Alex retains her sense of responsibility in her new life at Yale, seeing what is fair and just and fighting for the right thing.

Her experiences allow her a clear view and understanding of the shortcomings of Yale, hidden behind its opulent architecture and décor. The university protects Blake because of his athletic skills, while Len has to find his own more powerful protectors in the higher-ranking figures of his drug dealing ring.Īlex is the only character who has first-hand experience of both worlds: poverty and drug addiction, and wealth and privilege.

The main difference between Len and Blake is privilege. Len harms to Hellie for the sake of his own advancement in his criminal organization. Meanwhile, in L.A., Len and his drug dealer friends are also devoid of any sense of responsibility towards younger women in their circle. While the books of the Grishaverse can be safely explored by readers of any age, Ninth House is darker, more graphic, and intended for adults. The young people at Yale can afford to behave badly without being punished for their misdeeds-Blake rapes a younger woman for sport, and the undergraduates. Ninth House a story of power, privilege, magic, and murder set among the secret societies of Yale Universityis a separate series with no connection to the Grishaverse. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.Many characters in the novel show no understanding of the consequences of their actions, too naïve or too selfish to feel responsible for their behavior. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. 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. 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. 41-page comprehensive study guideChapter-by-chapter summaries and multiple sections of expert analysis Featured in our The Best of 'Best Book' Lists Friendship Fantasy collections. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide.

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. Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo