Ninth House features Leigh Bardugo's debut novel with a dark and entertaining premise, taking place in Yale University, with various Houses and Societies. In charge of all these minor societies is the prestigious House of Lethe, which stands guard to ensure that Yale’s dark affairs are not revealed to outsiders as it could lead to chaos for the university. Despite the various potions and spells, Yale needs someone who is able to see ghosts without influence for reasons that would spoil the book so I’ll leave it out. This person turns out to be Galaxy “Alex” Stern, who sees ghosts everywhere but considers it a curse rather than a blessing like Yale University does. After being offered a full ride to Yale, Alex instantly accepts in order to forget her past and appear normal to others. Alex is so desperate that, even when she is ordered to follow her superior, Daniel “Darlington” Arlington at every step of the way. But there is always a catch: that Darlington is able to see Alex clearly and is able to determine what haunts her. But, when a girl ends up dead and Darlington vanishes completely, the secrets of the House of Lethe and Yale are slowly being uncovered.
It’s obvious from Leigh Bardugo’s other novels, such as the Grishaverse, that she is fully capable of allowing readers to build a large fantastical world from simply her words. The Shadow and Bone series had incredible world-building with amazingly intricate characters that made you want to keep reading more and more. But, that’s where this book fell short. Compared to the Grishaverse, this novel wasn’t as nearly detailed or interesting. While the premise is much darker and graphic, I felt as if this could have 100% been more engaging. The world-building seemed pitiful and it was often confusing trying to figure out the different societies and magic spells in Ninth House. And, I feel like I should just say this, the characters were all flat and seemed the same. I tried so hard to like Alex but she came off as whiny and had no other personality besides being able to see ghosts. Darlington was also not the best character I’ve seen, mostly because his actions literally made no sense as he kept seemingly changing sides throughout the whole story. This book felt impossibly long and I wished that I had liked it as much as the other readers raved about it. I do like the cover though, but this definitely won’t be a book that I would recommend to someone unless they want to be put into a reading slump.