Ninth House (Alex Stern)
#3334.03 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 2 books Status Ongoing 2019–present Reading commitment Low Leigh Bardugo Last reviewed 2026-08-07
Overview
Leigh Bardugo's contemporary dark-fantasy series (Flatiron Books, 2019-present), following Galaxy "Alex" Stern, a 20-year-old dropout and survivor of violence who can see ghosts and is given a full scholarship to Yale, where she is recruited into Lethe, the university's ninth secret society, tasked with policing the occult rituals of the other eight. Author Leigh Bardugo drew on her own freshman-year discovery of the real secret-society tombs on Yale's campus in building the setting. A wholly separate continuity from Bardugo's Grishaverse. Ninth House appeared on multiple year-end best-of lists in 2019, won a major 2020 reader-voted fantasy award, and was optioned for television within two days of its release; a sequel, Hell Bent, followed in 2023.
Dark fantasy, Urban fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (2 works) counts toward ranking
Alex Stern Leigh Bardugo
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Ninth House | 2019 | 1 | core | 4.00 (423,121 ratings) |
 | Hell Bent | 2023 | 2 | core | 4.10 (193,497 ratings) |
A 3rd novel, Dead Beat, is confirmed and scheduled (pre-order date September 15, 2026) but not yet published as of 2026-08-07 -- isn't counted here yet; watch for its actual release before the next reader-rating data collection pass.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Ninth House (Alex Stern)? Ninth House (Alex Stern)'s Core Canon is 2 books.
- What is the reading order for Ninth House (Alex Stern)? Publication order, starting with Ninth House. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Ninth House (Alex Stern) finished? Ongoing (2019–present).
- How much reading does Ninth House (Alex Stern) take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 2 Core Canon books · ~942 pages).
- How is Ninth House (Alex Stern) ranked? #333 in this site's official ranking, based on 616,618 reader ratings across 2 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #333?
Ranked #333 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.03 across 2 core books.
- Backed by 617k reader ratings.
- Remarkably consistent across the whole series: all 2 rated core books rate within 0.10 of each other.
- Less than 0.01 behind #332, Ile-Rien (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 2 books · Ongoing · 617k ratings · Ranks #333 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment dark fantasy universe that's still ongoing, with new books still coming.
Reading order
Publication order (2 Core Canon books)
- Ninth House (2019)
- Hell Bent (2023)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- Readers' Choice Award (Best Fantasy), 2019: won: Ninth House; Confirmed via the award body's own Choice Awards category page, which itself states 'Announcing the Choice Winner in Best Fantasy!' for Ninth House -- found during reader-rating data collection, not assumed from any secondary source.
Related universes
- Same author The Grishaverse: Both by Leigh Bardugo. Ninth House (Alex Stern) is confirmed entirely separate from The Grishaverse (invented secondary-world Ravka vs. present-day Yale), the author's own reading-order page lists Alex Stern as a wholly distinct line.
You might also like
Suggestions computed from what Ninth House (Alex Stern) and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- Kane Dark fantasy / Sword & sorcery · Complete · Low commitment · 4.10
- Wraeththu Dark fantasy / Mythic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.07
- Moonheart / Spiritwalk Urban fantasy / Mythic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.07
- Saint Death's Daughter Dark fantasy / Epic fantasy · Ongoing · Low commitment · 4.06
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.03 across 616,618 ratings on 2 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Ninth House (Alex Stern) admitted (in progress); Core Canon = the 2 published novels accepted 2026-08-07
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia -- Ninth House Tier 2
- leighbardugo.com - Reading Order Tier 1
Related universes: see the Related universes section above.
Last reviewed: 2026-08-07
Rule: Core = the 2 published novels (Ninth House, Hell Bent). In progress: a 3rd novel, Dead Beat, is scheduled for release September 15, 2026 but was unpublished as of this admission.