Galaxy "Alex" Stern sees ghosts. They've been a permanent fixture in her life and are usually harmless. But after one tries to assault her when she's a child, she learns that she learns that she should be afraid of what they are and who she is.
When she almost dies from a drug-related incident, a man comes to the hospital where she's staying and offers her a way out of her current life of drug dealing and violent men. He enrolls her at Yale University, despite her lack of a high school degree, and tells her that all she has to do is learn about magic, keep ghosts at bay, and regulate the wealthy magical societies at the university.
Not willing to waste such a golden opportunity, Alex accepts, and her eyes are opened wide to the type of magic money and power can buy: necromancy, teleportation, illusions. But when her mentor goes missing and a girl is found murdered on campus, it's up to Alex to find out who and why. With the magical societies involved and someone desperate to stop her investigations, Alex finds that the life she left behind isn't so different from the one she's living now, only the stakes are higher and the players much more dangerous.
Bardugo turns a typical college coming-of-age story into something much darker and fantastical, while retaining elements of everyday university life: looming exams, free food, and raging parties.
While I found this "Yale University" complete with secrete societies of privileged students who practice magic for the rich and powerful, I didn't feel fully immersed in it, either. I think part of this is due to the way Bardugo reveals the world. We learn about the world along with Alex, so that every time she encounters something new or brushes up on her magical knowledge, we as readers also get a quick lesson and explanation. But these types of reveals and our lack of understanding allowed Bardugo to make up the rules of the world as she went. That's why, to me, the ending doesn't feel earned. Sure, some of the set up was there from the beginning, but it also feels like she was using Alex's lack of knowledge about the world to give herself space to change her mind about what was and was not allowed in Ninth House. It feels like she made things too easy for herself, and the ending doesn't feel satisfying or organic.
I also just wanted more information about the societies themselves. Maybe we'll get more details in the sequels, but I was fascinated by them. I wanted more explorations into each house, who's in them, what their exact rituals are, and how those rituals have larger implications in the world, on a global scale outside of New Haven.
All in all, this was an enjoyable read that used magic to discuss things like privilege, money, gender, and friendship, but I would have liked a deeper immersion into its world.
7/10 📕