Ninth House (Bardugo)
(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)
This was a book group selection. I don't remember what the other choices were, but I think they were all supernatural for October and Halloween. I'm surprised I finished it so quickly after getting off to a slow start. I didn't reference the maps of New Haven at all, mostly because I was reading an ebook, and it's too much of a pain to flip back and forth in an ebook.
The story follows the life of Alex Stern, in a non-chronologocial way. It's not told in flashbacks, but instead certain chapters take place before other chapters, or before the main story of the book. This made it difficult to get into the book. If I went back and reread the first chapter, I'd probably be very surprised because I likely remember none of it. Part of the confusion was the code names uses as titles and the fact that Alex's name is actually Galaxy, not something more obvious like Alexandra. And there is power in names.
The story takes place at Yale University where the Secret Societies are all real and have real magic. Each society has its own House and the Ninth House is Lethe, which watches over, monitoring the other houses. Alex is special because of her ability to see ghosts. And unlike the members of the societies, who can only see the ghosts as "Greys" when they drink certain drugs, Galaxy sees them in full color, and always has.
This obviously led to problems when she was a child because only she could see them, and she saw them all the time. This led to Child Protective Services being involved. We later learn that there was an incident when she was younger where a ghost was able to physically assault her, but no one could see it. This happens again at Yale. She used drugs to avoid seeing the ghosts, and fell in with a drug dealer. We learn that she was the sole survivor of an attempt that left everyone in her apartment dead. It was while she was recovering that this high school dropout was approached about a free ride to Yale.
Alex's title is Dante, who is the apprentice to Virgil, who is Daniel Arlington, known as Darlington. He is always a gentlemen and he is interested in the history of New Haven and the societies. He's preparing Alex to be the next Virgil. Many of the chapters take place after his disappearance, when he's supposedly away in Europe, but the actual disappearance is chronicled much later in the book, along with the attempts to get him back.
One night, a townie by the name of Tara is murdered in New Haven. She's not from Yale, but it was on a ritual night, so Alex investigates in case there was some rogue magic at work. Dean Sandow tells her to stand down because it doesn't appear connected to the societies, and besides, it's a funding year, and the Dean doesn't want to unnecessarily ruffle feathers. Detective Turner, known as Centurion, doesn't know much about magic or really believe in it, but he acts as a liaison between the societies and the law. He starts to reget that position. Alex also gets help from The Bridgegroom, a ghost named North, but you shouldn't call a ghost by its name because it might form a bond or connection with it. The nature of Tara's death connects it with at least four houses, between students on her phone, the text of her tattoo and the kinds of magic in play (both portals and glamors). It's a lot to unravel, especially with Darlington missing.
There isn't much I need to add because it's a popular book and anything I might want to remember is posted is a bunch of spots.
It turned into an enjoyable book but it became obvious that one plot point was going to be left for a sequel (or not resolved at all, but it was heading toward a resolution). That was a minor annoyance.
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