The mesmerizing adult debut from #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo
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. By age twenty, in fact, 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 elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, ranging from Jodie Foster to George W. Bush. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more supernatural than any paranoid imagination might conceive.
NINTH HOUSE is the long-awaited adult debut by the beloved author of SHADOW AND BONE and CROOKED KINGDOM. Leigh Bardugo will take her place alongside Lev Grossman, Deborah Harkness, and Neil Gaiman as one of the finest practitioners of literary fantasy writing today.
The series
In the Alex Stern series, the boundary between life and death is thinner than you think—and for Alex, it’s a line she’s learned to walk.
Read full series description
Set in a world where the supernatural lurks just beneath the surface, Leigh Bardugo’s Alex Stern novels weave a gripping narrative of magic, mystery, and the complicated morality of a universe brimming with secrets. At the heart of the series is Alex, a flawed and fierce young woman with a gift she never asked for: the ability to see ghosts. This extraordinary power thrusts her into a world of hidden societies and arcane secrets, where the line between right and wrong is constantly shifting.
Bardugo’s world-building in Alex Stern is as lush and atmospheric as it is haunting. From the hallowed halls of Yale to the shadowy corners of the occult, every setting is rich with history and danger. But it's the complex characters that truly bring the story to life. Alex, with her troubled past and her complex relationships, isn’t just a survivor—she’s someone you can’t help but root for, even as she navigates a world that demands impossible choices.
The Alex Stern series is part urban fantasy, part dark academia, and part psychological thriller—seamlessly blending all these elements into a tale that never lets you breathe easy. Bardugo explores themes of power, identity, and the haunting effects of trauma, all while keeping readers on the edge of their seats with every twist and turn.
If you crave a story that mixes the supernatural with the psychological, the eerie with the emotional, Alex Stern offers a journey that is as darkly mesmerizing as it is unforgettable.
Be the first reviewer
Sign in and write the first reader review.
