Friday Friyay: 'Ninth House' by Leigh Bardugo

The semester is over, hallelujah! Hopefully I'll finally get around to writing and reading now, although I think I'll miss my students as well. It's been a really fun semester, even if it's been super long. Just as context, in Germany we actually do "proper" semesters, meaning two semesters of 16 weeks each, rather than four semesters of 8 weeks each, as happens in many other countries. I use "proper" because, well, the semi- in "semester" implies two halves. Anyways, the last 16 weeks have been great, but a lot. I've decided that I deserve a break by rereading a book I loved a few years ago, Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, before diving into the sequel which I haven't read yet.

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.

Book Beginnings is at home on Rose City Reader, hosted by Gilion Dumas, and Friday 56 at Freda's Voice, hosted by Freda. Freda is taking a break at the moment, but we're keeping the spirit going! I'll also be joining the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. 

BB:

'By the time Alex managed to get the blood out of her good wool coat, it was too warm to wear it. Spring had come grudgingly; pale blue mornings failed to deepen, turning instead to moist, sullen afternoons, and stubborn frost lined the road in high, dirty meringues.' 1%

I've only gotten to chapter 5, so far, but I once again am really enjoying the way in which Bardugo describes a setting, a feeling, a season. Also, love the contrast between the blood and early spring, it immediately keys you into the fact that Alex is a character of contradictions and extremes, even if she would prefer for things to be calm.

F56:

'Alex hadn't been back to Manuscript since the Halloween party.' 56%

Manuscript is, if I remember correctly? And I think something went down at the Halloween party, except I can't really remember. It's so funny how some things in a book will absolutely stick in your mind, while others, even if they might be important and/or relevant, will completely disappear. 

BBH:

This week's question was submitted by Elizabeth over at Silver's Review:

Do you post Happy Publication Day posts for books you read?

Oh God, I used to, back when I also managed to actually posts reviews for books on or around their publication day. These days I'm lucky if I get a review out in the same month as the publication day. Admittedly, I'm a lot busier, i.e. actually employed rather than a student, so it makes sense that my priorities when it comes ti managing publication days has shifted a bit? But sometimes I do try to keep an eye on it and share something, especially when I really enjoyed the book.

That's it for me this week! What are you reading? And do you celebrate pub. dates?