Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Ninth House (Alex Stearn #2) by Leigh Bardugo, 461 p.

CW: Sexual assault, childhood trauma, drug usage

"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."--Goodreads blurb    

This was a re-read for me in anticipation of the second book in the series being released. This was one of my favorite books released in the last few years. This is Bardugo's first adult fantasy and she knocked it out of the park. Great character development and world-building. This is urban fantasy as its finest. I've waited three and a half years for the second book and I can't wait to read it!