Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo | a dark, atmospheric urban fantasy

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

October 8, 2019 from Flatiron Books
Urban Fantasy
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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.

5 stars

Ninth House was probably my most anticipated book of the year. For the record, here are some of my favourite things in literature: Leigh Bardugo books. Secret societies. Dark academia. Strong worldbuilding and a vivid setting. Characters that feel real. Ninth House has all of it, a tale of dark academia and privilege at the cost of others and murder and violence, all taking place at one of the most prestigious universities in the world.