Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo

Alex Stern was a teenage junky falling further and further into a terrible life, until the day that she woke up from a binge, with several people, including her very best friend, dead around her, not remembering anything that happened. And in the hospital, a dean from Yale arrived to give her a spectacular opportunity.

Part of the reason Alex is a junky is that she can see ghosts – and drugs were a way to keep them away from her. It turns out that there are societies at Yale that deal with supernatural powers, and there’s another society, Lethe, set up to moderate them. Lethe has known about Alex’s abilities, and in a few short months, she’s set up as a freshman at Yale, leading a double life as a student, and the junior member of Lethe on campus.

This books starts out a little slow – at first, it’s jumping around in time, with Alex and Darlington, the senior member of Lethe, as the two primary viewpoints. It’s quickly established that Darlington has disappeared, and that Alex was there when it happened. Then, there’s a murder that Alex is sure has soceity involvement, but their Dean is so focused on getting Darlington back that he doesn’t want her to investigate it.

Once things coalesce into the present day, around the middle of the book, you’ve also figured out Alex and Darlington’s secrets, and things really get going. What I really loved is that the murder turns out to be several layers thick, and things end up in a fairly unexpected manner. I am very interested to see where things go next.