Ropes Book Awards: Fae's Pick

Ninth House

Leigh Bardugo

485 Pages

Alex Stern is not your typical Yale university candidate, but it turns out that Yale may not be your typical university. Mystery and death have followed Alex all her life and when she is offered a full ride to an ivy league university from her hospital bed the questions are only beginning. What do they see in her? What can she see that they cannot?

After finishing up classes for the summer the last thing we might want to do is read a book that brings us straight back into the all too familiar college setting but Ninth House is not a typical college-based narrative. This tale has all the best elements of Bardugo’s fantasy worlds, but this time we’re not in the hive of Ketterdam we are in the underbelly of one of the world’s most prestigious universities. The mystery is shrouded in power, dark magic and the allusion of privilege that swims in the murky waters of Yale’s secret societies. Who doesn’t love a good séance, especially when Leigh Bardugo is at the reins? She blends the genres of fantasy and murder mystery to create an atmosphere pricked with intensity and suspense.

If you are going to read this novel, read it for the magic system. Some books have maps, some have elaborate family trees but this one has a table cataloguing the different types of magic practised by each Yale house. Yet another opportunity to assign ourselves to fictional groups. I’d be inclined towards St Elmo’s, I tend to be partial to elemental magic myself. Storm calling? Yes, please. If you enjoy dark academia, ghost, revenge and triumphs of a survivor then this book is for you.   

Dive into the sinister ways of Yale’s occult activities and follow the dark and compelling pull of this intelligent and cunning narrative!!

Content warning: Sexual assault, date rape, self-harm and mental anguish.

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