Official Ninth House Review: Book & Tour

Ninth House Tour Experience

Can I start off by saying Leigh Bardugo is a spectacular human being! I was amazed by her candor and her personality. She is truly awesome and wholesome. I was in awe the majority of her event. My mother and I went to see Leigh in St. Louis, Missouri. We received a physical copy of Leigh's new book, Ninth House as well as, a leather bookmark. You were able to bring one other item to have Leigh autograph. There were books & merchandise available for purchasing too. The first 30 minutes of the event was a live Q&A with Leigh. I didn't take notes or record anything because I wanted to focus on the experience. I did take a few pictures and you can find them below. I've been to one other author tour and that was Sarah J. Maas's Kingdom of Ash tour. Trying to compare the two isn't fair in my eyes. They're two different authors with two different styles. I loved both experiences, but Leigh's was more quaint & intimate whereas Sarah, had limited availability and only a small few got to meet her after the Q&A was over. I wasn't fortunate enough to score meet & greet tickets, so I didn't get the chance to talk with my fav. I did get to talk shortly with Leigh and honestly I was SO socially awkward. I just kept saying thank you and how much I loved her books. She was sweet and complimented my "No Mourners No Funerals" t-shirt. I bought that and my mom a shirt from Blissfully Bookish Company. I'll leave a link to their website here.  

There were so many different questions asked. I'll give a list below with as much as I can remember.

• How will the shadow & bone Netflix show work with the trilogy &  duology?
• Season 1 will be heavy on the Shadow & Bone book with some unknown content on the SoC characters. 
• How was writing Ninth House different from other books? (Ninth House is an adult novel)
• There's more at play than a young adult novel. Dealing with race, gender, elite societies, and so much more is more complex than when you do YA. 
• How many books will be in the Ninth House series?
• Leigh has a number in mind and it's around 5.-- I was so excited about this ;) 
• Will there be another book for Six of Crows?
• At this time no. She has a notebook of ideas for stories and she hopes that she'll someday have time to write a third book. She has a general idea/arch to how she wants the Grishaverse to play out but it's finding the right time to get it there.
• What can we expect from Ninth House?
• to quote Leigh, "Bonkers magic."
• It's nothing she's ever done before and she couldn't be more excited for her readers to enjoy it.
• Is Leigh worried about having Ninth House being bought out for a TV series with Amazon when she hasn't finished the series yet?
• She is slightly concerned but nothing major. She doesn't want to have a George R Martin on her hands, but she also knows that showbiz takes forever to get going. She hopes to have more than one or two books out before the show airs. This way she can (hopefully) avoid any time crunches or having to work with a show that surpasses her books. 
• Is Leigh concerned about the actors for Shadow & Bones being older than she had written the character to be?
• No, she thinks they're all perfect and look much younger than their age portrays. She understands that to having actors under the age of 18 create more risk/issues for the show. Having older actors help to decreases limitations & they're more experienced and can handle to older concepts/experiences that take place in the Shadow & Bones world. The book characters might be a young age but they've experiences so many hardships that they don't act or think like their age. 
• What made Leigh choose TV over Cinema for her books to screen adaptations?
• She said there really wasn't a huge choice. She was offered a few choices but in the end the TV made the most sense. She likes that it leaves more room to grow the show. There's less to be cut out unlike movies where so many details are forced out. This way her books are given more opportunity to fully show what happens and keep in as much detail as possible.

Overall, the tour was worth it. Leigh was awesome. I got a personalized signed copy of Ninth House and a signed copy of my special edition, Six of Crows. My mom also got a personalized signed copy and she had King of Scars signed. We enjoyed the evening with Leigh & loved getting the opportunity to meet her. I will definitely be going to another tour if she has one! 😍

Ninth House

By: Leigh Bardugo

About Ninth House:

“The best fantasy novel I’ve read in years, because it’s about real people. Bardugo’s imaginative reach is brilliant, and this story―full of shocks and twists―is impossible to put down.” – Stephen King

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, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.

Official Review:

I listened to this book on audible & let me tell ya it took me foreverrrr to finish this book. I prefer reading the books myself so I probably won't be using audible much. It's nice for those days I'm not feeling music on my way to work. Also, it can sync with your kindle app so I'm always on the right parts! Even though it took the good part of a year almost to finish this book, I remembered every part. Leigh did a phenomenal job with Alex's story. I'm not a huge adult book reader but this was awesome. Leigh created a creepy world and it makes me want to visit the Yale campus in the fall so bad! Hearing her talk about it on tour was awesome but reading her descriptions of the buildings and the campus is so enticing. I already knew from her previous work that Leigh can build a world & characters so well, but she made Alex her own edgy self. Alex is relatable but she also has that hard life living that not everyone experiences. She's her own person & she really grows throughout the book. I'd recommend Ninth House to anyone who wants a twisted murder mystery with some magic thrown in. 😜 I can't wait to see where Leigh goes with this series! I think we'll have to wait a few years before we get book #2 but that's okay with me. Good things come to those who wait right? 🤷

Order Ninth House Below: 

Amazon | Google Play | BN | Apple Books | Kobo | Leigh's Website

Other Links:

Blog Post: New Author Alert: Leigh Bardugo & the Grishaverse

Blog Post: Book Promo: Ninth House is Live!!