Ninth House
“The best fantasy novel I’ve read in years, because it’s about real people. Bardugo’s imaginative reach is brilliant, and this story―full of shocks and twists―is impossible to put down.”
–Stephen King
BOOK ONE of the Ninth House Trilogy
The mesmerizing adult debut from Leigh Bardugo, a tale of power, privilege, dark magic, and murder set among the Ivy League elite.
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 bedside, 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 forbid-den magic. They raise the dead. And, sometimes, they prey on the living.
US Retailers
International retailers
Praise
5 Starred reviews
from Kirkus, Booklist, Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, and BookPage.
Appeared on 40+Most-Anticipated & Best-of Lists
Including Time, NPR, New York Times, The Today Show, Cosmopolitan, Entertainment Weekly, Vox
“Ninth House is a lot of things. Its emotional superstructure is a fish-out-of-water story … And Bardugo lives believably in this first skin, this initial level of ugly duckling strangeness that is familiar to anyone who has ever gone anywhere or done anything new.” –NPR
“Simultaneously elegant and grotesque, eerie and earthbound…Wry, uncanny, original and, above all, an engrossing, unnerving thriller.” –The Washington Post
“Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House rocked my world. I could not get enough of sinewy, ghost-haunted Alex Stern, a heroine for the ages. With a bruised heart and bleeding knuckles, she risks death and damnation ― again and again ― for the people she cares about. I was cheering her on the whole way: from the first brilliant sentence of this book to the last. More, please, Ms. Bardugo.” –Joe Hill, New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2
“One of the best fantasy novels I’ve read in years. This book is brilliant, funny, raw, and utterly magnificent – it’s a portal to a world you’ll never want to leave.” –Lev Grossman, bestselling author of the Magicians trilogy
“Ninth House is the best thing I’ve read in a long time. There’s so much magic here that you’ll begin to feel it seeping into the room around you as you read, and characters so real you’ll practically hear their voices in your ear. Leigh Bardugo has written a book so delicious, so twisty, and so immersive I wouldn’t blame you for taking the day off to finish it.” –Kelly Link, author of Magic for Beginners and Get in Trouble.
“Mesmerizing… Bardugo’s New Haven is plausible and frightening, and I was one rapt reader.” –Charlaine Harris, bestselling author of the True Blood series
“With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels.” –Kirkus Reviews, starred review ★
“Atmospheric…Part mystery, part story of a young woman finding purpose in a dark world.” –Booklist, starred review ★
“Genuinely terrific…The worldbuilding is rock solid, the plot is propulsive, and readers will be clamoring for a sequel as soon as they read the last page.” –Library Journal, starred review ★
“Excellent…Bardugo gives [her protagonist] a thoroughly engaging mix of rough edge, courage and cynicism.” –Publishers Weekly, starred review ★
“Instantly gripping…Creepy and thrilling…The world of this book is so consistent and enveloping that pages seem to rush by.” –BookPage, starred review ★