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• Lindsey Dahling •'s Reviews > Ninth House
Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1)
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I should start this by saying had anyone other than Queen Leigh Bardugo written this, I would have given it 1 star. There's also a 90% chance this would be on my DNF shelf.
Things I liked:
1. Darlington
He was the most likable character in the book for me, but even he fell flat. I get it, Dar. You love the big old mansion you inherited. What else do you have going for you? (Jury is still out on that one.)
2. ....................
Welp. I've just realized that I liked literally nothing else about the book.
It's a no from me:
1. There's barely any dialogue.
I don't get it. Bardugo is a master at writing witty dialogue. SHE'S A DAMN PRO. Unfortunately, it hardly makes an appearance in Ninth House. Honestly, the real mystery of this "mystery" book is figuring out why the hell her editor would let her publish something that's 90% narration.
2. SERIOUSLY. SO MUCH NARRATION.
I really don't need the history behind each and every secret society house. I don't care about the exact layout of Yale's campus. Don't care about what Alex is wearing. Don't care about visiting the library for the 800th time just for Alex to learn nothing. I couldn't even care about all of the graphic stuff that people posted trigger warnings for left and right because it all fell flat. It seemed sort of rushed and pointless and I never cared that any of it was happening because she did that whole amateur TELL, not SHOW your freshman Creative Writing teachers instruct you not to do.
3. The graphic stuff felt pointless.
Honestly, it felt more gratuitous than anything. Did adding those elements really develop the characters? No. Not really. Alex Stern is the victim of horrendous trauma, and yet she still read quite vanilla to me. So then what was the point of detailing that trauma? (Jury is out on that one, too.)
4. IT WAS SO DAMN LONG.
WHY? WHYYYYYYY? I kept having to go back and reread paragraphs/pages because I'd realize that ONCE AGAIN my eyes had completely glazed over BECAUSE NOTHING WAS HAPPENING. And when something did happen...
5. ...IT WAS COMPLETELY FUCKING RUSHED.
I'm not exaggerating when I say the book will go on and on for several chapters without anything happening other than Alex walking around and the omniscient narrator telling us she hasn't slept in awhile. Then, SUDDENLY, Alex would have some random epiphany, she'd run out to investigate, would be completely right about 100% of her suspicions, and then it would go back to chapters of nothing. The end was even more rushed because everything was revealed/solved within a whole two chapters. THE BOOK IS 450 PAGES. YET IT TAKES TWO WHOLE CHAPTERS FOR PERFECT ALEX TO FIGURE IT OUT AND UNMASK THE VILLAIN. If I wanted to watch Scooby Doo, for both the repetition and the reveal, I WOULD TURN ON THE FUCKING TV.
Ahem. Sorry. Sorry. Going back to being objective and rational now.
Eh, forget it. I'm too worked up. Maybe I'll finish this review later, but probably not BECAUSE MY BLOOD PRESSURE CANNOT HANDLE IT.
Still love you, Leigh. I just need you to...not do this again.
Things I liked:
1. Darlington
He was the most likable character in the book for me, but even he fell flat. I get it, Dar. You love the big old mansion you inherited. What else do you have going for you? (Jury is still out on that one.)
2. ....................
Welp. I've just realized that I liked literally nothing else about the book.
It's a no from me:
1. There's barely any dialogue.
I don't get it. Bardugo is a master at writing witty dialogue. SHE'S A DAMN PRO. Unfortunately, it hardly makes an appearance in Ninth House. Honestly, the real mystery of this "mystery" book is figuring out why the hell her editor would let her publish something that's 90% narration.
2. SERIOUSLY. SO MUCH NARRATION.
I really don't need the history behind each and every secret society house. I don't care about the exact layout of Yale's campus. Don't care about what Alex is wearing. Don't care about visiting the library for the 800th time just for Alex to learn nothing. I couldn't even care about all of the graphic stuff that people posted trigger warnings for left and right because it all fell flat. It seemed sort of rushed and pointless and I never cared that any of it was happening because she did that whole amateur TELL, not SHOW your freshman Creative Writing teachers instruct you not to do.
3. The graphic stuff felt pointless.
Honestly, it felt more gratuitous than anything. Did adding those elements really develop the characters? No. Not really. Alex Stern is the victim of horrendous trauma, and yet she still read quite vanilla to me. So then what was the point of detailing that trauma? (Jury is out on that one, too.)
4. IT WAS SO DAMN LONG.
WHY? WHYYYYYYY? I kept having to go back and reread paragraphs/pages because I'd realize that ONCE AGAIN my eyes had completely glazed over BECAUSE NOTHING WAS HAPPENING. And when something did happen...
5. ...IT WAS COMPLETELY FUCKING RUSHED.
I'm not exaggerating when I say the book will go on and on for several chapters without anything happening other than Alex walking around and the omniscient narrator telling us she hasn't slept in awhile. Then, SUDDENLY, Alex would have some random epiphany, she'd run out to investigate, would be completely right about 100% of her suspicions, and then it would go back to chapters of nothing. The end was even more rushed because everything was revealed/solved within a whole two chapters. THE BOOK IS 450 PAGES. YET IT TAKES TWO WHOLE CHAPTERS FOR PERFECT ALEX TO FIGURE IT OUT AND UNMASK THE VILLAIN. If I wanted to watch Scooby Doo, for both the repetition and the reveal, I WOULD TURN ON THE FUCKING TV.
Ahem. Sorry. Sorry. Going back to being objective and rational now.
Eh, forget it. I'm too worked up. Maybe I'll finish this review later, but probably not BECAUSE MY BLOOD PRESSURE CANNOT HANDLE IT.
Still love you, Leigh. I just need you to...not do this again.
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☕️Hélène⚜️
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Jun 14, 2019 04:50AM
I feel your pain for sure 4 months before we can read her first adult book!
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☕️Hélène⚜️ wrote: "I feel your pain for sure 4 months before we can read her first adult book!"We can do this! We can survive the wait...totally...will be easy. Everything is fine. 👀😂 CAN’T WAIT!
I missed the day this book was given out at Book Expo 2019!
Lois wrote: "I missed the day this book was given out at Book Expo 2019!"OH NOOOOOOOOO! That’s terrible news! 😭 You were so close! It’s fine. October is soon. Everything is fine. Fine fine fine.
It's...not that important. I mean, the wedding 😆
Finally someone who gets me 😂
Feral goblin child 🍃 wrote: "It's...not that important. I mean, the wedding 😆"🤣 Hardly a memorable experience. A new Leigh Bardugo book on the other hand...
Kirstysbookishworld wrote: "Finally someone who gets me 😂"I’m with you. #soulmates
My birthday is in October, I'm so shocked that the world doesn't revolve around me and you're all more excited for this book, even if I feel the same way 😂 Also, congratulations! :)
Feral goblin child 🍃 wrote: "Yep, totally"🤣🤣🤣🤣
Catherine wrote: "My birthday is in October, I'm so shocked that the world doesn't revolve around me and you're all more excited for this book, even if I feel the same way 😂 Also, congratulations! :)"Your birthday is obviously the second best day of the year for all of us! 😂 And thank you! ❤️
It’s coming out on my birthday 😁
Ahhhhhhh! We’re so close!
omg, I hope you had an amazing wedding. Flatiron books should have given you an ARC for a wedding present
Thank you! It was really lovely. 😊 It was literary themed, so I had all book flowers and decor. And of course I had a Six of Crows table.I COMPLETELY AGREE. Their wedding gift must’ve gotten lost in the mail.....😐
• Lindsey Dahling • wrote: "Thank you! It was really lovely. 😊 It was literary themed, so I had all book flowers and decor. And of course I had a Six of Crows table.I COMPLETELY AGREE. Their wedding gift must’ve gotten lost..."
OMG! That is so fun!
Thank you! It was perfect. 😊
Oh shit that bad 😯 the reviews for this book are so hot and cold !!!
Uh oh, that can't be good. Looking forward to your review here Lindsey!
That's an uff. I hope you recover soon.
@Kaylanii—It’s...it’s not good...nope. Still can’t talk about it. The pain.
@Salena—Thank you! I hope I’m able to write it....someday...
@Sajid—Thank you for the condolences. I’m in mourning.
Hopefully you really like it! My fingers are crossed for you.
PREACH SISTA 🙌🏼🙌🏼
GURL YOU GET IT 🙌🏻
I'll be honest, I haven't read it yet (I have it, but didn't get to it yet) but when I saw all the trigger warnings all over my book groups I had a feeling a lot of it was just for that "shock value". I mean, there was a WHOLE LIST of triggers and for that all to be smashed in one book it just felt like she was trying to throw everything at this that could be considered "adult". But I could be assuming 🙃😆
As for the narration.. I honestly felt that a lot with King of Scars, that it was a bit more narrative than dialogue. Maybe that's why it also feels like it fell just a tad bit flat (to me anyway).
Thanks for your review!
Oh my goodness—I legitimately had the same exact thought! I even texted one of my bookish friends and said, “It’s like she’s not sure how to keep this from being YA, so she gave us a bunch of random ‘adult’ content.” We could both be assuming, but we’re definitely thinking the same thing. 😄 Great minds!KoS fell flat for me too. I’ll probably never be over it. At this point I’m almost afraid to hope the next one will be better...
Thank you for reading!
I'm really hoping it was flat BECAUSE the next one will be better. Like getting all the "boring" stuff outta the way and then the next book will be total chaos (good chaos). Or maybe it was flat because she gave Ninth House so much attention.
PLEASE YES. Let’s hope that’s the reason! Because I cannot fathom an entire series of this...It will be an entire series of naps for me. Which I suppose is fine. I like sleep.
for the life of me, I can't understand what you all see in Lee Bardugo. I disliked the Grisha series so mush that I didn't even try to read any of her other books. she's a fellow Israeli so I realllyyyy wanted her to be the queen you all say she is, but sadly enough, I really donwt see it.
That’s okay! To me, her writing in SoC is really immersive. It includes the perfect amount of dialogue and narration so that I eagerly turned each page to see what happens next. Totally get that she’s not for everyone!
This review is spot on 👌🏼
Thank you! Still mad about it.
Thank you for saying all of this. I almost felt ashamed because I didn’t react to all the trigger warnings. *shrugs*. And I thought the first couple hundred pages exhausted me. I enjoyed the sections of the book that didn’t actually contain any fantasy stuff. Lol
Of course! I know I’m dead inside, but those types of disturbing scenes should bother me at least a little bit. 😂 It was so exhausting to read! And nap-inducing.
Darlington was literally the ONLY thing I liked about this book and he was hardly in the story at all! Honestly, thank you for this review. I feel validated!
Absolutely! Thank you for reading! This book would’ve been 100000x better had it been told from his POV only. He was fun to read. Alex was.....blah.
Absolutely agree with everything you said. Wish there’d been more Darlington!
He was the best part of this book and deserved more screen time? (Page time? Eh.)
🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Agreed. This was a book interspersed with a catalogue of things found on Yale’s campus— and I care, why?. Stern and Darlington’s voices were interchangeable despite vast background differences— missed opportunity to showcase Leigh’s ability to write. I almost couldn’t finish it.
I kept waiting for the catalogue of Yale’s campus to be relevant! But...it never was.
Great review - I agree with so many of your points! And I, too, have liked some of her writing in the past... I especially appreciated seeing my impression that some of the "trigger" stuff was unnecessary echoed by you :) I'm not averse to heavy/dark subject matter, but it needs to have a purpose. It's almost like substance abuse issues and other past trauma are what makes Alex an "anti-hero" (because to your point, she is pretty vanilla otherwise), an equation that seems somewhat regressive and yikes. Of course, she could also just be an anti-hero bc she wears a lot of black and has tattoos (never got tired of reading descriptions of those!)
Exactly! And it’s really lame to use past trauma just to make the character seem “edgy.” A character can have a blah upbringing and still be edgy! Give the trauma a purpose—something other than shock value.SO MUCH BLACK CLOTHING. SO MANY TATTOOS. Did I ever once care? Nope.
I agree with you one every point of this review (except that I didn’t even like Darligton that much... I mean he was hardly there) and I’m so disappointed. It took me about 350 pages to really decide wether or not I would finish it, and thank god it was Leigh Bardugo or I would have stopped before page 50. The worst is the useless graphic and terribles things, as you said, it felt pointless for the most part. Really disappointing 😢
I don't think the trigger stuff is for shock per se... I actually think Bardugo had an interesting premise at the start, to inextricably link the protag's power to her greatest trauma. But the execution fell so short as to make all the trigger stuff come off as a cheap way to #1, automatically make the story "adult" (as you previously noted); and #2, quickly inject "texture" (motivation, etc.) into what is otherwise pretty flat characterization. I think between all the magical world building, the tireless cataloging of the Yale campus, and all the many tattoos (and characters somehow getting continually scandalized by said tattoos), she lost her way. But I meant to ask - your review indicates you'll still try the next one? I think I'm probably out - there are too many other books to get to!
@Apolline—It’s so sad it didn’t work out for either of us! 😭 Maybe our expectations were too high?
