Ninth House is an occult fantasy novel by Israeli-American author Leigh Bardugo, famously known for the Shadow and Bone trilogy. It was published in 2019 by Flatiron Books. The cover was designed by art director Keith Hayes.
Set in Connecticut, Alex is a high school dropout who has been offered an unsolicited opportunity to attend Yale University as a freshman student. Having survived a homicide, she acquires the ability to see ghosts. Alex jumps on this once in a lifetime opportunity to turn around her streak of misfortune. At the university, she has to adhere to the strict codes of a secret society that possess dark magical powers.
Bardugo was inspired by her time attending Yale University, where she discovered the remnants of secret societies that have existed throughout the school's 320 years of existence. The novel was praised for its realism and the depiction of real people. It has been considered one of the best fantasy novels by critics and contemporary novelists. Bardugo pushes the imaginative envelope to a whole new realm.
Ninth House won the 2020 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fantasy. It was nominated for the 2020 Audie Award, Dragon Awards, and Locus Award for Best Fantasy.
In 2019, Amazon Studios acquired the rights to adapt the novel into a television series. Leigh Bardugo and Pouya Shahbazian are expected to executive produce the series. The audiobook was voiced by American narrators Lauren Fortgang and Michael David Axtell.
