Victoria Moschou's Blog, page 41
September 10, 2020
BOOK REVIEW: Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo ~ The book you didn’t know you had to read!
“Take courage; no one is immortal.”
~ Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo
Hello awesome nerds, happy Thursday everyone and welcome to this review that should’ve been written long ago. Because I should’ve read Ninth House ages ago. But, better late than never, and so here I am today to share with you my SPOILER FREE review, along with my thoughts and feelings regarding this beauty that you didn’t know you had to read. Yes, yes… I’m talking about you over there.
*TRIGGER WARNINGS: DRUG USE AND DEALING, DEPRESSION, SUICIDE ATTEMPTS, RAPE ATTEMPTS AND RAPE, MURDER ATTEMPTS AND MURDER*
[image error]
“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.”
Oh man… We’re not in Kansas YA anymore!
Ninth House is Leigh Bardugo’s first Adult Paranormal novel and the first book in the Alex Stern series.
Having already read The Language of Thorns and Six of Crows, I knew what to expect in terms of writing style and narration. It is always the gothic, complex, well-developed characters and their smart mouths that hook me, in every single one of Bardugo’s books. It is the effortless way this writer has to transport you into her world and make you part of her story, that always grabs my attention. And, oh boy, the plot twists! The ones you don’t see coming. That’s probably the best of it all!
But that wasn’t really the case with Ninth House. At least not straight from the beginning.
“Mors irrumat omnia. Death fucks us all.”
~ Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo
[image error]
Ninth House is probably the most complex book I’ve read these past couple of years. With a dual POV and time jumping back and forth, it was hard for me at first to understand what was happening, who was who, and why the characters were doing what they were doing.
Maybe it had to do with the fact that when I originally started reading the book, back in November 2019, I was in a small reading slump and this book didn’t make things easier for me. Back then I needed something to excite me straight from the beginning. Ninth House was slow, at least for my preferences. When I picked it up again last month, I realised that it was all worth it.
A piece of advice if you’re struggling with this book: try the audiobook. The narrators are amazing, you get the dark vibe in an instant and it’ll make your reading experience so much more enjoyable.
That’s what happened to me, at least. I used both the physical copy and the audiobook to complete Ninth House. It was amazing. I loved that it felt so up-to-date, but also mysterious and gothic, with all the secret societies and the urban kind of magic.
I loved the Yale vibes I got from it, but also the fact that the story itself took place in the actual, real world as well, which isn’t always so Ivy League. I mean, come on! Murders and drug dealing and rape attempts aren’t things you expect to happen in an Ivy League school, right?
And yet, they were mentioned in Ninth House!
What I loved the most, well, of course were the characters of this novel!
Alex and Darlington, Dawes and Mercy, even Moira, Alex’s mom, they all had something to add and contribute to the story. I loved that they weren’t perfect by any means, they had their talents, but also their weaknesses, and they felt like actual, real people.
Being 27 myself, it feels, I don’t know, more familiar to me right now, to read about people in their late teens or early twenties. Their interests, their problems, their hopes and struggles, all of them feel more interesting and fascinating to me, probably because I’m at the exact same phase.
I ended up rating Ninth House with 4 out of 5 stars, mostly because of the complexity of it and the fact that I didn’t feel hooked from the very first page.
To sum up, there’s only one more thing I’m gonna say about that book: it needs to be read when the timing is right! But, I do believe that you guys need to read it, especially if love the Steven King-kind of novels, Urban Fantasy and the Charmed kind of magic.
Have you guys read Ninth House? If so, and without spoiling anything, did you see the finale coming? Are you as excited as I am to read the sequel?
Thank you so much, dearies, for stopping by once again. It truly means the world to me and I want you to know that I most certainly don’t take your presence here for granted.
Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings in the comment section down below, don’t forget to like and subscribe, and let me know which review you’d like to read next.
Love you all to Pluto and back! 
BOOK REVIEW: Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo ~ The book you didn’t know you had to read!
“Take courage; no one is immortal.”
~ Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo
Hello awesome nerds, happy Thursday everyone and welcome to this review that should’ve been written long ago. Because I should’ve read Ninth House ages ago. But, better late than never, and so here I am today to share with you my SPOILER FREE review, along with my thoughts and feelings regarding this beauty that you didn’t know you had to read. Yes, yes… I’m talking about you over there.
*TRIGGER WARNINGS: DRUG USE AND DEALING, DEPRESSION, SUICIDE ATTEMPTS, RAPE ATTEMPTS AND RAPE, MURDER ATTEMPTS AND MURDER*
[image error]
“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.”
Oh man… We’re not in Kansas YA anymore!
Ninth House is Leigh Bardugo’s first Adult Paranormal novel and the first book in the Alex Stern series.
Having already read The Language of Thorns and Six of Crows, I knew what to expect in terms of writing style and narration. It is always the gothic, complex, well-developed characters and their smart mouths that hook me, in every single one of Bardugo’s books. It is the effortless way this writer has to transport you into her world and make you part of her story, that always grabs my attention. And, oh boy, the plot twists! The ones you don’t see coming. That’s probably the best of it all!
But that wasn’t really the case with Ninth House. At least not straight from the beginning.
“Mors irrumat omnia. Death fucks us all.”
~ Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo
[image error]
Ninth House is probably the most complex book I’ve read these past couple of years. With a dual POV and time jumping back and forth, it was hard for me at first to understand what was happening, who was who, and why the characters were doing what they were doing.
Maybe it had to do with the fact that when I originally started reading the book, back in November 2019, I was in a small reading slump and this book didn’t make things easier for me. Back then I needed something to excite me straight from the beginning. Ninth House was slow, at least for my preferences. When I picked it up again last month, I realised that it was all worth it.
A piece of advice if you’re struggling with this book: try the audiobook. The narrators are amazing, you get the dark vibe in an instant and it’ll make your reading experience so much more enjoyable.
That’s what happened to me, at least. I used both the physical copy and the audiobook to complete Ninth House. It was amazing. I loved that it felt so up-to-date, but also mysterious and gothic, with all the secret societies and the urban kind of magic.
I loved the Yale vibes I got from it, but also the fact that the story itself took place in the actual, real world as well, which isn’t always so Ivy League. I mean, come on! Murders and drug dealing and rape attempts aren’t things you expect to happen in an Ivy League school, right?
And yet, they were mentioned in Ninth House!
What I loved the most, well, of course were the characters of this novel!
Alex and Darlington, Dawes and Mercy, even Moira, Alex’s mom, they all had something to add and contribute to the story. I loved that they weren’t perfect by any means, they had their talents, but also their weaknesses, and they felt like actual, real people.
Being 27 myself, it feels, I don’t know, more familiar to me right now, to read about people in their late teens or early twenties. Their interests, their problems, their hopes and struggles, all of them feel more interesting and fascinating to me, probably because I’m at the exact same phase.
I ended up rating Ninth House with 4 out of 5 stars, mostly because of the complexity of it and the fact that I didn’t feel hooked from the very first page.
To sum up, there’s only one more thing I’m gonna say about that book: it needs to be read when the timing is right! But, I do believe that you guys need to read it, especially if love the Steven King-kind of novels, Urban Fantasy and the Charmed kind of magic.
Have you guys read Ninth House? If so, and without spoiling anything, did you see the finale coming? Are you as excited as I am to read the sequel?
Thank you so much, dearies, for stopping by once again. It truly means the world to me and I want you to know that I most certainly don’t take your presence here for granted.
Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings in the comment section down below, don’t forget to like and subscribe, and let me know which review you’d like to read next.
Love you all to Pluto and back!
BOOK REVIEW: Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo ~ The book you didn’t know you had to read!
“Take courage; no one is immortal.”
~ Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo
Hello awesome nerds, happy Thursday everyone and welcome to this review that should’ve been written long ago. Because I should’ve read Ninth House ages ago. But, better late than never, and so here I am today to share with you my SPOILER FREE review, along with my thoughts and feelings regarding this beauty that you didn’t know you had to read. Yes, yes… I’m talking about you over there.
*TRIGGER WARNINGS: DRUG USE AND DEALING, DEPRESSION, SUICIDE ATTEMPTS, RAPE ATTEMPTS AND RAPE, MURDER ATTEMPTS AND MURDER*
[image error]
“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.”
Oh man… We’re not in Kansas YA anymore!
Ninth House is Leigh Bardugo’s first Adult Paranormal novel and the first book in the Alex Stern series.
Having already read The Language of Thorns and Six of Crows, I knew what to expect in terms of writing style and narration. It is always the gothic, complex, well-developed characters and their smart mouths that hook me, in every single one of Bardugo’s books. It is the effortless way this writer has to transport you into her world and make you part of her story, that always grabs my attention. And, oh boy, the plot twists! The ones you don’t see coming. That’s probably the best of it all!
But that wasn’t really the case with Ninth House. At least not straight from the beginning.
“Mors irrumat omnia. Death fucks us all.”
~ Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo
[image error]
Ninth House is probably the most complex book I’ve read these past couple of years. With a dual POV and time jumping back and forth, it was hard for me at first to understand what was happening, who was who, and why the characters were doing what they were doing.
Maybe it had to do with the fact that when I originally started reading the book, back in November 2019, I was in a small reading slump and this book didn’t make things easier for me. Back then I needed something to excite me straight from the beginning. Ninth House was slow, at least for my preferences. When I picked it up again last month, I realised that it was all worth it.
A piece of advice if you’re struggling with this book: try the audiobook. The narrators are amazing, you get the dark vibe in an instant and it’ll make your reading experience so much more enjoyable.
That’s what happened to me, at least. I used both the physical copy and the audiobook to complete Ninth House. It was amazing. I loved that it felt so up-to-date, but also mysterious and gothic, with all the secret societies and the urban kind of magic.
I loved the Yale vibes I got from it, but also the fact that the story itself took place in the actual, real world as well, which isn’t always so Ivy League. I mean, come on! Murders and drug dealing and rape attempts aren’t things you expect to happen in an Ivy League school, right?
And yet, they were mentioned in Ninth House!
What I loved the most, well, of course were the characters of this novel!
Alex and Darlington, Dawes and Mercy, even Moira, Alex’s mom, they all had something to add and contribute to the story. I loved that they weren’t perfect by any means, they had their talents, but also their weaknesses, and they felt like actual, real people.
Being 27 myself, it feels, I don’t know, more familiar to me right now, to read about people in their late teens or early twenties. Their interests, their problems, their hopes and struggles, all of them feel more interesting and fascinating to me, probably because I’m at the exact same phase.
I ended up rating Ninth House with 4 out of 5 stars, mostly because of the complexity of it and the fact that I didn’t feel hooked from the very first page.
To sum up, there’s only one more thing I’m gonna say about that book: it needs to be read when the timing is right! But, I do believe that you guys need to read it, especially if love the Steven King-kind of novels, Urban Fantasy and the Charmed kind of magic.
Have you guys read Ninth House? If so, and without spoiling anything, did you see the finale coming? Are you as excited as I am to read the sequel?
Thank you so much, dearies, for stopping by once again. It truly means the world to me and I want you to know that I most certainly don’t take your presence here for granted.
Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings in the comment section down below, don’t forget to like and subscribe, and let me know which review you’d like to read next.
Love you all to Pluto and back!
BOOK REVIEW: Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo ~ The book you didn’t know you had to read!
“Take courage; no one is immortal.”
~ Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo
Hello awesome nerds, happy Thursday everyone and welcome to this review that should’ve been written long ago. Because I should’ve read Ninth House ages ago. But, better late than never, and so here I am today to share with you my SPOILER FREE review, along with my thoughts and feelings regarding this beauty that you didn’t know you had to read. Yes, yes… I’m talking about you over there.
*TRIGGER WARNINGS: DRUG USE AND DEALING, DEPRESSION, SUICIDE ATTEMPTS, RAPE ATTEMPTS AND RAPE, MURDER ATTEMPTS AND MURDER*
[image error]
“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.”
Oh man… We’re not in Kansas YA anymore!
Ninth House is Leigh Bardugo’s first Adult Paranormal novel and the first book in the Alex Stern series.
Having already read The Language of Thorns and Six of Crows, I knew what to expect in terms of writing style and narration. It is always the gothic, complex, well-developed characters and their smart mouths that hook me, in every single one of Bardugo’s books. It is the effortless way this writer has to transport you into her world and make you part of her story, that always grabs my attention. And, oh boy, the plot twists! The ones you don’t see coming. That’s probably the best of it all!
But that wasn’t really the case with Ninth House. At least not straight from the beginning.
“Mors irrumat omnia. Death fucks us all.”
~ Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo
[image error]
Ninth House is probably the most complex book I’ve read these past couple of years. With a dual POV and time jumping back and forth, it was hard for me at first to understand what was happening, who was who, and why the characters were doing what they were doing.
Maybe it had to do with the fact that when I originally started reading the book, back in November 2019, I was in a small reading slump and this book didn’t make things easier for me. Back then I needed something to excite me straight from the beginning. Ninth House was slow, at least for my preferences. When I picked it up again last month, I realised that it was all worth it.
A piece of advice if you’re struggling with this book: try the audiobook. The narrators are amazing, you get the dark vibe in an instant and it’ll make your reading experience so much more enjoyable.
That’s what happened to me, at least. I used both the physical copy and the audiobook to complete Ninth House. It was amazing. I loved that it felt so up-to-date, but also mysterious and gothic, with all the secret societies and the urban kind of magic.
I loved the Yale vibes I got from it, but also the fact that the story itself took place in the actual, real world as well, which isn’t always so Ivy League. I mean, come on! Murders and drug dealing and rape attempts aren’t things you expect to happen in an Ivy League school, right?
And yet, they were mentioned in Ninth House!
What I loved the most, well, of course were the characters of this novel!
Alex and Darlington, Dawes and Mercy, even Moira, Alex’s mom, they all had something to add and contribute to the story. I loved that they weren’t perfect by any means, they had their talents, but also their weaknesses, and they felt like actual, real people.
Being 27 myself, it feels, I don’t know, more familiar to me right now, to read about people in their late teens or early twenties. Their interests, their problems, their hopes and struggles, all of them feel more interesting and fascinating to me, probably because I’m at the exact same phase.
I ended up rating Ninth House with 4 out of 5 stars, mostly because of the complexity of it and the fact that I didn’t feel hooked from the very first page.
To sum up, there’s only one more thing I’m gonna say about that book: it needs to be read when the timing is right! But, I do believe that you guys need to read it, especially if love the Steven King-kind of novels, Urban Fantasy and the Charmed kind of magic.
Have you guys read Ninth House? If so, and without spoiling anything, did you see the finale coming? Are you as excited as I am to read the sequel?
Thank you so much, dearies, for stopping by once again. It truly means the world to me and I want you to know that I most certainly don’t take your presence here for granted.
Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings in the comment section down below, don’t forget to like and subscribe, and let me know which review you’d like to read next.
Love you all to Pluto and back!
BOOK REVIEW: Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo ~ The book you didn’t know you had to read!
“Take courage; no one is immortal.”
~ Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo
Hello awesome nerds, happy Thursday everyone and welcome to this review that should’ve been written long ago. Because I should’ve read Ninth House ages ago. But, better late than never, and so here I am today to share with you my SPOILER FREE review, along with my thoughts and feelings regarding this beauty that you didn’t know you had to read. Yes, yes… I’m talking about you over there.
*TRIGGER WARNINGS: DRUG USE AND DEALING, DEPRESSION, SUICIDE ATTEMPTS, RAPE ATTEMPTS AND RAPE, MURDER ATTEMPTS AND MURDER*
[image error]
“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.”
Oh man… We’re not in Kansas YA anymore!
Ninth House is Leigh Bardugo’s first Adult Paranormal novel and the first book in the Alex Stern series.
Having already read The Language of Thorns and Six of Crows, I knew what to expect in terms of writing style and narration. It is always the gothic, complex, well-developed characters and their smart mouths that hook me, in every single one of Bardugo’s books. It is the effortless way this writer has to transport you into her world and make you part of her story, that always grabs my attention. And, oh boy, the plot twists! The ones you don’t see coming. That’s probably the best of it all!
But that wasn’t really the case with Ninth House. At least not straight from the beginning.
“Mors irrumat omnia. Death fucks us all.”
~ Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo
[image error]
Ninth House is probably the most complex book I’ve read these past couple of years. With a dual POV and time jumping back and forth, it was hard for me at first to understand what was happening, who was who, and why the characters were doing what they were doing.
Maybe it had to do with the fact that when I originally started reading the book, back in November 2019, I was in a small reading slump and this book didn’t make things easier for me. Back then I needed something to excite me straight from the beginning. Ninth House was slow, at least for my preferences. When I picked it up again last month, I realised that it was all worth it.
A piece of advice if you’re struggling with this book: try the audiobook. The narrators are amazing, you get the dark vibe in an instant and it’ll make your reading experience so much more enjoyable.
That’s what happened to me, at least. I used both the physical copy and the audiobook to complete Ninth House. It was amazing. I loved that it felt so up-to-date, but also mysterious and gothic, with all the secret societies and the urban kind of magic.
I loved the Yale vibes I got from it, but also the fact that the story itself took place in the actual, real world as well, which isn’t always so Ivy League. I mean, come on! Murders and drug dealing and rape attempts aren’t things you expect to happen in an Ivy League school, right?
And yet, they were mentioned in Ninth House!
What I loved the most, well, of course were the characters of this novel!
Alex and Darlington, Dawes and Mercy, even Moira, Alex’s mom, they all had something to add and contribute to the story. I loved that they weren’t perfect by any means, they had their talents, but also their weaknesses, and they felt like actual, real people.
Being 27 myself, it feels, I don’t know, more familiar to me right now, to read about people in their late teens or early twenties. Their interests, their problems, their hopes and struggles, all of them feel more interesting and fascinating to me, probably because I’m at the exact same phase.
I ended up rating Ninth House with 4 out of 5 stars, mostly because of the complexity of it and the fact that I didn’t feel hooked from the very first page.
To sum up, there’s only one more thing I’m gonna say about that book: it needs to be read when the timing is right! But, I do believe that you guys need to read it, especially if love the Steven King-kind of novels, Urban Fantasy and the Charmed kind of magic.
Have you guys read Ninth House? If so, and without spoiling anything, did you see the finale coming? Are you as excited as I am to read the sequel?
Thank you so much, dearies, for stopping by once again. It truly means the world to me and I want you to know that I most certainly don’t take your presence here for granted.
Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings in the comment section down below, don’t forget to like and subscribe, and let me know which review you’d like to read next.
Love you all to Pluto and back!
BOOK REVIEW: Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo ~ The book you didn’t know you had to read!
“Take courage; no one is immortal.”
~ Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo
Hello awesome nerds, happy Thursday everyone and welcome to this review that should’ve been written long ago. Because I should’ve read Ninth House ages ago. But, better late than never, and so here I am today to share with you my SPOILER FREE review, along with my thoughts and feelings regarding this beauty that you didn’t know you had to read. Yes, yes… I’m talking about you over there.
*TRIGGER WARNINGS: DRUG USE AND DEALING, DEPRESSION, SUICIDE ATTEMPTS, RAPE ATTEMPTS AND RAPE, MURDER ATTEMPTS AND MURDER*
[image error]
“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.”
Oh man… We’re not in Kansas YA anymore!
Ninth House is Leigh Bardugo’s first Adult Paranormal novel and the first book in the Alex Stern series.
Having already read The Language of Thorns and Six of Crows, I knew what to expect in terms of writing style and narration. It is always the gothic, complex, well-developed characters and their smart mouths that hook me, in every single one of Bardugo’s books. It is the effortless way this writer has to transport you into her world and make you part of her story, that always grabs my attention. And, oh boy, the plot twists! The ones you don’t see coming. That’s probably the best of it all!
But that wasn’t really the case with Ninth House. At least not straight from the beginning.
“Mors irrumat omnia. Death fucks us all.”
~ Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1), by Leigh Bardugo
[image error]
Ninth House is probably the most complex book I’ve read these past couple of years. With a dual POV and time jumping back and forth, it was hard for me at first to understand what was happening, who was who, and why the characters were doing what they were doing.
Maybe it had to do with the fact that when I originally started reading the book, back in November 2019, I was in a small reading slump and this book didn’t make things easier for me. Back then I needed something to excite me straight from the beginning. Ninth House was slow, at least for my preferences. When I picked it up again last month, I realised that it was all worth it.
A piece of advice if you’re struggling with this book: try the audiobook. The narrators are amazing, you get the dark vibe in an instant and it’ll make your reading experience so much more enjoyable.
That’s what happened to me, at least. I used both the physical copy and the audiobook to complete Ninth House. It was amazing. I loved that it felt so up-to-date, but also mysterious and gothic, with all the secret societies and the urban kind of magic.
I loved the Yale vibes I got from it, but also the fact that the story itself took place in the actual, real world as well, which isn’t always so Ivy League. I mean, come on! Murders and drug dealing and rape attempts aren’t things you expect to happen in an Ivy League school, right?
And yet, they were mentioned in Ninth House!
What I loved the most, well, of course were the characters of this novel!
Alex and Darlington, Dawes and Mercy, even Moira, Alex’s mom, they all had something to add and contribute to the story. I loved that they weren’t perfect by any means, they had their talents, but also their weaknesses, and they felt like actual, real people.
Being 27 myself, it feels, I don’t know, more familiar to me right now, to read about people in their late teens or early twenties. Their interests, their problems, their hopes and struggles, all of them feel more interesting and fascinating to me, probably because I’m at the exact same phase.
I ended up rating Ninth House with 4 out of 5 stars, mostly because of the complexity of it and the fact that I didn’t feel hooked from the very first page.
To sum up, there’s only one more thing I’m gonna say about that book: it needs to be read when the timing is right! But, I do believe that you guys need to read it, especially if love the Steven King-kind of novels, Urban Fantasy and the Charmed kind of magic.
Have you guys read Ninth House? If so, and without spoiling anything, did you see the finale coming? Are you as excited as I am to read the sequel?
Thank you so much, dearies, for stopping by once again. It truly means the world to me and I want you to know that I most certainly don’t take your presence here for granted.
Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings in the comment section down below, don’t forget to like and subscribe, and let me know which review you’d like to read next.
Love you all to Pluto and back!
September 7, 2020
September TBR ~ The Books I Need to Finish
Hello awesome nerds, happy Monday everyone and welcome to another attempt to organise my reading month.
September always feels like a brand new beginning to me, probably because pretty much my whole life I was either getting back to school or uni or, for the past five years, back to tutoring mode. This practically always “forced” me to be more organised than I already am, and it made me realise I had certain spare time to do all the other stuff I wanted to do during the day.
That’s probably the reason why I stick to my September TBR. Well, most of the times…
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The books I want to read this month are, in their majority, books that I have already started but I either put them on hold because the timing didn’t feel right when I started them or books that I simply put aside because something else was released and it felt more appealing at the time.
Still, as I am not a DNF-er, aka a quitter, these are the books I want to read in September. Even if that means I’m gonna fall deep in a reading slump after this.
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A RIVER OF ROYAL BLOOD, BY AMANDA JOY
I’ve been reading this book on and off since last November, so I finally decided to finish it just for the sake of finishing it. It feels pretty slow to me, but it’s different and I really wanna read more African-inspired books, revolving around this folklore and mythology. I just hope that it’ll get better in the second half and the audiobook will also be of help.
MIDNIGHT SUN, BY STEPHENIE MEYER
I’ve been dying to read this book ever since I found out that it would finally be released. I now obtain two copies, both the US and the UK edition, so I really want to go back to the beginning and see thing from Edward’s POV now. The book may be ginormous but I don’t feel intimidated, as I’ve been rereading the entire Saga for the past few months, so I think I know what to expect.
SEASONS OF THE STORM, BY ELLE COSIMANO
So, this is a book a should’ve finished already but I haven’t done so yet, and I don’t know why. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read so far, the idea of living seasons is very unique and original, and I can’t wait to see what will happen in the second half of the book.
HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD, BY SARAH J. MAAS
Oh yes… Unpopular opinion here. There’s a part of me that feels terrible for not adoring this book and for not having read it already. But, there’s this other part that feels like something like that was sort of inevitable as a) I didn’t like the Throne of Glass series and this book reminds me a lot of that, and b) I was spoiled about something major, and that’s the reason why I put the book on hold. But I feel like the time has finally come to finish this, even if I don’t know whether or not I’ll keep up reading this particular series.
CHAIN OF GOLD, BY CASSANDRA CLARE
Honestly now, I want to love this one. Not just love, adore it. And I want it to be epic. It’s been a while since I read a 100% Shadowhunter book (The Red Scrolls of Magic felt more like a novella to me) and the Edwardian era is one of my absolute favourites, so I really want to just be transported to London, and live this new story to the fullest. Cassie hasn’t disappointed me yet, so I know that this is gonna be a journey to remember.
BREAKING DAWN, BY STEPHENIE MEYER
I started reading the last instalment of the Twilight Saga in August, so I really want to finish it before starting Midnight Sun. What I can say with utmost certainty is that, once again, this reread feels like a wake-up call to me and that I know I’ll feel irritated while reading the second part, which is narrated by Jacob’s POV. I’ll just try to endure…
So, these are the books I want to read this month. They’re only six but they’re all pretty big, so I’m still not sure if I’ll manage to finish them all. What I know for a fact is that I will try.
What books are you guys planning on reading this month? Have you read any of the books mentioned here or are you planning on reading any of them?
Let me know in the comment section down below. Fell free to share your thoughts and feelings about these books, and don’t forget to like and subscribe if you enjoy what you see here.
It is because of you that I keep writing, so I want to thank you once again for stopping by. I most certainly don’t take your presence here for granted.
Have a wonderful week, dearies.
Till next time… Toodles!
