Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1)

by Leigh Bardugo

“If you want to get Child Protective Services called fast, just start talking about ghost dick.”

That was what magic did. It revealed the heart of who you’d been before life took away your belief in the possible.

theater kids with crests of sink-dyed Kool-Aid-colored hair.

Whether you made a deal with the living or the dead, best not to come up short.

Why do you think they built so many churches here? Somehow the men and women of this city knew: Their streets were home to other gods. —Lethe Days Diary of Elliot Sandow (Branford College ’69)

“Even alligators have parents, Dawes. That doesn’t stop them from biting.”