Guys, as someone who literally has an entire shrine to the six of Crows,
Shadow and bone franchise,
I was shocked that I did not like this book.
And what makes me even more sad is
I’ve also seen a lot of people not liking Leigh Bardugo’s new book,
The Familiar. So, like,
what gives? Why.
Why is Ninth House and why is the familiar?
I’m hesitant to say bad because I just love Leigh Bardugo so much,
and I want to give her the benefit of the doubt,
but, like,
like this book should have been for me. It’s set at Yale,
if you didn’t know. I’m a New England girly through and through,
and it’s like a dark academia secret society ghost story.
But as the back cover likes to remind me,
the main character, Alex,
her full name is Galaxy. Galaxy. Um,
Alex is a nickname for galaxy,
and I feel like that just says a lot about this book.
So. If you didn’t know,
Ninth House is Leigh Bardugo’s adult novel debut,
and I feel like she really wanted to, like,
lean into those, like,
adult darker themes that she couldn’t really Lee in six of crows
or shadow and bone. But actually,
I feel like
the implication of darker themes in six of crows and shadow and bone,
like Anesha’s backstory or Nina’s backstory,
Kaz’s backstory. I feel like those implications of a darker theme
do a lot more than what we see
very explicitly in Ninth House,
while six of crows and shadow and bone.
The Grishaverse was just, like,
straight up complicated it in your face. Like,
this is high fantasy, and you better learn.
This book tries to have that complication,
but really, it just feels like.
I hate to say it, it feels stupid.
Like, this book has a sequel,
Hell Bent. And I’m one of those readers where, like,
even if I feel, like,
kind of mid on the first book, I’ll.
I’ll just finish the series.
I literally was just like, I.
I can’t read the second book.
I’m just. I’m done.
And it makes me wonder if just, like,
Leigh Bardugo is not in her genre.
Like, this is very much magical realism.
Her new book, I think,
is also magical realism or, like,
historical magical realism.
Maybe she’s just, like,
not in her element. And as a writer,
like, of course I respect her, like,
wanting to try out different things,
but I just personally think her found family
high fantasy world is really where she shines
in her world building and her character development.