Ninth House

"The best fantasy novel I’ve read in years, because it’s about real people... Impossible to put down." —Stephen King

The smash New York Times bestseller from Leigh Bardugo, a mesmerizing tale of power, privilege, and dark magic set among the Ivy League elite.


Goodreads Choice Award Winner
Locus Finalist

Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. In fact, by age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most prestigious universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. Their eight windowless “tombs” are the well-known haunts of the rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street’s biggest players. But their occult activities are more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive. They tamper with forbidden magic. They raise the dead. And, sometimes, they prey on the living.

Don't miss the highly-anticipated sequel, Hell Bent.

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Published Oct 20, 2020

476 pages

Average rating: 7.47

851 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *Ninth House* offers a dark, original take on magic woven into Yale’s secret societies, praised for strong world-building and complex char...

sneed
Jun 18, 2025
8/10 stars
I had high expectations for this book, and then I had a really hard time getting into it and worried it was gonna horrendously fail those expectations, but I was wrong and LB delivered, as always
bizzyyoung
Oct 12, 2023
10/10 stars
Leigh Bardugo masterfully weaves magic into our world in a dark and sinister way, complete with class politics.
Dreacakes22
Jun 05, 2023
9/10 stars
Loved every character and the development. Very well executed. Had me hooked from the first chapter
TheCleverReader
Feb 03, 2023
6/10 stars
I've got to take some time to figure out my thoughts on this one. RTC after tonight's bookclub discussion.

Update:

Book club definitely allowed me to see things in a different perspective for this one but I still feel the same as I did before. I think the concept was interesting and the mystery got better in the end. BUT, I felt that the sexual abuse scenes were unnecessary to the story and were used as a shock factor for getting the point across in a lot of ways. I felt that one of those scenes in particular was used to turn someone into a villain when that could've been done any other way and would've been successful.

I also struggled a great deal, especially in the beginning, with the pacing. I had a very difficult time keeping up with what was going on and felt that there was more information than was needed to describe things. I listened to the audio and found that I could only listen for an hour or two at a time for the first 2/3 rds of the book.

I really wanted to enjoy and love this book so I am disappointed I didn't feel that way. I am still debating on whether I will read the next one or not.
Mary Raven
Jan 28, 2023
8/10 stars
I’m sad there is no more of this book to read. I hate waiting for the next installment(s).

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