#adult novel

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you publisher!

I am really saddened to say that this is a DNF for me. This review will contain slight spoilers so please proceed with caution.

I honestly could only take about 150 pages of the book before I had to call it a day and move on.

The Ninth House is a story of Galaxy ‘Alex’ Stern, who can see ghosts and gets rescued from a life of drugs in LA and initiated into a secret society called Lethe who are basically like overseers of all magic done by secret societies at Yale University. The story jumps from Alex’s view to Arlington’s (her mentor) view to flashbacks of her growing up and her life in LA. First and foremost - nothing new, there are plenty of books about people seeing ghosts and secret societies at Ivy League universities. The first hundred pages are complete info dump with so much information that I had a hard time keeping it straight in my head. Actually nothing much happened in the first 100 pages except you get to read a lot about history of the magic societies and there’s a murder squeezed into them. You also do get a lot of scorn and disgust about how rich and privileged the kids who go to Yale are.

As if the info dump wasn’t enough to take you out of the story, Alex is also an ex-drug addict who is completely cured. It’s just not believable, not one craving, not one stray thought - nothing. I did not get far enough to find out how she gets miraculously cured, if it’s even ever addressed, but if it’s magic it’s just soooooo convenient and just makes it even more unbelievable. However, even this I can look past, but what I absolutely cannot look past is child rape.

That’s right - Alex gets raped by a ghost when she is in junior high. Rape used as a cannon in any book is bad, but child rape…it just begs the question - why? Yes she said that her book is suppose to be disturbing and shocking and I guess if that’s her main goal then she has succeeded. I just don’t understand what it’s suppose to prove. There are plenty of adult novels out there that write about adult themes without using child rape in them. It feels like Leigh fell into the same trap as J.K. Rowling with her “Casual Vacancy” - both wrote about insanely disturbing topics just for the sake of proving that they can. It doesn’t make for an enjoyable read or good literature and I do not think that it’s done in the hope for raising awareness of child rape and abuse - I think it’s just pure shock. Or was it done to make the reader like Alex? Because up to that point I didn’t, and now am I suppose to like her b/c I feel sorry for her? All that scene made me feel was disgust and confusion.

The one thing I did like about the book is the magic and the rituals - they were really well thought out and very interesting. I give Leigh props for that but we already know she’s great with magic.

Some people will not like me for saying the things I said about the novel or the author and listen - there is a book out there for everyone. This particular book was just not for me and if you like it - great. I think anyone who liked The Casual Vacancy or The Last Magician series will like this series as well.

~ Iryna