Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo- GUSH

AHH! This book was a pleasant surprise, I haven't heard much about LB's first adult novel and I have to say I enjoyed it!! This was a must-read for my spooky readathon, and I knocked it out in three days haha!!

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.

SPOILERS

The vibes is this book are unmatched. The world building is excellent: deep, dark mystery; fascinating characters that you root for even when you don't agree with their choices; a twisted, original and unexpected plot that had me guessing all the way until the end.

Okay, so the beginning can be extremely confusing but basically here is all I know (which I believe is correct lol)- Alex is a member of the Lethe House, a ninth secret society that also practices magic. Lethe was created to oversee the rituals of the Ancient Eight and to protect the rituals from the Grays (ghosts) drawn to blood, sweat and human emotion that occurs during these ceremonies. The members of Lethe are responsible for setting up wards and speak lines of poetry about death to keep the Grays from breaking through the "veil" between life and death. Lethe House essentially acts as the watch dogs over the other magically societies ensuring that they stick to protocols and safety measure.

I loved this whole concept, which is also a very REAL conspiracy at Yale where LB found her inspiration. Just the names of the societies give me chills- Skull & Bone, Scroll & Key, Berzelius, St. Elmo's, Book & Snake, Wolf's Head, Aurelian, and Manuscript, I found it so fascinating how each society controlled and performed a different type of magic.

Galaxy Stern, what a name. She was THE BEST. The baddest, most raw character. She went through so much in her life and I honestly just want her to find her peace at the end of all of this, she is such a strong MC and I just couldn't get enough of her and her wit LMAO. Her and Dawes "Pammie" was the cutest shit. Watching their friendship slowly blossom and then at the end them literally being best friends... I am HERE FOR THIS. We love to see two capable, brave, brilliant women working together to save the world!!

One word: Darlington. Wow, where can I find a man like him? Do they exist? I really enjoyed learning more about him and his past, and the discovering the reasons for why he is the way he is. He is too smart for his own good a lot of the times. He is the "golden boy of Lethe" and just the perfect mixture of a sexy, refined, gentleman. I CAN'T WAIT FOR HIM TO BE BROUGHT BACK. He has to be alive...Right?

I really loved her writing style in this book, once you got the hang of the time jumps, it made the story flow so naturally. One of my only critiques is that the first 150/200 pages are really slow and had a lot of info dumping, and it took my a while to really get into it. But, once you reach that point, the suspense, the mystery, the dark tones, UGH perfection!! Leigh Bardugo does it again!!