found myself Googling “the Bridegroom” to see if he is an actual ghost that haunts Yale (I won’t spoil it for you).

Bardugo neatly wraps up the two main plotlines, but also leaves room for the inevitable sequel. I did not want this novel to end, so I am very happy there will be a second one. I just hope Bardugo doesn’t make us wait too long for it!