By Caroline Foley ’21
I had high hopes before reading this book. I knew Leigh Bardugo’s work well and always closed her books sobbing violently and still processing the brilliance of her endings. And, not to my surprise, this book was no different. Ninth House was an elegant blending of genres jam-packed with history, magic, secret societies, and murder mysteries that only made me more eager to dive into the world of the Houses of the Veil.
Ninth House is an adult fantasy book set at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. It follows Galaxy “Alex” Stern as she experiences a rapid change in her life from drug addict to Yale student after she was found unconscious with deadly amounts of fentanyl in her system; she was a survivor of a multiple homicide with the victims being her old friends.
She’s not just a Yale student however. Alex was recruited by Lethe, a secret society of Yale that oversees the magic of the Houses of the Veil, societies that foster the most influential people of the world and help them gain power through dark magic.
Bardugo’s incorporation of the real history of New Haven only adds to the mystery of this book, creating a world too realistic to be fantasy, but too magical to be true. With appearances by St. Elmo’s, Scroll and Key, Book and Snake, and Wolf’s Head – all real societies at Yale – the story teeters between truth and fiction. New Haven does have its fair share of ghost stories. With its history of ghost sightings and strange murders, the city makes the story all the more realistic, even with its heavy use of dark magic, though the magic never feels out of place. The written version of New Haven seems as alive as the real city would, and it breathes mystery and magic.
It is Bardugo’s brilliant writing and mastery of storytelling, foreshadowing, and plot that makes this book so exciting to read. Even with everything you need to solve the story’s main mysteries, you will never see the twists coming, and she will make sure to play with your emotions every step of the way.
I highly recommend Bardugo’s work, especially Ninth House, as a wonderfully-crafted world with characters you will cheer for even in their most morally-gray moments. Ninth House, like all of Bardugo’s books, is not a book you can just put down for months on end, and even if you did, I suggest picking it up again: the end is worth it.
