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A review by jelkebooks
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I have been excited to read this book ever since it first came out. However, I have been putting of reading this book because I was just kind of intimidated by it. For some reason I thought this book would be a bit dense, and far out of my comfort zone. I am very glad I finally pushed through that intimidation though because this book was not that, and in the end I really loved this one.
It did take me a little to get into this book. We just get thrown into this world, and the different societies can be a little confusing to navigate. At the start the overall story of this book is also a bit unclear. However, once that came into focus I could not put this book down. It was just such a compelling read, and I was very curious to see how this mystery would unfold. Ultimately there ended being a couple of things going on, and I honestly thought some of these things might be wider series things. However, the ending of this book brilliantly waved them all together. It just all worked together really well. I predicted some parts of it but the way it all blended together truly blew my mind.
I also absolutely ADORED Alex as a main character. Her backstory was absolutely brutal, but also quite interesting. I feel like it gave her a very unique perspective within this world, and I adore how she fought for what she believed in throughout this book, even when no one else would join her. She's just such a good main character, in my opinion and I loved following her. The side characters aren't as well developed, mainly because they also don't have a lot of page time yet. However, there are some that I feel like are going to play a bigger part in the overall series and I am extremely excited to get to know them better.
The only reason this wasn't a five star for me was because I just still feel like I don't fully get how the magic nor the secret societies work. I feel like we didn't really get enough explenations for that. It still feels so vague to me. We definitely knew enough to be able to follow the main story of this book, but there were still so many aspects to the magic system that I truly do not understand, and therefore I just felt a bit lost.
It did take me a little to get into this book. We just get thrown into this world, and the different societies can be a little confusing to navigate. At the start the overall story of this book is also a bit unclear. However, once that came into focus I could not put this book down. It was just such a compelling read, and I was very curious to see how this mystery would unfold. Ultimately there ended being a couple of things going on, and I honestly thought some of these things might be wider series things. However, the ending of this book brilliantly waved them all together. It just all worked together really well. I predicted some parts of it but the way it all blended together truly blew my mind.
I also absolutely ADORED Alex as a main character. Her backstory was absolutely brutal, but also quite interesting. I feel like it gave her a very unique perspective within this world, and I adore how she fought for what she believed in throughout this book, even when no one else would join her. She's just such a good main character, in my opinion and I loved following her. The side characters aren't as well developed, mainly because they also don't have a lot of page time yet. However, there are some that I feel like are going to play a bigger part in the overall series and I am extremely excited to get to know them better.
The only reason this wasn't a five star for me was because I just still feel like I don't fully get how the magic nor the secret societies work. I feel like we didn't really get enough explenations for that. It still feels so vague to me. We definitely knew enough to be able to follow the main story of this book, but there were still so many aspects to the magic system that I truly do not understand, and therefore I just felt a bit lost.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse
Moderate: Misogyny, Rape, Grief, and Classism
Minor: Bullying, Physical abuse, and Racism