Ninth House hits a lot of my spots. It's a dark academia urban fantasy with multiple spooky mysteries and strong characters, one of whom is a morally grey badass girl. Much like Emily M. Danforth's tour de force Plain Bad Heroines, Leigh Bardugo would have to really strive if she wanted to write a book that is more me.

One criticism I've seen of dark academia as a genre is that it glorifies wealth by featuring privileged characters and employing the aesthetics of Ivy League (or at least private) education in its settings. I would like to humbly, subtly, not at all snarkily, wave a copy of Ninth House at those people. Dark academia novels often use protagonists who are outsiders, who are not wealthy, to (in my opinion) serve as a relatable touchstone for readers who do not have access to wealth and the world about which they're reading. Dark academia novels also, I would argue, include subversion of the systems in which they're set, the revelation of said systems causing harm. But few do this as clearly as Ninth House.