johnny dangerously’s Reviews > Ninth House > Status Update

really genuinely enjoying this more than i thought i would, so it's having its intended instructive effect (getting me to be less pretentious abt what i read)

the book really picks up at ~25% and continues strong. so far this is one of the better paced books ive read in a while. it doesn't meander forever and something moves the plot forward every chapter. a small ask, and yet something a lot of books are incapable of. (i need to stop reading debuts)

i kind of wish this book would go a little harder-- let its characters be meaner, be unsure longer, and not so quick to forgive each other-- but i can tell that's just not the kind of book this is, rather than a gap between expectation and payoff. there is a much crueler, sleeker, gorier horror version of this book that is just not what bardugo wanted to write, and she makes that clear. i just have my preferences.

leaving jupiter to get less stupider

first leg of my 2026 'be less fucking pretentious' tour