Ninth House

by Leigh Bardugo

Ninth House is the best novel I have read so far in 2023. I haven't read too much fantasy and this definitely put a spark in me and I want to read a lot more fantasy this year, Hell Bent is on its way in the mail now and I can't want to see what happens with Alex and Dawes as they go to Hell to find Darlington.

When Galaxy Stern, aka Alex, almost dies in a mysterious multiple homicide, but somehow she was the only one to survive while her best friend Hellie, was not so lucky. Alex has been able to see the dead since she was a young girl, which got the attention of a society at Yale. To her surprise, when she wakes up in the hospital, she is presented with an opportunity she just can't refuse. To be brought into Yale's secret societies, with their magic and surprises at every turn.

Throughout her first year at Yale, her mentor Darlington goes missing, and she has to try and bring him back, with the fear that he could get her kicked out of Yale with the information he has on her. At the same time, a young woman named Tara is murdered, and Alex has to prove to detective Turner that it IS in fact connected to the eight power houses of the veil. Will she be able to prove the murder is coming from one of the houses, while also not getting killed?

I loved all the characters and how Alex really grows in this novel. In the beginning she is just a small town girl who got mixed up with drugs and boyfriends who beat her. But by the end she is strong and doesn't let the others walk all over her. I really enjoy Leigh Bardugo's writing and I can't wait to read the rest of her novels to include the sequel to Ninth House, Hell Bent. I also am going to read the Shadow and Bone series soon!