Ninth House

"This is where you belong. This is where you were meant to bloom. Not every flower belongs in every garden."

It took me a few chapters to get into this story. There was a lot of information to take in and occult magic is not something I read a lot about. But when I started to learn about Alex and her past, I became really invested in the story. The background story is written in a way that's not too descriptive, and it makes you appreciate Alex' strength and resilience. A lot of people are raving about Darlington, but I didn't learn enough about him to actually really care. Honestly, the first 5 chapters I thought he was an elderly man 😂

"Dutch is harder to pronounce."

TRUE 🤓 I don't know what the connection between Bardugo and the Netherlands is, but in every book she writes she mentions the Dutch language or gives cities and people Dutch names (Ketterdam, for instance). Does anybody know why this is?

Bardugo pays attention to important topics, such as victim blaming. I'm glad she's doing this, because this issue sometimes shows up in very small statements or gestures and more people should be aware of this. At times it felt a bit forced though, like it didn't really apply to the situation but she wanted to make it work anyway. Other times it was very subtle but spot on.

I'm curious to see how everything is going to play out in the sequel!