

įounded by Matt Berninger, Aaron Dessner, Scott Devendorf and Bryan Devendorf, The National released their self-titled debut album, The National (2001), on Brassland Records, an independent record label founded by Aaron and his twin brother, Bryce Dessner. Carin Besser, the wife of Matt Berninger, is not a band member but has written lyrics for the band alongside her husband since its 2007 album Boxer. The band consists of Matt Berninger (vocals), twin brothers Aaron Dessner (guitar, piano, keyboards) and Bryce Dessner (guitar, piano, keyboards), as well as brothers Scott Devendorf (bass) and Bryan Devendorf (drums). These themes are accented by adding a healthy dose of horror and mystery and remaining critical of the potential abuses of power and class disparities that Ivy League ivory towers still promote.Ĭasting information and the release date for Ninth House are unavailable at this time.The National is an American rock band of Cincinnati, Ohio natives, formed in Brooklyn, New York City in 1999.



Overall, Ninth House has plenty to offer to fans of the Grishaverse and dark academia: intriguing characters, a diversified magic system and a darkly enchanting love story. She also included tongue-in-cheek references to other famous Yale alumni and the powers that their secret societies granted them, from reading the stock market in the guts of a drunk to getting high on inspiration smoke to create their next masterpiece. Bardugo herself was part of Wolf's Head, whose power is shapeshifting. Thankfully, Alex has a line of hope in the friends she meets in Lethe House: Darlington, her Lethe House mentor, a senior and the last heir of a decadent mansion Pamela, the bookish and reclusive assistant of Lethe The Bridegroom, a ghost who has been following Alex around hoping to convince her to investigate the death of his fiancée, Daisy, more than a century ago.īardugo used her experiences as a Yale undergrad to write Ninth House, and most of the secret societies mentioned in the novel actually exist. The young woman was killed on Yale's grounds and dealt a new magical drug called Merity as well as a special kind of mushroom used in rituals to open portals to other dimensions. The book drops the reader in the midst of things, with Alex scrambling to solve the murder of Tara. The catch is she must use her gift, which includes tethering ghosts and absorbing their powers, to oversee the activities of Yale's other Eight Houses, which use magic in specific and twisted ways. She was lying on a hospital bed when House Lethe found her and offered her a free ride to Yale. The protagonist of Ninth House is Alex Stern, a young woman who can see ghosts, a skill that was such a curse in her early life that it eventually landed her in the hospital after someone tried to kill her.
