Critical Review: "Ninth House" by Leigh Bardugo

Quick Summary

Type: Novel, book 1 of Alex Stern series

Genre: Fantasy, thriller

Back Cover: "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. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive."

Read Time: 6 days

Rating: 2.25 stars

Review

I'm having trouble getting through this book, so like always with books of this type, I'm going to start my review while I'm still reading.

The big thing I'm struggling with right now is the braided timeline. The book starts in a time period after the climax of the book (which seems to be some kind of murder, we'll find out soon enough). Then it jumps back to two different time periods, one written from Darlington's POV, the other from Alex's POV. But the way it jumps back and forth is making it really hard for me to get into the story. I'm intrigued by the murder of Tara Hutchins and by how Darlington ends up dying, but the way it's told is so confusing that even though I'm intrigued, I'm not sure I want to really get invested in the story.

Also, at one point, the assertion is made - by the author, who is herself a Yale graduate - that Yale is "less Ivy" than the other Ivies. What is the author on? Yale is one of the most Ivy Ivies out there. They're right up there with Harvard in terms of prestigiousness. How am I supposed to take the book seriously if it's making ridiculous claims like that?

I wonder if I'm supposed to find Alex so annoying and exhausting. She's been giving some pretty great opportunities and yes - Lethe should have stepped in earlier - but why can't she apply herself to her classes, to her research? And why does she have to be such a smart ass all the time?

Finally, at around the (I think) 60% mark, the fall timeline ends with Darlington being eaten (as we later discover) and the book becomes much more interesting. The murder investigations are coming to an end, and there's a lot more actual action. That being said, I never warmed up to Alex.

But when the timeline catches back up to the spring timeline, I have some issues with the first chapter, the 'teaser' chapter. This chapter makes it seem that Alex is responsible for a murder (she is, but not the one the story makes it seem she's responsible for) and it makes it seem like Darlington is still alive because he didn't cancel the credit card that she's using. The reason this misdirection bothers me is because, in hindsight, this is not how Alex would be thinking of the events that happened. The first chapter and the later chapters do not have the same narrative tone, and that bothers me.

The twist with Daisy/Professor Belbalm was interesting, though I wish it hadn't been so out of left field. I would have liked clues to point to the fact that they were the same person. The twist with Dean Sandow was also good, and had way more clues pointing toward it so it was also more satisfying. His death, however, was less satisfying.

I was also disappointed by Alex's newfound powers. Prior to the second-to-last chapter of the book, Alex's powers grew slowly and steadily, but besides seeing Grays and allowing them to possess her, she's not super powerful. Then all of a sudden, she is? It makes it seem like the author was stuck in a corner and really needed a magic way out. It was disappointing.

Finally, I found it funny that you can tell which secret society the author belonged to at Yale. Given that all but one of the secret societies are at some point suspected of being involved with the murder of Tara Hutchins and/or completely disparaged and/or positioned as exceedingly dangerous and not-to-be-trusted, the one that's treated nicely is clearly the one Bardugo was part of. I googled it, and sure enough, I was right. Also, listing the secret society you were part of on your Wikipedia page defeats the point of a secret society.