Leigh Bardugo’s latest release, Ninth House, is a thrilling mix of fantasy, horror, and mystery with dark academic overtones – the sort of story that grips you in its teeth and won’t let go until you’ve untangled every last snarled knot.
Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the definition of a burnout – a high school dropout at fifteen, working shady drug deals with her even shadier boyfriend, no real prospects for the future – but when she wakes up in a hospital bed after being found unconscious at the scene of a brutal multiple homicide, she’s met by a strange man who offers her a full ride to Yale. Why would such a prestigious institution want someone like her? Because Alex Stern has a rare and valuable gift. Alex Stern can see ghosts.
Now she’s welcomed into the magical world of Lethe House, the underground body tasked with overseeing the powerful and potentially dangerous magical works of Yale’s secret societies – old moneyed organizations whose members go on to become some of the nation’s most wealthy and influential individuals. But trouble dogs Alex’s footsteps even as she is whisked into the posh and privileged world of the Ivy League, and she must unravel the twisted mystery of her missing mentor and the murder of a local woman or risk a fate worse than death.
The author’s dark sense of humor and brilliant ability to create likeable characters combined with the book’s compelling and intricate plot make for a truly spellbinding experience. Readers will be counting down the days to the release of the next installment in Bardugo’s Alex Stern series.