
Ninth House
By Carrie R. Wheadon,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
YA author's adult fantasy has lots of drugs, sex, violence.
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Based on 1 parent review
Great book for adults, Not teens.
What's the Story?
In NINTH HOUSE, when Alex nearly dies in a drug den, it turns into her salvation, or so she thinks. She wakes up in a hospital bed with the dean of Yale sitting next to her. He offers her a place at the Ivy League school and at the House of Lethe. Her whole life she's been able to see ghosts -- or Greys, as they call them -- and the House of Lethe needs her unique skill set. Alex's Lethe mentor is Darlington, a Yale senior who knows how all the magical societies on campus work, what specialized and often bloody rites they perform, and how to oversee them so everything is safe and secret, and all the Grey energy that surrounds them is contained. Darlington doesn't have long to teach Alex before he disappears and she's told to cover it up. Just like she's told to look away when a woman from town, a drug dealer, is stabbed to death near campus. But Alex can sense this is a cover up as well, and the deeper she digs, the more trouble she courts -- from Yale's secret societies with too much to lose, and from enemies on both sides of the Veil that she can't even fathom.
Is It Any Good?
This phenomenal and mature adult debut from a popular young adult author Leigh Bardugo is more twisty-turny-absorbing mystery than spine-tingling ghost story. Half the time, the ghosts that main character Alex see are just a nuisance to deal with. She's been bothered by the "Greys," and sometimes harmed and harassed them, her whole life. She forms a bond with one ghost, reluctantly, to solve a crime she knows the university is covering up. The more she digs, the more fascinating the story gets. It takes the reader in myriad directions: to many of the secret societies, a frat house, a prison, a drug den, a professor's salon, a warded safe house with a magic library, and even on the other side of the Veil. And the whole time she's missing her mentor, the gentlemanly and chivalrous Darlington, who's disappeared. What happened to him could be even worse than what she imagined, and is yet another intriguing layer of Ninth House.
Without Darlington, and with constant threats around her, Alex has no choice but to cast off her new Yale persona she's tried so hard to cultivate. It may help her fit in, but it's the grit and resilience she learned in her drug dealing years that will save her now. This Alex is reckless and impulsive and gets things done. Readers will be scared for her every minute as the pages fly by.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can discuss the campus sexual assault in Ninth House. What's been in the news about similar scenarios (minus the magic elements)? How do the universities respond? How can teens heading to college protect themselves?
What happens with the video of the sexual assault? How does it spread? Are there videos of humiliations that you've seen? How can you stick up for someone in that situation?
Will you read more in this series? What do you think is next for Alex?
Book Details
- Author: Leigh Bardugo
- Genre: Fantasy
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy , Friendship , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Flatiron Books
- Publication date: October 8, 2019
- Number of pages: 480
- Available on: Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: October 21, 2019
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