Book Blurb: 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.
My Review: Ninth House is Leigh Bardugo’s first step, or more like a giant leap, from YA fantasy to adult fantasy. This modern occult fantasy is full of rather dark adult content and comes with some hefty trigger/content warnings. I had a bit of a hard time deciding if I liked this book or not. I really wanted to jump on the bandwagon and join the group of die hard supporters but when looking at deeper concepts of this book and some of the ways in which Bardugo presents them, I just couldn’t fully support it.
I will
first mention the thing that I absolutely loved in this book and that was the
setting. Yale University has a unique and interesting history and Bardugo has
taken that and added some twists that make it even more interesting. The dark
mood and intriguing magical elements really bring the university to life for
those who have never been there or know the history of it and the area. And for
someone who has some knowledge about the place, it really makes you look at it differently
even with suspicion. The layer upon layer of world building is fantastic but I
did feel like it is a rather constrictive world with only the University being
explored and a touch on the surrounding areas. The second thing I liked was the writing style. Bardugo has a unique talent for writing compelling stuff and this doesn't fall short.
And as
for what I did not like... As a former
student of Yale University, Bardugo takes a brutal look at college culture and
addresses issues pertaining to wealth, class, privilege, and racism. The way
these things are presented is what kind of gets under my skin. I feel like Bardugo
is trying to make the main character Alex Stern as the underdog hero of the
story. She is the one non-white character amongst all the other rich white
characters. The problem is that Bardugo has given Alex every stereotypical negative
trait that is associated with people of color. Alex is a poor, uneducated,
fatherless, drug addicted brown girl and that just didn’t sit right with me. I
feel like Bardugo tried to make the character according to those stereotypes so
she can later have her come out as the hero and say ‘see, the uneducated,
fatherless, drug-addict, brown girl is the hero.’
Alex
experiences something in her life that sees her, a girl who is not really
eligible, being enrolled as a student at Yale University. Not only would it be nearly impossible for someone who has a very poor education to sit through and
process even a freshman course at Yale, but it is supporting that thought that
non-deserving minorities take the place of more deserving students just because
they are a minority. There would be such a gap in education, cultural
reference, etc for Alex in this situation and it was not represented very
strongly.
And
there were things about Alex that made her a bit unlikeable for me. Her sense
of justice is very self-centered in a few circumstances like when she fails to
save another character due to some information they have on her. At times her
reactions were inconsistent with the stress we are told that she feels towards
certain events that happened to her in her childhood. When this thing basically happens
to her again on a lesser level she brushes it off… I feel that is because the
other main character, Darlington, needs to remain as the perfect gentleman. Having
Alex react to something he done would destroy his gentlemanly reputation.
Overall,
I think the bad outweighs the good for me on this one and while it will be gobbled up by
readers who only read on the surface and want to experience the setting, those
who look deeper and focus on themes and greater meaning will be a little
unsettled by the way things are presented here. At this point, I don’t have much
of a desire to continue with the series. I am a bit curious to see where it goes
especially since there is mention of leaving the current setting to another
place at the end of the book, so I may pick it up to see what happens but there
is no overwhelming urge to get my hands on the second book.
My Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Where to find the Book:
Goodreads
Amazon
Publisher: Flat Iron Books
Publish Date: October 20, 2020
About the Author:
Find Leigh Bardugo on her website.
