Leigh Bardugo looks back at a conversation-starting part of her career.
The author rose to fame with her sprawling Grishaverse YA novels set in a magical world. In 2019, she made her adult debut with “The Ninth House,” the first book in a trilogy set among Yale’s secret societies.
At the time of publication, a graphic attack scene in “The Ninth House” sparked a debate about content warnings. Some readers said they were shocked and disturbed by the incident and that a warning should have been given before reading.
During an Oct. 1 episode of Jenna Bush Hager’s “Open Book with Jenna,” Bardugo said the uproar was “still surprising” to him “given some of the things that are popular right now.”
“There wasn’t anything in this book that really deviated from what you’d find in any horror novel or urban fantasy novel, but it was a departure from what I write for teens,” he said.
Bardugo noted that “an argument can be made” about content warnings, but that calls for these warnings are loudest in books written by women who have previously written books for children.
“I think there is a very puritanical tendency in all of this,” he said.
He also said that if content warnings are expected, they should be in every book, “and I’m not interested in being a test case.”
“I believe everything belongs on different shelves,” he said. “Where we put a book on the shelf is all about expectations. And if you’re coming to a shelf with young adults, you’ll never find ‘The Ninth House’ there.”
Bardugo said his first impulse was to defend himself against reactions to the content of his book. “I didn’t write this for shock value,” he recalled thinking.
This anger, he later realized, was proof that the book worked.
“You should be disturbed by that. If you’re reading on the page about an attack. You shouldn’t just pass by. It should hit you. It should hit you like a ton of bricks. And if I did that, maybe I did something right,” he said.
In the end, he said, the book “found the people it needed to find.” If he had changed or softened the content, “he wouldn’t have found those people.”
She also said books are a perfect place to broach difficult and uncomfortable topics, “because you’re safe doing it.”
“(Books) can lead to conversation. They can lead to difficult thoughts about things we’ve been through, things we’ve been through with other people, things our friends are going through that maybe we don’t know how to talk to them about. There’s that kind of connection in those kinds of uncomfortable places,” she says.
The final installment of Bardugo’s “Ninth House” series, titled “Dead Beat,” was released on September 15, completing Alex Stern’s journey through the magical portals of Yale University.