Ninth House (#1) - 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, 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."

I really enjoyed this book, it was right up my alley. Secret Societies, Old Universities, Magic and Academia, Ghosts, Magic Tattoos, Tradition and the "Old Boys Club" being infiltrated by someone who definitely doesn't traditionally belong there. It was a bit slow to start but I, personally, enjoy slower paced books. Bardugo's atmosphere building is top notch and her plot kept me guessing and interested. There are also some really stunning writing/ aesthetic moments that, if I had any drawing skills, I would love to draw. The dialogue was fun and snappy. The character's a good mix of cliché and unique. 

I am not very fond of Alex’s character just yet, she’s indeed a hard girl to love but I think she might grow on me after a while. I already love her wits and confidence so I just need another push to be sure I love her.

I feel that Leigh Bardugo definitely seems more suited to writing more adult slanted content. There is no YA, which seems to have come to mean tweens and up, content here, okay. This really is young ADULT. 

If this book is one thing, it's violent. There are some graphic scenes that show sexual abuse, rape, drug addiction and the sexual abuse of minors. There is trauma and pain and it's not glossed over. That said, it isn’t the grimmest, or bleakest book I’ve ever read. In fact, Bardugo sometimes tries too hard for big, dramatic horror, and the violence comes off as gratuitous, her ghosts sometimes too chain-rattling to believe. Ninth House is about all kinds of trauma, yet I found that the consequences of such a monumental thing are barely brushed upon. The novel is rife with flashbacks, seen through Alex’s eyes as she passively witnesses the horrifying events of her past, but her trauma-suppressed memories seemingly only resurface whenever it's convenient for the plot, and without much of a statement being made besides. And that occasionally struck a sour note.

There’s a lot going on in this book. It is something hard to get into because the beginning is extremely confusing. The action is quite slow and not necessarily that complex, but somehow, until the end, there is something there. Something that leaves you thinking that you actually really enjoyed it. I am keen to read the second instalment when I think the magic aspect of the series will also come into it's own and we will get a better understanding of the characters. 

Age Rating 17+. As said above, quite a brutal book that includes no small amount of abuse. 

Frozen Charlotte - Alex Bell

"We're waiting for you to come and play. Dunvegan School for Girls has been closed for many years. Converted into a family home, the teachers and students are long gone. But they left something behind...Sophie arrives at the old schoolhouse to spend the summer with her cousins. Brooding Cameron with his scarred hand, strange Lilias with a fear of bones and Piper, who seems just a bit too good to be true. And then there's her other cousin. The girl with a room full of antique dolls. The girl that shouldn't be there. The girl that died."

This book isn't going to win any awards. It is not a masterpiece of literature with anything new or original in the plot or characters. It was, however, a fun and enjoyable quick read. 

To my surprise, I wasn’t scared by this book. It’s shelved under the ‘horror’ genre, which is a genre that I absolutely do not read. Ever. Even if you beg me to. But this didn’t scare me in the teensiest bit. This book is from the RED EYE group of books, made up of a group of standalones by different authors with similar tones. I really enjoy this group as it is kind of scary and shocking but not full horror. I was, however, captivated by the story and, of course, thoroughly creeped out by the dead dolls.

The story is well-told. Alex Bell keeps things interesting by adding constant action and twists at unexpected places. Plus I can’t complain about the writing.

There really was no need for an unrequited/ maybe requited love tragedy, however. The story would also have worked even without the imminent romance. It’s really not a main focus, so there’s that, but it could certainly have staid completely dead, too. Pun oh so intended.

A terribly clichéd book, as we’ve all probably seen dozens of movies with possessed dolls or read books about them, so there isn’t a great amount of originality from the author’s part, but I can assure you that it’s very much readable. 

Creepy siblings, weird voices, haunted houses, closed off locals, windy and isolated setting, psychotic children. Oh it really has it all. 

Age 13+. Pretty creepy but, I mean, most 13 year olds won't be scarred by it. But if you know you are sensitive, like me, self evaluate. 

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

"Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life; indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. The novel was a succès de scandale and the book was later used as evidence against Wilde at the Old Bailey in 1895. It has lost none of its power to fascinate and disturb."

During Lockdown I thought it would be fun to take advantage of the free audiobooks and listen to The Picture of Dorian Gray, a book that has been on my reading list for a while. So I sat down and listened while frantically crocheting. 

This was my first experience in reading/listening to Oscar Wilde and the man’s gift for prose and dialogue is magical. I very quickly came to understand why he is such a beloved author. This story reads somewhat like a dark, corrupted Jane Austen in that the writing was snappy and pleasant on the ear so perfectly fit for a modern audience, but the feeling it left you with was one of hopelessness and despair.

The level of cynicism and societal disregard that Wilde’s characters display towards humanity is simply staggering and dangerously interesting to explore. Despite the dark aspects (or more likely because of it) this is one of the most engaging, compelling and lyrical pieces of literature I have read. The quality of the prose is nothing short of masterful. Many books have multiple meanings and morals layered within them but this is probably the best example of this that I have found. Themes, morals and social observations are made and discussed, weaved through the entire piece leaving you reeling and introspective. 

I assume most people know the basic outline of the plot, but I will give you a few sentences on it anyway. The three main characters are Basil Hallward, Lord Henry Wotton and Dorian Gray. Basil Hallward is an artist who after painting a picture of Dorian Gray becomes obsessed with him because of his beauty. The homosexual vs. muse adoration that Basil feels towards Dorian is left vague, likely because of the time it was written. Dorian then meets a friend of Basil’s, Lord Henry, and becomes enthralled with Lord Henry’s world view, which is a form of extreme hedonism that posits that the only worthwhile life is one spent pursuing beauty and satisfaction for the senses in the most ruinous of ways.

While this story is often mentioned among the classics of the Horror genre (which I do have a problem with) this is much more a study of the human monster/hidden psyche than it is some bogeyman. My favourite parts of the story were the extensive dialogues between the characters, usually Dorian and Lord Henry. They were wonderfully perverse and display a level of casual cruelty and vileness towards humanity. Dorian, while often portrayed as someone innocent lead astray, I must heartily disagree. He is quite evil, when I say evil, I don't mean just misguided or weak-minded, someone bamboozled by the clever lectures of Lord Henry. I found Gray to be selfish, vain, inhumanly callous, sadistically cruel and capriciously thoughtless. 

Overall one of the few classics genuinely worth the name. I loved the prose and dialogue but definitely not for you if you are someone that doesn't enjoy lots of prose. 

Age Rating 14+. There are some more shocking moments like a murder, but other than that it is quite tame. There are a few allusions to gay relationships, lots of young men are disgraced after knowing Dorian but that is so vague and really just a mere suggestion. 

Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice

"This is the story of Louis, as told in his own words, of his journey through mortal and immortal life. Louis recounts how he became a vampire at the hands of the radiant and sinister Lestat and how he became indoctrinated, unwillingly, into the vampire way of life. His story ebbs and flows through the streets of New Orleans, defining crucial moments of self discovery and despair."


I was in early highschool/ late primary school when the vampire craze hit. So much of the YA I read was invariably chock full of them. However it is only now that I am getting around to reading this vampire story "classic." 

First of all on its own, it's not a fantastic book. However it definitely popularized the trend of Vampire Empathizing. Before this book, vampire where from the realm of horror books. Blood thirsty monsters without remorse or empathy, but here we can relate to them. They act in human ways with human reasonings and human emotional struggles. 

This is particularly shown in the main charcater of Louis. A vampire that proceeds to existentially whine through his eternity. He is wealthy, smart, handsome and this amounts to him being able to do whatever the hell he wants to for as long as he wants to. Yet all he does is WHINE and ponder the meaning of life... or undeath. Because, you know, humans have it all figured out.

I found the exploration of vampire pschycology incrediably interesting. How the mind changes and adapts or fails to adapt to the idea of immortality. This is a "cerebral treatment" of the vampire genre, an examination of good vs evil, what immortality really means, the first of its kind in "vampire books" and an allegory of the soul itself. It is all of those things, but it's not very fun to read. The pace drags along and, for being a horror novel, it's not horrific, mainly dull.

There is no denying Louis had an interesting life, but the man lacks any form of a backbone. He refuses to leave the people that are toxic and drive him crazy, or to forge a new way of being a vampire that is closer his moral code. The unending emo monologues just got a bit too much for me at times and I found myself skimming. 

The sexual aspect of vampire's was interestingly handled. Vampires being the "dark seducer" isn't new and using them to represent repressed sexuality has become stock standard. However this book deals with those two themes in a very different way. The dark seducer, Lestat, and the repressed sexual being, Claudia, both destroy and taunt Louis in vastly different ways and it's a nice change from the human being the one seduced. 

At least the movie made the wise decision to tone down the blatant homoeroticism that I really wasn't expecting and is never really mentioned in reviews or blurbs. Seriously, this book is, and I mean this in the most literal way possible, one of the gayest things I've read. It added an element of toxic relationship and more understanding to the dynamic between Louis and Lestat. Louis's relationship with Armaund is also very obviously non-platonic with it literally written in black and white that they love each other. It was actually a good inclusion to the story as it added to the inhuman vibe of the vampire as sexuality seemed to become completely ambigious and meaningless and all relationships became more intense and taut. 

However Claudia and Louis's relationship was disturbing and uncomfortable to read. She and Louis do everything except actually have sex with each other. They're always kissing and caressing each other and Louis is calling her his lover and his paramour and it is so fucking creepy.

For me, Claudia was the most interesting character. She was horrifying and monstrous, the way child vampires tend to be in any story. A child vampire is simply more terrifying than any adult vampire can ever be. They are immortally trapped in an age of innocence, while her mind grows and learns and becomes exceedingly adult while her body will never be able to catch up. She is cursed with a life of appearing “cute” no matter how monstrous and dark her soul and nature becomes. Doomed to feel sexual desire and want but never being able to act on it or experiance it. Being eternally depedant. Horrifying shit, that. There is also a selfishness to children which is amplified by bloodlust, which never seems to fully disappear. I enjoyed the way this was portrayed, as I said, but I was too disconnected from her by Louis narration to get my fill of this child-shaped horror show. 

Age Rating 14+. Nothing untoward actually happens. The murders are not described in detail and there is no graphic sexual content. 

Nevernight (#1) - Jay Kristoff

"In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.
Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.

Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?"


I have mixed feelings on this book. It has both unique pros and clichéd cons. 

First of all, to get it out the way, I didn't really mind the extremely floral writing style. At times it was beautiful, at others I just kind of frowned and moved on. I can see that it would frustrate other readers but lucky it didn't drag me to much out of the story. 

I loved the three suns and the world building in this story. I think it was stellar and I felt the world was unique and complete. Mia lives in a world with three rotating suns (hence Nevernight) and the author did a fabulous job of incorporating that in the book. I also really enjoyed all of the little details he includes - like the sand creatures or the odd customs from the other characters.  The lore from their religion really helped ground such a fantastical world. Also, I enjoyed that the Gods weren't imaginary - that they were real and they did influence the human world. The notion of melding the cultures of Venice and Rome together in unusual and surprisingly pays off. I enjoyed the footnotes from a purely world building perspective, however if you don't enjoy reading them you don't lose anything in the story by skipping them. 

I liked the characters, Tric was my favourite followed closely by Spiderkiller. Mia wasn't too bad but was occasionally a bit pretentious. It was occasionally very obvious it was written by a man with all the references to her "bow lips" and such. The humour was vicious and funny and I really enjoyed it.  

Now onto the cons. 

I was wanting more murder and death, but I am left with a boarding school type scenario with mostly cliched secondary characters. However The Red Church is such an incredible setting. It’s painted beautifully vivid, and it’s full of so many mysteries that, no matter how much I learned about it, I constantly felt that I was barely scratching the surface of what it had to offer.

Also what is it with blood magic in current YA fantasy novels? Like three books in a row has had some kind of blood magic involved. It is gross and I don't like it. 

Something else that surprised me is that I will say that I personally feel like this is an adult fantasy novel, not a YA fantasy novel, despite the characters age. There is sex, a lot of sex, and violence, a whole lot of violence, and gore, don’t forget all of the gore! So please go into this book knowing this, and knowing that this is a very mature book in general. The sex scenes I happily skipped so I cannot really comment on them. 

Over all, definitely give it a go. It is an acquired taste and some may really not enjoy it. It is a fun read, nothing to change the world but a fun solid fantasy novel. 

Age Rating 16+. Explicit sex scenes, gore and violence. Also some swearing. 

The Deathless Girls - Kiran Millwood Hargrave

"They say the thirst of blood is like a madness - they must sate it. Even with their own kin.

On the eve of her divining, the day she'll discover her fate, seventeen-year-old Lil and her twin sister Kizzy are captured and enslaved by the cruel Boyar Valcar, taken far away from their beloved traveller community.

Forced to work in the harsh and unwelcoming castle kitchens, Lil is comforted when she meets Mira, a fellow slave who she feels drawn to in a way she doesn't understand. But she also learns about the Dragon, a mysterious and terrifying figure of myth and legend who takes girls as gifts.

They may not have had their divining day, but the girls will still discover their fate..."

Bram Stoker's Dracula is a creepy gothic thriller and a must-read - taking the premise of his brides (who get a one line mention in the original tale) and telling readers their story should have been amazing. There's so much freedom to explore their backgrounds, which is completely open to any interpretation, and what it was like for them becoming creatures of the night. Hargrave has a nice writing style and I suspect she prefers to focus on slow-burn narrative as opposed to action, which is fine for backstory but not so good for keeping readers engaged. The Deathless Girls gets so caught up in said backstory that by the time the story moves past it it's all over, and those of us who came to see 'Brides of Dracula' are left feeling severely underwhelmed.

Vampires aren't even mentioned until page 189 - that's over 50% of the book done before we even get a glimpse of fangs! I mean COME ON. Don't promise me Dracula's brides and then give me nothing to do with Dracula or anything mildly vampiric  for 70% of the book. 

The f/f romance was fine - it didn't feel shoe-horned in which was nice. I liked Mira; she was strong in that silent-but-smart kind of way. Lil our protagonist though, I found her to be completely (yep, you guessed it) boring. I also thought that the romance was quite sudden with little build up. 

Kizzy I really had a problem with though. Kizzy is perfect. So perfect that even when she refuses to do something which could potentially endanger the life of someone she considers family, aaaaall the characters smile and nod their heads in agreement because perfect Kizzy is perfect, and beautiful, and strong, and she is always right (because she's perfect), so we mustn't go against perfect Kizzy's wishes and will just go and nearly get ourselves killed and belittled because poor Kizzy has morals that must be upheld no matter the cost.

I enjoyed the introduction of the traveller element. It was unique, historically accurate and added to otherworldly and oppression motif.  

Overall it had sooo much potential but it feel short. It should have been an intense gothic retelling with complex female characters navigating their powers and powerfully menacing villans. Instead I get a frustratingly slow burn book with a handful of clichés and caricature worthy villans. 

Age Rating 14+. Deals with some adult themes such as rape, slavery and the oppression of minorities and women. 

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson

"John Utterson is the main character in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He is a lawyer and a friend of Dr. Henry Jekyll. Dr. Jekyll is a scientist who, while searching for a way to separate his good self from his bad impulses, creates a potion that transforms himself into a man without a conscience."

There’s a reason this novella has stood the test of time - it is creepy and interesting as hell. I think there’s something very terrifying to me about the idea of losing humanity and sanity, at first due to your own choices but later because of forces you cannot control. Robert Louis Stevenson allegedly wrote this while on drugs, and you can definitely feel that experience in the book. 

Structurally, the novella crams, stuffs and presses a complete, fully-fleshed story in its scant 88 pages by using a brilliant combo of point of view changes, dialogue, flashback and epistolary components. In lesser hands, the amount of information and story contained in this tale would have required a lot more paper. In addition to being a model of conciseness, the change in style, in my opinion, added to the enjoyment of the story by allowing the reader to be more “present” during the narrative.

Content-wise, Stevenson really knocks the cover off the ball. Despite being written in 1886, this tale still stands as the quintessential fictional examination of the duality of man’s nature and the very human struggle between the civilized and primal aspects of our beings. The constrained, repressive society of the Victorian Period in which the story takes place provides the perfect back drop for the model of outward English propriety, Dr. Henry Jekyll, to battle (metaphorically and literally) the darker, baser but still very human desires personified in the person of Edward Hyde. What a perfect allegory between the face people wear in public and the one they take out only in private.

This is such a short book and I don’t know quite what else to say, but guys... I love Victorian horror. It's so fucking weird and wild and all about Transgressing Social Norms and Being Subversive and this is the kind of shit I am HERE for!! I know that the whole story is supposed to be some deep philosophical look at the duality of human nature.
While that is extremely interesting, that wasn't what really interested me.
No, what kept me going was trying to figure out what the hell kind of kink this mild-mannered old fart was into! Seriously.
He developed a freaking magic serum just so he could run around and do...WHAT?! What was so off the charts freaky that he'd need to transform into a different person to get away with it?
But, unfortunately, Stevenson never gives us a straight answer. He just decided to skip over the juicy bits and ratchet up the tension with the with the whole Good vs Evil thing.

Overall a true classic that was the starting base for many philosophical debates and literary trends.

Age Rating 12+. Nothing untoward but a few creepy moments.