This review contains some mild spoilers for Ninth House - no major plot or character spoilers are included. A list of trigger warnings can be found here.
You can read my reviews of other publications from Leigh Bardugo here: The Grisha Trilogy, Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom, Little Knife, The Tailor, The Witch of Duva, and The Too-Clever Fox.
When I first started reading this book, I was constantly confusing who the main characters were, since they have nicknames or go by their last names. Once I was able to orient myself into the plot after a few chapters, it was a lot easier to follow. Ninth House is very content heavy, so I found myself reading at a slower pace than I am usually reading it -- there is a lot going on all of the time, so I definitely suggest to take your time.
Reading about the trauma that Alex has gone through and comes to encounter, especially the bathroom flashback early on in the book, was heartbreaking. She constantly is trying to tell people what she is going through and what she sees, and it seems that no one will listen and those who do only use it against her or spread it like gossip. I could never imagine sending a child to one of those wilderness rehab programs for "troubled youth" like Alex's mother tried to do.
Darlington and Alex's relationship definitely starts off pretty rocky -- he expects her to do everything perfectly, and she has only been exposed to proper magic for a few weeks. He does not quite understand what she has been through and how she has lived her entire life seeing the Grays and basically being tortured by them for as long as she can remember. Alex is still discovering so much of the world that Darlington has been involved in for so long, but I appreciated the way that Bardugo is able to show the evolution of their relationship as they learn more about one another through flashbacks.
Dawes really is a mystery to Alex in a sense -- she is friendly, then turns cold, then agrees to help Alex but does a poor job of it. One third of the way into the book and I was still on the edge of deciding if I liked Dawes and if she was actually looking out for Alex. She did not let Alex know when Turner showed up at the medical examiner's office, even when Alex explicitly stated that she needed to give her a warning. She definitely grew on me as the book moves forward, and provides a lot of great back and forth with Alex.
I really enjoy seeing Darlington's past before coming to Yale and being a part of Lethe House -- watching him grow up and see his complicated relationship with his parents and his love for his grandfather put it in perspective to me of why he is the way he is. The way we see his development in flashbacks allows us to truly understand his character despite him not being actively present at Yale.
Alex may be spontaneous and make rapid decisions regarding dying and going to the underworld, but she is first and foremost a protector. We see her constantly trying to save and protect others throughout the book, whether they be dead or alive -- she fully embodies "girls protect girls" when it comes into play. Yes, she definitely does some questionable and perhaps unethical things, but she gets the job done at the end of the day. Her development as a character was fantastic, and we see her grow and expand into someone with so much more confidence than she started out with when she came to Yale.
The Bridegroom reminds me of Dorian Gray's portrait for some reason -- every time he shows up in a chapter, it has this haunting energy around him, from the way that he speaks to the way that he insists on particular things. He pops up in the most inconvenient times for Alex, yet also has a way of showing up in just the right moment.
Ninth House deals with a ton of world building and understanding the societies at Yale and what they specifically specialize in. Bardugo does an excellent job with character development and is able to clearly depict each character and the flaws they encompass. I definitely recommend this book to fans of An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson, The Wicker King by K. Ancrum, and Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.
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