41 pages • 1 hour read
Leigh BardugoNinth House
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 25-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 25 Summary: “Winter”
Back at the dorm, Alex changes outfits. She tells her roommates she is going on a date with a local guy, but instead heads to Darlington’s house where Pamela is already cooking food. That night is the new moon and they will attempt to bring back Darlington.
While Alex is searching through Darlington’s papers for his notes on the Bridegroom case, Dean Sandow and Michelle, the previous Virgil, arrive. Together with several other society members, they attempt the ritual that is supposed to bring Darlington back. Something goes wrong, however, and Alex feels the same otherworldly presence as the one she sensed the night of Tara’s murder.
What appears is “a monster—there was no other word for it—horned and heavy-toothed, so big its hulking body blotted out the night sky. A boar. A ram. The rearing, segmented body of a scorpion” (371). Dean Sandow chants an incantation and banishes the creature.
Michelle tells them that what they saw is a hellbeast, which must have consumed Darlington body and soul.
Chapter 26 Summary: “Winter”
Back at Il Bastone, Pamela and Alex plan to spend the night at the clubhouse. Before they can shower or order food, however, someone knocks on the door. A voice commands Pamela to open the door: It’s Blake, who has come for revenge armed with Merity.
The young man chases Alex through the house, but she fends off the effects of Merity by playing loud music and putting on headphones. Blake catches her and starts beating her, breaks her ribs. Before he can kill her, however, Dean Sandow arrives. Blake commands the Dean to stab Alex, but she manages to summon jackals, which successfully delay Blake. Alex is unable to control them and one of the jackals bites her. Blake grabs Alex once again and slams her head into the floor. In the nick of time, Pamela hits him on the head with a statue and kills him.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Winter”
Alex wakes up in the hospital. She, Pamela, and Sandow are being treated for their injuries. Detective Turner arrives to discuss recent events. Alex tells them that Blake denied murdering Tara while under compulsion back, but the dean explains that compulsion is a complex thing—he believes that Blake is the murderer. Other issues, like the gluma, remain unexplained.
The dean promises consequences and fines for the Houses involved, but will not disband the societies at fault: “youth is a wasting resource […]. The alumni need the societies; an entire network of contacts and cohorts depends on the magic they can access. This is why the alumni return here, why the trusts maintain the tombs” (391).
Disgusted by the lack of justice, afraid for her life, and not convinced that Blake is the killer, Alex escapes from the hospital and hides at the Hutch.
Chapters 25-27 Analysis
The violence ratchets up in this part of the novel. Yale becomes a place as dangerous as Alex’s old “Ground Zero” apartment back in Los Angeles. As the story demonstrates, anyone is capable of killing someone else under the right circumstances–even quiet introvert Pamela finds it in herself to beat Blake to death to defend Alex. The university’s rich history and wealth are no guarantees of safety; instead, all these markers of privilege do is provide more motives for ruthlessness and offer more opportunities to shield perpetrators. The only protection comes from interpersonal connections: friendship and solidarity.
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By Leigh Bardugo
