November 2024 | Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo

[rapid tartan]

From <t:1730419200:D> to <t:1732924800:D> | Leader(s): @tiny raft

Book Link
Cover: https://cdn.thestorygraph.com/bjnz167fxa8omi71yu5by37c8763

ID: 671cd19a95b287f08598ee9f

[tiny raft]

For the month of November, this forum post will be for the discussion of Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

The server goes by Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), meaning that Ninth House officially begins <t:1730422800:R>

Please remember to use spoiler tags here and move to ⁠https://discord.com/channels/811077227449286667/1299697095892275272 once you've finished the book. There you can discuss the book freely and without spoiler tags.

If this is your first event in the server, our Book of the Month is meant for a large group to collectively decide on a book to read, and then discuss the story as we read it together throughout the month.
If you read the book within the timeframe, and discuss your thoughts, then you get the chance at earning reader points ❤️
You can find more info in our #faq

Happy reading! ☕

__CW: __
Graphic: ||Sexual assault, Rape, Murder||
Moderate: ||Drug use, Drug abuse, Addiction||
Minor: ||Vomit||

Announcement link: ⁠

[twin dew]

Another Bardugo book in the bag

[old spade]

I have this book on my tbr for forever so I think I will take this as a sign 😂

[twin dew]

i got a lot of Bardugo tbr, on the top of the list is the Six of Crow Duology a lot said it's good but it's not a priority right now for me

[rare ravine]

I'm excited to read this one! I put it on hold at the library and it looks like no one has it checked out

[scarlet bronze]

hello

[upper quest]

#media message I got this secondhand earlier this year, excited to read

[twin dew]

borrowed book 1 and 2 at the library. Hopefully the ninth house is good enough for me to read hell bent

[old spade]

I love Six of Crows!!

[junior flume]

i‘ll be joining this actually

[rare ravine]

My hold is ready at the library! Going to try to grab it today

[rapid tartan]

@tiny raft,@frank marlin,@desert pewter,@upper quest,@autumn compass,@drifting juniper,@flint hill,@limpid pike,@still light,@summer epoch,@gentle pulsar,@visual needle,@frail wren,@subtle tide,@bold dome,@surreal shale,@broken widget,@floral river,@weary igloo,@short tulip,@unique ferry,@scarlet bronze,@lone dune,@trail socket,@finite gust,@scarlet bronze,@bleak iron,@gentle burrow,@burnt comet,@mint tangle,@rose kindle,@queen tundra,@boreal tartan,@twin dew,@hollow pivot,@regal dawn,@old spade,@warm veldt,@dusky magnet,@fresh halo,@plucky solar,@empty crater,@outer rune,@onyx valley,@rare ravine

Gregg notification to let you know November BOTM has officially started! 🗣
Don't forget to share thoughts for points and HAPPY READING <3

[regal dawn]

Woohoo!!

[rare ravine]

Yayyy

[autumn compass]

sigh
A commitment is a commitment
I completely forgot about this 😭

[broken widget]

Just got my copy!

[upper quest]

[autumn compass]

I'll have to move one of the warrior cats books down to December

[formal chasm]

I'll have to move one
of the warrior cats books
down to December

- chombychomp

[autumn compass]

[tiny raft]

I warned ya, voting = participating

/lhj

[autumn compass]

Lemme adjust my schedule
I'll be back

Okay

I slipped this in

Time to check libby

[trail socket]

[autumn compass]

I got lucky

I'm ready

[upper quest]

Starting this soon

[autumn compass]

8 books for this month and 8 for the next

[still light]

[upper quest]

Prologue: ||that's... a lot to take, going forward. I enjoy the writing but I understand how it can get a little tiresome with time.||

[gentle burrow]

almost forgot i joined this, glad to finally have an excuse to read this book

[upper quest]

Ch. 1: ||there's so much going on are they using bodies for... divination? Organ trafficking? Will we get to learn about all of these characters we're being told about? I really, really like the writing. Promising start.||

[fresh halo]

Finally a kick on the but for me to read this one! Started it 3 times already but couldn't get past the first chapter

[junior flume]

oh no that is not a good sign T^T

[frail wren]

I've started this one a long time ago but didn't finish either haha

While I was enjoying it though, I'm just terrible

[tiny raft]

Same, dnf'd it before after the first chapter

[upper quest]

oop, I actually got renewed interest after the 1st chapter! just goes to show how different stuff works for different readers

[upper quest]

Ch. 2 ||love the suspense we're building. However... who names their kid "Galaxy" ||

[upper quest]

Ch. 3 ||"Quien se prestado se vestio, en medio de la calle se quito." – loosely, "those who dress on credit are undressed in public". Those who utilise that which does not belong to them will have it taken away from them when they least expect it. I'll be honest, I didn't expect Sephardic proverbs (Iberian Peninsular Judaism), but I'm happily surprised.||

[fresh halo]

Seems its not working for dutch people

[frail wren]

Haha oh is that it? 😂

[broken widget]

Starting this one

[broken widget]

Chap 1: ||This chapter has a lot to take in. But it got me hooked. Good start!||

Chap 3 ||This book has some very gruesome scenes, I like that its mature in that way. The plot so far with the society's and the recruitment reminds me a bit of the Atlas six by Olivie Blake. I really like the way magic is introduced and takes on form though I not completely understand it yet but for example the coin trick was very cool.||

[still light]

I am waiting for my book to arrive ahhh

[old spade]

I started it and i am confused lmao

[broken widget]

Chap 7: ||Wow that was a tough chapter. Finally makes sense why Alex was angry with Darlington about wanting to be rescued (or just told about the Grays) years before. Can't even begin to imagine that trauma, having to live with a real experience that would never seem real to anyone else. ||

[scarlet bronze]

Chap 1 || I always thought skull and bones were shady. I didn't know this was a book about cults. Got me interested. But those run on sentences are rough. ||

[desert pewter]

Chapter 1
||Okay, a lot is happening. We have magic (?), ghosts, prognostication (whatever that actually means), loooads of names and characters... A bit confusing, but interesting! ||

[scarlet bronze]

Chapter 2-3

|| Magic, like Dresden Files. I always liked this kind of stuff ||

[broken widget]

Chap 9: Omg that one scene with the || gluma was actually pretty scary. I wasn’t expecting to feel a little spooked out by a ghost. Her point about someone's attcking her because she was onto tara's disappearance is interesting.||

Chap 10 || "Alex Stern was not what she seemed" omg what does it mean ||

[rose kindle]

Starting this one. Only read Prologue and not sure what to think yet

[rose kindle]

Chapter 1 || I feel a bit like reading Gideon the Ninth again A bit chaotic and we don’t know too much but it’s interesting. Wanna see how this goes ||

[rose kindle]

Chapter 2-3 || We still don’t know too much but I like how it slowly unfolds. I also am glad it’s kinda more mature and we actually have some blood and gore scenes. I loved Six of Crows and this one has a potential too, I like the writing. I really want to read more about Alex backstory ||

[broken widget]

Chap 17 ||The end of the chapter was ...odd. who the hell is Alex? no one figured out except Darlington? I WANNA KNOW||

[desert pewter]

Chapter 4
||Wow,I loved the moths that drink ink, that is so clever and cool to imagine! ||

[cosmic cipher]

||I haven’t read anything like this before as fantasy is pretty new to me. So far the book has hooked me, I feel like we’re getting a lot from it already and there’s so much potential for it to go really in depth. There is a lot of keep up with however, but assuming as the book goes on it’ll be easier to remember who is who and what is what. Looking forward to reading more!||

Chapter 2 ^

[rose kindle]

Chapter 4-6 || Alex being mad is totally understandable. She was a kid and they still did nothing to help her, just observing and waiting for when she is old enough to use her for whatever they want. Darlington is really likeable so far, surprisingly for a “snob”. I wonder what really killed those man back then. Some ghost actually?||

[rose kindle]

Chapter 7-8 || Okaaay. Did not expect something like that, that is a lot. Now her anger is even more understandable. Going back to present, we know there is something more in this murder even if we saw now Lance over Tara before she died. I guess it’s just like the last scene but there was more to it before. Really want to know what ||

[broken widget]

Chap 26: okay can someone tell me whether or not || Alex really pushed Darlington into the hole because I think I’m confused. Did she push him or did she just merely witness him being eaten by this monster that was sent by the societies? Because I really thought she pushed him, but the end of the book makes it sound likes she’s putting all the blame on the societies for sending a hell-beast after him. So either she’s innocent or she’s just averting the blame. ||

[rose kindle]

Chapter 9 || Darlington screaming and disappearing and it’s Alex’s fault? I need to know more ||

[cosmic cipher]

Is anyone else getting confused with the names of everyone? I should’ve wrote these down😂

[rose kindle]

Actually not really. Maybe possible to google characters but I would be afraid of getting spoilers.

Chapter 10 || That was weird… But I wonder what does it mean that Alex is not what she seems ||

Chapter 11-12 || That gets interesting. Dean is sus still. Wonder if they will manage to get Darlington back because it doesn’t even sound like they really want to try. Bridegroom bit was interesting can’t wait to know more now we kinda have 2 mysteries at the same time ||

[cosmic cipher]

Yeah I think that’s what I need to do, might read over a summary of the first few chapters. I’m only on chapter 4 so hopefully becomes clearer!

[rose kindle]

Chapter 13-16 || I for sure did not expect this to turn so serious and disgusting. Those are so pretty heavy scenes and themes I did not really expect in this book. They are done okay I think so I don’t mind. Like I said before I prefer it’s more mature but tbh I am more interested in Tara and Darlington than anything else rn ||

[rose kindle]

Chapter 17 || Freaking tell me already who or what she is 😂 ||

[formal chasm]

Chapter 17 ||
Freaking tell me already
who or what she is 😂 ||

- introwertyczka

[rose kindle]

Thanks Haiku, very useful

[frail wren]

Prologue: ||Maybe she should get that wound checked? 😬 that sounds nasty||

[scarlet bronze]

Chapter 4-6 || Art Student at Yale. Already, my suspension is in disbelief. Not much else to say, I do like Alex and even more, the name Galaxy. I think Darlington is not just missing, but dead. A hunch. ||

[rose kindle]

Chapter 18-19 || Okay so it is something not a portal, Darlington disappeared and Alex didn’t help because was scared he will say everything about her being a killer. And she killed while possessed by Hallie. This chapter was pretty dark. Wonder if we get Darlington back? Actually hope so||

[rose kindle]

Chapter 20-22 || A lot to process. Lance going through walls and disappearing and wanting to find something in Tara’s room? North did kill his fiancee but at the same time it was not him. Something or someone was inside of him. Making him do it? Someone was doing some ritual on him? Sounded like he was possessed. I feel like if Darlington was looking into this it could be all connected to our case? I feel like Dean Sandow is just planted for us to suspect him but he is not the problem here. Someone else from societies is? Someone who gets a lot from them? ||

[rose kindle]

Chapter 25 || Okay that was wild. Do I believe Darlington is dead and gone? Not even for a second. Is he the hellbeast? Is he surviving inside this monster? One of those for sure, you can’t convince me otherwise ||

[desert pewter]

Chapter 9
||Okay, things are getting interesting...
I really love the descriptions, the thought of throwing up beetles will for sure haunt my dreams in the near future ||

[burnt comet]

prologue and chapter 1 ||a lot of things are happening and ngl I was getting a little eeby by the end of chapter 1 from everything that's happening cuz I didn't remember who is who yet. ||

[scarlet bronze]

Chapter 7-10 || Dean Sandow is shady going from associate professor to Dean, maybe he made connections. The town is poor and perhaps they did a ritual to make it rich. Whatever the case Tara's death is town related. Darlington is probably dead... Maybe. So this is a whodunit. There are a lot of tangent musings which breaks the flow of the narrative, and gets some getting used to. ||

[rose kindle]

Chapter 29 || So murdering girls to create nexuses? For societies? I wonder if there is even more to it. And also the shit is about to go down ||

[rose kindle]

Chapter 31 || I was not wrong. What a wild ride. Soooo where is Daisy’s soul rn? ||

[desert pewter]

||Yeah, I also have a hard time each time we just randomly go to Alex or Darlington's past, sometimes it just goes on and on and I just want to get back to the main narrative||

[cosmic cipher]

Chapter 9: ||wow the bit with the Gluma was so intense, it’s getting really interesting now. Can only imagine it’ll get worse for Alex as she discovers more about Tara’s deaths and the links to the societies. ||

[desert pewter]

Chapter 19
||Okay so this is why Alex's past is so important
I wasn't expecting this, the whole thing was pretty dark. Poor Hellie man ||

[autumn compass]

I'll probably start this tomorrow idk

[scarlet bronze]

Ending:

|| A decent who-dun-it, with a fairly interesting dark academia connected to the more famous not-so-secret prestigious societies. The magic system was interesting though I have not read too many of these. I enjoyed Alex, a shady investigator who doesn't mind getting dirty. The only weakness is the endless nostalgic meanderings of the narrators' storytelling while the plot took a long vacation. If I pretended that I read through the back stories with a fast pace, then the story was acceptable at the minimum. But from what you can see, I had already predicted who the villain was and what had happened to Darlington at chapter 6-7. Good foreshadowing or too predictable? Yes maybe to both. However the journey there was unexpected and creative. ||

[scarlet bronze]

|| Hell, maybe? ||

[junior flume]

i started this but then fell asleep for 7 hours

prologue: ||OK so i only know of leigh bardugo from shadow & bone and as much as i loved that book the writing was meh. her writing here is so much better!||

chapter one: ||if i‘m understanding things correctly i want to vomit lol is the ritual just a man rummaging through a comatose(?) man‘s gut no thank you. okay i don‘t understand anything, what are greys||

[junior flume]

i agree with you about ||the run on sentences, i‘m not understanding things as well as i would like||

[frail wren]

||Greys are the ghosts, from what I understood||

[junior flume]

ah thank you dees

[frail wren]

I started this earlier this week and am still half way chapter 1 😂

[junior flume]

im forcing myself to finish it today as i just KNOW that if i put it off and start another book i will never end up finishing it

[frail wren]

Haha yeah I get that! I just had a hard time focusing on reading all together, not just this book

[junior flume]

chapter three: ||a girl has just died and i‘m reading this book while eating so with the gore in this that might be a big dumb dumb decision i still don‘t know anything so honestly for me right now it‘s all vibes||

[frail wren]

Chapter 1: ||That was a lot of info at once! But it seems interesting. Also interesting we seem to start in the middle of the story kind of.
The idea that those ghosts can get attached to you if you get too personal sounds terrifying tbh||

[junior flume]

i am looking at everyone‘s spoilers to try and understand but i‘m glad that so far nobody is really understanding anything

[junior flume]

chapter six: ||whenever i read zelinski i just think of zelenskyy the ukrainian president so now in my mind he is here with these like teenagers(?) doing rituals in yale oh noooo also a grey touched alex bye||

[junior flume]

chapter seven: ||lol i just realised now that galaxy is alex‘s name also if i took some drugs/drank alcohol and the greys were even more present i genuinely think i would die of that||

[junior flume]

ok i‘m dnf-ing this sorry

i‘ve reached chapter ten and i still don‘t understand anything

[desert pewter]

this book reminds me a lot of Gideon the Ninth

... I didn't like Gideon the Ninth

I'm still having mixed feelings about this one, I am about 60% in

[summer epoch]

Chapter 1: ||It sounds really promising, even tough there are a lot of characters. It feels like a good book to read in november||

[scarlet bronze]

I haven't finished Gideon the NInth. You're right in that || both authors have a rough prose and they love to drop the readers into a world that is fully realized without any explanation, leaving them to piece it together piece by piece. They think these readers are already knowledgeable in fantasy so no exposition is there. It reminds me of popular science fiction, since this is how writers do things as well.||

[bleak iron]

I feel like it tries too hard sometimes and loses me

[autumn compass]

Well the poll I made has spoken
I guess I'm starting this tomorrow

Okay I'll read ONE chapter tonight

I'm actually only reading the prologue because I'm too tired for a long-ass chapter

It was alright

[plucky solar]

I just finished it. 3/5 Overall a decent read, somewhere in between YA and adult in writing style. Not something I'd usually read. The not-like-other girls rethoric and subpar romance subplot were mostly what brought it down to a 3 for me. ||The Darlington pov fell very flat, and I felt like the plot lacked some creativity, but that might just be thanks to the amount of fiction with the mc seeing ghosts I've read over the years.||

[desert pewter]

||Both worlds are extremely interesting, but in both stories we're trying to "follow" all the different houses, and the glimpse we have of each one feels short to me. That and the fact that we have different names for the same characters, that was confusing me a lot at the beginning, which also happened in Gideon the Ninth. For some reason, I don't have problem when this is done in science fiction, as you mentioned, but it just feels so weird and confusing to me on books like this one||

[hollow pivot]

Starting this!

Authors Note ||Not to be political but I know a lot of people are wishing very desperately for magic to fix the elections- I know I do for my country ||

Ch 2 ||so they want someone who can see ghosts?! but why, specifically? is there no psychic in Yale? Also I like that in Darlington's POV we see "the assessment results" from the girls LMAO

Anyway I really thought Darlington is an old man and thats why Alex really liked him. Apparently he's hot?||

||Also we dont have a chart or explanations for hierarchies right, or am I missing it? I dont understand the labels used- like what is Oculus and why is Pamela one, what's Dante and what's happening||

Ch 3 ||There are sooo many names and capitalized letter and I have no idea who is who, what is what. Payne Whitney gym? Is that the place name or is Payne Whitney the person who's doing the gym? This is a recipe for disaster because I wont be able to tell the people and the Grays and the place||

[frail wren]

Chapter 2: ||I somehow have the feeling we're getting a lot of things backwards in this book.. so more info about things but explanations in later chapters (hopefully?). Also what kind of name if Galaxy really ||

[hollow pivot]

still Ch 3 ||Genuinely why do we introduce Centurion first, then introduce Detective Abel Turner as Centurion, then we proceed to call him Turner and not Detective or Centurion because my brain's gonna be fried so fast||

I'm so happy I didnt pick this up last minute because I dont think my braincells are capable to juggle this

[hollow pivot]

Ch 4 ||More characters are coming but no explanations, I think we need to draw a family/relationship tree to keep track of the people||

[frail wren]

Chapter 3: ||That's a nifty little magical coin she has there, I wonder if we'll see more of these 'gadgets' and tricks||

[frail wren]

||Yeah I hope these things get a better explanation further along 😬 ||

[hollow pivot]

okay I have decided to backtrack the entire 4 chapters and make notes before going forward, hopefully this would all make more sense

[frail wren]

Chapter 4: ||I'm a little annoyed at Darlington feeling sooo much better than Alex, cause of where she came from. She's a girl with a bad history, so of course she'll be so shallow to want that golden bowl melted into earrings
Must've been so crazy to see all those ghosts and not knowing other people couldn't see them. Being called delusional or paranoid would make any kid lose it I guess..||

||Also that's an interesting way to get rid of tattoos!||

[frail wren]

Chapter 5: ||Ah that teacher giving her hope of being a 'normal student', a normal person even maybe? I bet that won't happen.. Or maybe she has another motive to keep Alex close? 👀||

[autumn compass]

DNFed after the first chapter

[upper quest]

Trying to get back into it. Ch. 4 put me in a slight slump but we're back on track

[hollow pivot]

Ch 5 ||more PEOPLE? anyway I think the Dean and the Prof is sus, but maybe its just me being very paranoid too. i really hope its not the prof because she sounds like a genuinely good person who cares about the study she conducts||

||also I just realized the prolog made it seemed like Darlington's dead? ||

okay... I dont wanna clog the thread so I'll update after reaching 50% mark

[cosmic cipher]

For anyone confused about the names it took me a while because of all the nicknames. I’m now on chapter 11 and following along so much better, stick with it!

[desert pewter]

I finished this last night, but I am still processing it... I'll write more thoughts later on the other channel!

[still light]

UGH cant wait to get into this book- it would be my first botm buddy read

[scarlet bronze]

|| Laying in bed tussled, finished with satisfaction, smoking a cigarette while French music is playing in the background.

Tres Bien. Mon first BOTM wous so gud, it turned me French. ||

[fresh halo]

I have started!

Attempt nr3.

I got past the prologue so that is already further than the previous attempts

|| Dutch as a || secret language is the funniest thing ever

[upper quest]

I've felt this a few times before so I feel like I need to slightly vent... this book is repelling me everytime I pick it up why can't I get hooked into this? 70 pages into it and I feel like I've gone nowhere yet, the buildup has not been very interesting so far hopefully changing my mind and retrying my luck with this read

[fresh halo]

Alex I'm the sameee

I was checking my progress being sure I'd read at least 90 pages with all the effort it took but it was not even 50

[fresh halo]

Yes I was thinking of Gideon too!!

I would've never guessed this book was written by the same writer of six of crows, its so different

Reminds me of when I picked up Holly Blacks Book Of Night after I loved the Cruel Prince and hated it immediately

[frail wren]

Chapter 6: ||Honestly though, what did Darlington expect to happen. Just give her some stuff to read and think that's enough to do an actual ritual all on her own, no practical guidance whatsoever Also, yes, he is a snob
She's right to be angry that Lethe knew all about her but never helped while they could.||

[hollow pivot]

Reached 50% mark, I'm now at Ch 15 Winter

||Remember when I was complaining about the many characters appearing without context and proper introduction? I still complain about it but I kinda get the overall gist by now. So far (minus the amount of things I have to write down), I can say that I totally enjoy the world building- I like knowing about the Lethes, the House and Buildings (the Living Library who whines?! ), the Day Diary from the Lethe people (sipping tea ), the past we're uncovering as we read the story (knowing Alex was raped by a freaking ghost when she just got her period is SICK ). I can even say I now like Darlington and I want to know what happened.||

About the Chaptering ||While it is nice to learn about the present and the past (both before and after Alex joined Lethe), I think it made my notetaking process hella long so having an index, glossary and/or timeline would be nice||

[hollow pivot]

FELTT I've been reading only this for 2 days straight while listening to the audiobook (1.65x) and I only got to 50% this morning?! This book is heavy

I just hope the reveal and ending are worth it

[scarlet bronze]

It's a book with a decent plot.

[old spade]

I'm at chapter 7 and it's interesting how different her writing is.... I read Grishaverse and The Familiar and both were soo cool...but I can't get hooked up for this one (so far)
Maybe because it's heavier? The first chapters I had no clue what was going on at all 😂

I am still interested in the story but most of the time I'm ????? in my head

[scarlet bronze]

I felt like I was reading To The Lighthouse by Wolfe. The run on sentences made it difficult for early chapters. It got easier to read as the book progresses.

[old spade]

yeeah i am like 100 ish pages in and slowly i am getting there

[frail wren]

Chapter 7: ||"A dead man in the girl's bathroom was a lot less scary than a living one" Yeah I don't know about this!
Wow that's a horrifying experience, no wonder she was so angry with Darlington, they def can touch her 😬 ||

[frail wren]

Chapter 8: ||I bet a lot of homicide detectives would like to learn this trick..||

[hollow pivot]

I'm so sad and mad about this

[frail wren]

It's so bad

[frail wren]

Chapter 9: ||Please tell us what happened to Darlington already!
Also, did Alex have a relationship with him? Did Dawes?
Why are those Grays so hostile (oh not a Gray, a Gluma, ok) ||

[drifting juniper]

quite worried about starting this, it seems like it could definitely put me in a slump

[frail wren]

Chapter 10: ||Wow, some drug that was how did Alex not get affected by it though
What does he mean, Alex Stern was not what she seemed||

I think it gets better when you are further in, but the beginning can be quite confusing

[sullen terrace]

starting this

[subtle tide]

ch 2: || hmm preppy ivy school magic crashed by out-of-place new student. strong the magicians vibes, which im ok with. galaxy is a reaaally weird name tho, ngl ||

[subtle tide]

ch 6: hmm || i can't say im the biggest fan of swapping the perspective between alex and darlington... i pretty much dont care at all about darlington's perspective, so it's an odd choice for the narrative to me. im even only mildly curious about what happened to him that he's "in spain" now. just a weird way to do flashbacks i guess. ||

[subtle tide]

ch 8: || wait... why the hell did darlington steal her tattoos and never give them back? did i miss something? it went from "hey wanna see a cool trick" to him just... stealing all her (likely expensive) ink ||

[frail wren]

||I think he assumed he was doing her a favour, since she was hiding them the whole time. Wearing long sleeves while it was super hot etc.
But he could've asked tbh ||

[subtle tide]

personally i'd be a bit upset lol but i guess || she can undo it easily he said||

[frail wren]

||Yeah when he said saliva would undo it, weird images popped up in my head but oh well 😂 ||

[visual needle]

Just finished the first chapter. I'm always a bit lost at the beginning of these types of fantasy books😵‍💫

[still light]

starting this tonight!

[summer epoch]

Why are the chapters so long

[still light]

ok nvm had to order a physical copy off of amazon so its arriving only on tuesday TT

[burnt comet]

Agree

This book is so long and slow i dont think i have enough time to finish it this month

[surreal shale]

I'm going to DNF because I'm just not vibing with it at this point 😩

Might pick it back up later

[frail wren]

Chapter 11: ||A portal hm? To where?
Also the dean still seems sus. Dawes disagreeing with him was nice though.
Oh there she goes, bonding with a gray? ||

[subtle tide]

ch 12: || you would think that she'd take more interest in understanding a ritual where she has to die to participate... also, has no one heard of ouija boards?!?! ||

[subtle tide]

ch 20: || so alex is some sort of... conduit, vessel, container, channel, idk for the greys? and when she absorbs them she gets super commando powers? not sure why really. i mean, a bat and a golf club are really good weapons and can do tremendous damage even in the hands of a small young woman... is the ghost really adding much beyond motivation?

also it doesnt seem like there would have been much alex could have done to save darlington, he was there and then he was gone before she barely had time to register what was happening. and she didnt even know what it was, so how could she know how to save him? doesnt make sense to think she let him die to hide her secret. ||

[drifting juniper]

starting this !!

[drifting juniper]

p21 ||please tell me there’s not a love interest in this book.
i also cannot deal with descriptions such as; ‘gentleman, scholar and purebred golden retriever’ ||

||i take it back, i’ll take golden retriever descriptions over feet descriptions any day ||

chapter 1
||not confused yet, i’m intrigued by the ‘grays’ and really enjoyed their description and general presence - especially the noise they make? sounds cool :)

i don’t really have many opinions on any characters yet. didn’t enjoy the descriptions of feet though ||

[visual needle]

Ch 9: || Idk if I'm a big fan of the "I do not belong here, I'm not like other girls" typa mc, but who ends up top of her class and dating the hot golden retriever boy?? Also they apperently fucked? I have so many questions ||

[drifting juniper]

i may end up dnfing this, i won’t confirm it until the end of november though just incase i pick it up.

[subtle tide]

ch 27: || well it seems unlikely that just blake is responsible. he may have been the one to directly murder tara but it seems like she had her fingers in a lot of pies. it's sad that alex isn't helping north after all this... i hope it doesnt blow up in her face||

[scarlet bronze]

It's not an awful book. For|| dark academia|| it's not bad.

[subtle tide]

i finished, i'll move to the other thread

[fresh halo]

Well it was my turn to read chapter 7

That was certainly something...

Happy I couldn't help myself and spoiled this beforehand, still wasn't prepared though

In the totality of the book so far it feels a lil too extreme ... I'm curious how it will hold up to the rest of the book

[fresh halo]

I like || Darlingtons flashbacks , also very curious what happened to him ||

[gentle burrow]

I want to read this so bad but my fatigue is killing me this month

[formal chasm]

I want to read this
so bad but my fatigue is
killing me this month

- delphic_oracle_cats

[gentle burrow]

Thank you haikubot

[frail wren]

Chapter 12: ||Way to go, not fully reading what you have to do for a certain ritual Wow, that was probably very traumatic for Dawes, having to 'kill' someone..
At least we now know Darlington isn't dead, I guess?||

[frail wren]

Chapter 13: ||Wow, crappy parents.. poor Darlington!||

Also I'm now past the point where I stopped reading for some reason last time 🥳😂

[visual needle]

Chapter 20. Winter: || Finally feels like it's getting intresting. Also didn't expect that Alex would be a murderer, sudden twist.||

|| Still confused about what happened to Darlington.||

[frail wren]

Chapter 14: ||Starting to wonder if Alex is ever really nice to anyone tbh||

[frail wren]

Chapter 15: ||Maybe this Blake could use a visit from the Gluma..||

[upper quest]

Ch. 5: ||Who's Hellie? What did I miss? Can I trust the process and just read this? lowering my expectations.||

[subtle tide]

|| hellie is alex's druggie friend that she woke up next to before the dean invited her to yale, you learn more about her for sure ||

[upper quest]

Thanks castral

[still light]

My book is arriving today! AHH

[visual needle]

Chapter 29. Early spring: || I kinda feel bad for the bridegroom ngl. Also hope we will know more about Darlington before the book ends. ||

[upper quest]

||I'm not saying I ever boosted a shitload of crappy jewellery from Claire's but for legal reasons I have never boosted a shitload of crappy jewellery from Claire's. Relatable... to some. Not me. Ha. (I'm still having a hard time following this plot and I don't feel much of a connection to Alex/Galaxy/what's her name) (/lh)||

[frail wren]

😂

[visual needle]

I just finished it, I'll hop over to the other channel

[upper quest]

Ch. 6: ||This is just your everyday tattoo process (/j)||

[still light]

GOT MY COPYY

[fresh halo]

Up to CH13 lets goo

|| there is a lot of mysteries going on at the same time, What happened to galaxy when she was found? What happened to poor D.Arlington? What happened to the murdered girl? What happened to the bridegroom? Im not surprised im still feeling a little floating above the story instead of being right there in it. Maybe a lil too many questioniable story lines at ones? ||

Also, || This new haven and all the places that sound like people but are buildings or im not even sure anymore the scenery is utterly confusing to me and feels very unnecessary. Is the goal to make me really really really never to want to go to Yale? ||

[frail wren]

Chapter 16: ||Just deleting the video wasn't enough hm? ||

[formal chasm]

Chapter 16: ||Just
deleting the video
wasn't enough hm? ||

- deeswafel

[frail wren]

Dude no, that was hardly a haiku

[weary igloo]

Hoping to start this tomorrow

[fresh halo]

How did reading up to ch13 took me all week and now im suddenly at ch26?

[frail wren]

Chapter 17: ||Only Darlington had guessed
Guessed what? Did she do something to him to hide what he found out?||

[frail wren]

Chapter 18: ||Hm ok so Darlington thinks she can have Grays possess her
Wait, she killed them? and what did she just do to Darlington?||

[fresh halo]

FINISHEDDD

[fresh halo]

Wow what a ride

Did not expect to be enticed to read the sequel, but I might be

[upper quest]

Ch. 7: ||that was interesting. This is developing so slowly though... it's hard not to feel enticed to skim through the descriptions of some of the magic systems and abilities ans the architecture and lo and behold this place is old and haunted?? We get it. I kinda anticipated some sort of traumatic event involving the Greys in Alex's past. I'm glad the book didn't sugarcoat it this chapter.||

[still light]

Starting this at the airport before my flight

[weary igloo]

Ch 1-4 || ok, so this is set in my home state and I already recognize some place names. I didn’t attend an Ivy league school, but I am very familiar with that culture having grown up in New England. I think I’m going to like this once I get into it more. I love urban paranormal fantasy, and ghosties are my favorite thing! I don’t really know yet what’s going on, but neither does Alex. lol

Oh nice, looks like we’re alternating timelines and POV. Seems like Darlington is going to be giving us all of the world building and catching us up to speed along with Alex, which is a good way of developing it without doing major info dumps. I hope this doesn’t become very romantasy tho. It’s crazy that this was published in the same year as Gideon the Ninth but has so many common elements (a clueless MC, houses for different focuses of magic, a murder mystery)

Alex seems like a chosen one kinda character already, but the moth magic with the tattoos was pretty unique and I think definitely adds to the “New Adult” feel of this||

[fresh halo]

So im thinking I wanna rate the book 3,5 Stars. It took me way to long to get into the book to give it 4 stars. I was very anoyed with the location discriptions, up to the end I was confused where the hell they were. Street names and buildings with people names, buildings with multiple names etc. || There was the hutch, il bastone, d.arlingtons house, all the thombs and I felt it was very relevant to the story and therefore another mystery to keep in check but honestly this lost me sometimes ||

|| It was very gruesome, that was cool I guess. Its a me thing but often I start to feel like there is too much bad stuff going on in a book. Really, i everyone involved an aweful human being (except for I guess Pammie and Turner)? It suffers to me some credibility from it. Is one person really able to attract so much nastiness? Im sorry for Galaxy ||

No loss of stars but, || someone here mention a very small romance subplot and I somehow hoped it was going to be turner and alex haahahahahaha, of course its d.arlington but idk hoped for that little unsuspected twist. But the book was good as it was without the romance, perhaps even better without d.arlingtons infatuation with galaxy at all. Its just not a romance book. ||

-1 star for just too many mysteries at the same time || I feel like i was blindfolded for more than half of the book, could have been a little less mysteries at the same time somehow? The whole opening scene with her feverish with her wound in The Hutch i had completely forgotten by the time we got back to that ||

the conclusion felt || off compared to the rest of the book. I completely missed why Galaxy was somehow wanting to live so bad she could overcome Daisy, there been very little character development to really explain that. the power of friendship? nah. The power of love? Nah. The power of Spite? I guess? It annoys me that all these girls in the past aparently didnt want to live as much as alex so they died and she didnt in spite of having the same powers, idk it irked me and very out of line for the rest of the novel ||

D.Arlington || is my baby and he is the main reason Im interested in reading the sequel. The scene where he was a knight completely infatuated with the goddess that was Galaxy in that moment, so nice. Was surprised his mistery wasnt resolved in this book as he had is POV in the first half so much. The Gentleman Demon hmm how bad can Darlington actualy be? Im hoping very bad ||

[subtle tide]

@fresh halo you know there's a https://discord.com/channels/811077227449286667/1299697095892275272 thread where you can post uncensored final thoughts?

[fresh halo]

• 0,5 star || for casually using so much trauma in the book for shock effect but not really getting into the psychological aftermath of it. IDK if the story wouldve been so much different if Alex wasnt raped as a MINOR or if Mercy ALSO hadnt been rped but idk maybe just danced in her underwear or something ||

OMG no I forgot

Ugh going to have to copy everything now 😂

Posted there too now

[frail wren]

Chapter 19: ||Ah Darlington was right! But Hellie killed them, kind of
Such a dark past, no wonder she's like that||

[frail wren]

Chapter 20: ||Hm ok so doesn't seem like Alex could've done much for Darlington..
She can 'absorb' grays, even without their consent?
Also what is this Lance dude? I half expected him to have been invisible to Turner, I'm happy he wasn't||

[weary igloo]

also, ||with the Virgil & Dante roles, and Lethe being the river of forgetfulness in Hades (not sure its role in The Devine Comedy), I’m kinda expecting the Nine Houses to correspond to the nine circles of hell. I’ve never read Dante, so not sure what else to look for, but seems too on point to not be intentional||

[upper quest]

Ch. 8: ||I'm enjoying the weird rituals and how secretive they feel. The eye on the green dude at the pizza place, the scarab in the mouth of the dead, the painting; it all seems to stem from real practices, but I like how the book "enhances" the magic. The description of the ritual Alex used was neat. I still mix up everyone's names and nicknames ||

[frail wren]

Chapter 21: ||I feel like North was a victim to one of those prognostications we read about in chapter 1 The cutting him open part kind of sounds like it||

[frail wren]

Chapter 22: ||Ok, or something that possessed him
I like how Turner is more involved now, I like his skeptical tone||

[flint hill]

Okay I have made a small dent, just started chapter 3.
||Galaxy Stern as a name gives me the ICK. I hate when protagonists in modern moderately grounded settings have names like that I'm really not sure what to make of her so far anyway. I really like the worldbuilding so far though, I like Yale Dark Acedmia more than Oxford or UK based books. The general purpose of the society feels interesting alongside the Greys. I am going to be so sad if Alex (I refuse to call her Galaxy) and Darlington get together. You can absolutely do better Darlington, please don't. I'll say that this is a 10/10 choice in terms of November vibes. ||

[weary igloo]

||I don’t mind the name actually, but I’m right there with you on the romance||

[flint hill]

I've nearly finished chapter 7 and ||I've actually done a 180 in my opinion of the name. I think I've been traumatised by other books with iffy names like that but it 100% fits Alex and her background. It's a great choice actually.||

[flint hill]

Okay I'm stopping at chapter 8 for today, I might read a little more later but I'm planning on taking it to work with me tomorrow.
Chapter 6 & 7
||I loved these chapters a lot honestly and kinda settled me into the route that I'm going to like this book (at least so far). I'm not having a problem with pacing, I actually kinda like that things are being more slowly explored and explained. Both of these chapters have completely changed my mind about what to think about Alex - Her background is interesting and the event that happened to her in that bathroom is horrifying. Her reliance on drugs to blur seeing the dead has been done before but Bardugo is doing a good job of kind of making it her own? I was absolutely not expecting that. I would still really prefer if there isn't a romance between her and Darlington; I'm enjoying their relationship a bit on a platonic level - I like the Inferno style theming behind their positions. I like the exploration into the societies and what they do too. Generally I'm actually having a great time with this book so far ||

[old spade]

||Tbh i am more disappointed that her nickname isnt Alax hahahah 😂||

[flint hill]

||That's kind of 🔥 ||

[upper quest]

All this time I didn't ||connect the phonetical dots on why the hell "Galaxy" translated into "Alex" and now my non-native ahh can finally see the light ||

[old spade]

hahaha

tbh when i first heard about that book i thought alex is a dude

i was surprised when i found out thats not the case

[fresh halo]

In true YA fashion her name could also have been Alyx

[flint hill]

Randy here dropping the real truths

Also I'm obsessed with your rating system Randy and I can't wait to read all those spoilers

[fresh halo]

Don't you mean my raNting system? 😂

[flint hill]

[frail wren]

Chapter 23: ||Wow, being invited to a salon and then realize you are staff.. that's brutal tbh 😅
Having North coming out of every puddle of water now must be terrifying right?||

Chapter 24: ||Lance having the opportunity to go anywhere and escape but he just went home for money? lmao||

[frail wren]

Chapter 25: ||Ok so Darlington is really gone hm? I'm not sure, I expect there to be a twist still..||

[frail wren]

Chapter 26: ||Ok that was wild Those hounds are terrifying||

[formal chasm]

Chapter 26:
||Ok that was wild Those hounds
are terrifying||

- deeswafel

[frail wren]

Well thanks Haikubot

[weary igloo]

Yeah. I though that too, ||but I think at that point she’s just trying to normalize as much as possible ||

[weary igloo]

Ch 5-8 || interesting that Alex is floundering in classes, but Lethe is not really helping her to succeed in some way. Want to know why she’s so important. I like the roommate dynamics; seems realistic.

Fwiw, I think the name Galaxy is no more strange than any other name that is also a noun.

I loved autumn in New England… it’s literally breath taking. So many maples

Considering I’ve read The Familiar which also touches on Spanish Jews, I’m not really surprised to discover Alex Stern has that heritage hidden deep. But I’d be so pissed at Lethe too if they had the ability to help me as a kid, but just let me middle thru and suffer.

This library’s catalog search function is hilarious

Sadly much of Alex’s backstory resonates more than I’d like it too as a mom.

Alex now is pretty bold and sassy tho. I’m still not sure exactly what her role as a “Dante” means yet tho. I might have missed it if it was explained ||

[flint hill]

Chapter 16
||BROTHER EW. Can't say he didn't deserve it though I knew the minute that grape KoolAid was introduced nothing good was going to come of it.||

Chapter 19
|| Jesus Christ.||

Chapter 20
||ALEX LET A THING TAKE DARLINGTON BECAUSE HE KNEW||

[frail wren]

Chapter 27: ||Ok so Sandow wasn't so much sus, just very ignorant..
The politics behind the houses and Lethe is sad, money wins as always
I like how Alex and Dawes got closer||

[frail wren]

Chapter 28: ||You can really feel how badly Alex wants to be normal, and yet she pushes everything away that could help her life be a bit more normal..||

[old spade]

I wish the book would be more accurate maybe with actual dates and not only the seasons

[frail wren]

Chapter 29: ||Of course women have to die to create the Nexuses
So Sandow was sus again anyway, what a rollercoaster and again, it's all about money..
Go get him Alex!||

[frail wren]

Chapter 30: ||I'm kinda sad that the fact that her tattoos are visible again immediately make her 'not belong there' 😕 oh well.. (also let's be honest, you can't tell me she didn't get any saliva on her somewhere for months 😂 just licking her knuckles was enough?)
Nice twist with Belhalm, what is she?||

[frail wren]

Chapter 31: ||Wow, well that took a turn! I guess I called it: #1299696976862117979 message ||

Chapter 32: ||Ok so who did Darlington kill then?||

Done!

[flint hill]

I'm also done

[weary igloo]

Ch 9-12 || I like how the mystery of Alex (Queen Mab’s?) identity is getting teased out a bit at a time. She seems to be a fertility magnet in a way. I also think I like Darlington’s chapters more than Alex’s. Maybe due to getting more worldbuilding details?

The casual name dropping of celebrities is a nice touch. It connects this magical world to the IRL and put it more in context. I think I need a chart though for the focuses of all the different houses.Lol

I kinda like the blending of idk.., death traditions (Greek, Egyptian, Biblical), but mostly I just like the ghosties lol. I hope Alex can figure out how to help the Bridegroom ||

[empty bear]

I stopped by a bookstore on my way home and finally found a copy so I’m officially throwing my hat in the ring

[empty bear]

Chp 1- ||I almost passed out at an autopsy so Alex is already tougher than I am.

I wish the organizations I was a part of had a nap spot near campus :/ I just napped on a bench in one of the clocktowers.

“…murder seemed like a good place to start.” Well according to https://discord.com/channels/811077227449286667/1270645801189642372, lying to the IRS is actually worse (8th circle, ‘violence’ is 7th).||

[empty bear]

Chp 2- ||Oh hey I almost lived in Huntsville. Weird to see that town in particular get mentioned.

I peeked at the back (checking the page the story ended on, didn’t see spoilers) where the houses and the specialities were listed and saw “Berzelius”, and I feel like the fact it got mentioned here in Chp 2 and there as “basically defunct” means there’s something else going on with that house.||

[weary igloo]

Ch 13-18 || aw poor Daniel, but yay for resiliency! My grandfather was my most important person too, but he didn’t have a house to leave me. I was utterly devastated by his sudden death tho when I was 11.

Oh no. Istfg Frat bois and their entitlements are just the worst. I hope Alex makes them suffer. Ok, lol gross, but you go girl!

It’s interesting how so much of this magic is rooted in fields of science like botany and electro physics.

I wondered if Alex would have some sort of connection to why Darlington had disappeared, but this doesn’t really make it clear yet. I also really wanna know why Alex has the abilities that she has. Is she really a changeling of some sort?||

[upper quest]

Ch. 9: ||I'm losing my mind. These chapters are so jammed pack with info and premonition and lore and what feels like A TON of stuff I'm just missing out on the concept is cool, not innovative, but cool. I just wish we had gotten some more info beforehand.||

[empty bear]

Ch4- ||So…what was the point of that specific display of magic? Were we supposed to interpret the long sleeves as “Alex wants her tattoos gone”? Because idk about y’all but if someone magic-ed away my tattoo without warning (even temporarily), it’d be cool for three seconds before I spit it back on.||

[fresh halo]

|| I think it emphasises Alex's desire to fit it. Before she wore her long sleeve shirt even though she was clearly overheating, with the goal to cover her tattoos up ||

[empty bear]

||I did say the second sentence in my second question, but the first one helped thx||

[upper quest]

Ch. 10: ||I'm disappointed they didn't find Jodie Foster also, loved this chapter's descriptions of the different rooms.||

[weary igloo]

Ch 19-24 || not surprised she can be possessed. Lots of violence in this book.

Ok this backstory sequence with Daisy and the Bridegroom is a bit confusing. Are she saying that he died because the houses were experimenting on him?

Oh I guess so. This is really turning into a police procedural type story, but with magic lol So many unethical mischief makers.

I really hope Alex can find Darlington tho and find some answers for North. I wonder if Turner will end up in a ritual somehow||

[weary igloo]

Ch 25-28 || aw poor Darlington. That’s not a good way to go.

Ooof. Things happening fast now. I kinda know how Alex feels in the hospital while trying to wrap her mind around the justice if it all; when you just feel so powerless against authority

Aw yay Mercy! What a good friend; yay for mom too. I’m glad they’re doing ok in their own way||

[upper quest]

I'm in the same boat as you. It's getting more interesting

Ch. 12: ||am I misreading this or is this an account of a ghost showing cheeks ||

[fresh halo]

im pretty sure thats what that means

[frail wren]

[scarlet bronze]

Re: @upper quest ch. 12 ||A lot of greys are naked. I suppose one has to wonder when you die, your clothes aren't a part of your soul, so it makes sense you can't take it with you. ||

[upper quest]

For sure! This was definitely an English issue and me not really remembering the meaning of the word.

[old spade]

Ch. 25

||Maaaan i dont want him to be gone. I was rooting for him 😭 mehhh this books is getting worse and worse for me :/ But lets see how it's going to end... Fingers crossed||

[gentle burrow]

The month is almost over and I still haven’t gotten to this book 😭 I really wanted to read this too

[scarlet bronze]

About Darlington || I really like his by-the-book attitude ||

[weary igloo]

Finished! Moving over

[hollow pivot]

||aw sucks, I like to wear cute clothes everyday just to be a cute looking Gray one day ||

[scarlet bronze]

|| if you could, it'd be one outfit forever. What would you wear? ||

[hollow pivot]

||if I get to pick the day I became a Gray, I'll wear layers so I can restyle it ||

[upper quest]

Ch. 13: ||This was actually more interesting than... pretty much anything so far. But also, where the hell were CPS lmao||

[flint hill]

This commentary is the best commentary

[upper quest]

Ch. 14: this is really picking up for me. ||Hated this chapter but really liked the pacing and the way Alex worked both Tripp and Turner on this one.||

[upper quest]

Ch. 15, 16: ||||

[upper quest]

Ch. 18: ||This just got... dare I say... interesting?? ||

[empty bear]

Chp 6- ||Lethe is really leaning into the “we’ll only help you if it looks bad on us if/when you fail.”||

[upper quest]

Ch. 21: ||"She missed her tattoos, her old clothes." – still unsure why she had to magically erase her tattoos in modern day Yale to be taken seriously, then act like a ghost-fighting lunatic regardless, undermining any fabricated credibility to her character ||

[still light]

yeppp

[upper quest]

why'd I leave this for the final couple of days of the month

Ch. 22: ||learns about Berzelius, wonders whether the Houses of the Veil annex has any info on it||
||"Oh checks out. I'm sure this NINTH HOUSE wont be an important plot device later on"||

[empty bear]

IKR???? I’m convinced ||it’s a ruse and they’re actually More Than They Seem And/Or Up To Something||

[upper quest]

||I have about 100 pages to go and I feel like there's so much potential for stuff to go down... but I also know there's a sequel to this; I hope we don't get mega cliff-hangered ||

[regal dawn]

I’m here

Finished the prologue, and I love the glimpses we get of the story, it really caught me the first time I read it

[regal dawn]

Just realized this ends tomorrow lol. I will DNF the end of the month crept up on me

[old spade]

Okay i finished it on time.

[regal dawn]

What did you think?

[tiny raft]

Today is the last day!! Giving everyone till <t:1733054400:f> to finish, go go go!

[old spade]

||I didnt like this book much... In general I love Leigh but I guess this series isnt for me. First it was hard to get into it, then I was trying to like it but yeeah overall maybe I should have dnf'ed it 😂 ||

Kinda sad I am so unlucky with buddy reads

[upper quest]

I'll do the last 100 pages today

[upper quest]

Ch. 25: ||I may read the second book based on the premise of these last few chapters alone. Would love to do some hell searching ||

[upper quest]

Ch. 30: ||||

[upper quest]

Finished! Will move to the other thread soon.

[burnt comet]

yeah did not get back to reading this so will DNF this :/

might get back to it before the end of the year though

[frail wren]

@scarlet bronze I think you meant to post in #1311029730526363698 😊

[scarlet bronze]

Ah. Thank you for telling me.

[frail wren]

No problem

[still light]

Struggling to finish the book not cause its uninteresting but because life is getting so busy TT so I just got an audiobook on audible so I can listen on my way home from work and while doing chores I got a free trial so I will finish it before then hahahaha

[still light]

ok I finished yesterday and immediately passed out right after