YA novelist makes transition
Ninth House Leigh Bardugo Flatiron
Already a hugely successful YA novelist, Leigh Bardugo is delivering fantasy to a new demographic. Her debut for adults, Ninth House, is wry, uncanny, original and, above all, an engrossing, unnerving thriller. The action takes place at Yale University, where magic complicates reality. Ghosts crowd the campus, and elite clubs capitalize on the power that pervades the grounds, using it to predict the markets and peddle influence. It is up to the student delegates of the House of Lethe to keep things from going supernaturally sideways as these organizations perform the rites that build their wealth and eminence.
Galaxy (Alex) Stern is an unlikely fit for Lethe and for Yale. She has no trust fund, no prep school past. Instead, she was a dropout and a drug addict. But Lethe recruits her because she can see ghosts. It’s a gift that has brought only her trouble and trauma, but it’s a talent they need. Lethe offers her an escape, even if it’s one that leaves her feeling out of place.
When a routine magic ritual goes wrong on the same night a town girl is killed, Alex feels impelled to investigate beyond her official capacity. She identifies with the victim, a town girl her faculty advisers seem all too willing to ignore. Alex’s peculiar gift opens new avenues of inquiry and draws her into a tense relationship with one of the most famous ghosts of New Haven.
The world Alex navigates feels intimately lived-in. A Yale alum, Bardugo name-checks New Haven’s buildings, streets, restaurants and stores. Except for Lethe, all the secret societies featured in the novel actually exist. These elements create a fluid feeling of not knowing precisely where reality leaves off and fantasy takes over.
Alex is a potent mix of flinty strength and raw vulnerability, and a brilliant instrument to channel the novel’s tone, which is simultaneously eerie and earthbound.
Investigative momentum propels Alex through some convincing misdirection before she comes to a climactic confrontation that resonates emotionally. Alex gets answers, but they lead her only to new questions, leaving readers hungry as a hellbeast for the sequel that is sure to follow.