Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

80 reviews

shottel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Like Gideon the Ninth, the book-cover reviews and summaries don’t do it justice. Harrow the Ninth is a fantastic, funny, unique, genre-blurring novel whose worldbuilding and mystery-oriented storytelling makes it worthy of reading on their own. To an even greater degree, it is a poignant picture of psychosis and grief. I was not expecting to see in such detail a broken mind, agonized by self-doubt and the mistrust of others, and the crushing weight of immense loss.

Outside of the deep themes of regret, loss, absence, grief, and psychosis, there is much to say positively. Harrow manages to pull off pop culture references and memes humorously, without making me want to throw the book across the room. (Minimally spoiling example: A subtle joke invoking none pizza left beef.) This, combined with a tamer but still present version of the sense of humor that made Gideon distinctive makes for an enjoyable time. It doesn’t lag so hard in the first half like Gideon does (although I do feel it could’ve likely been shortened a good 50-100 pages). The ending was exciting, the payoff for working through over 400 pages of confusion (albeit a well-written 400 pages) deeply worth it. My only gripe is that, without spoiling anything, the last 5 or so pages are a bit confusing and sad in a way I don’t think fits, but this doesn’t harm it enough for me to say the ending was anything but excellent.

Overall, I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who has read Gideon the Ninth and would be interested in a good mystery or an evocative portrait of disturbed mental faculties.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Toxic friendship, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Vomit, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Self harm

Minor: Pregnancy, Dementia, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

sdskuld's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What an ambitious sequel full of head games any mystery, but it works. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Violence, Murder, Blood, Self harm, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Injury/Injury detail

DO NOT START WITH THIS BOOK. Start with Gideon the Ninth

enyltiak's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Gideon the Ninth was my first five star read of 2023, so I figured it was about time to continue the series. Where the beginning of the first book is a bit confusing in that classic new sci-fi/fantasy world adjustment sort of way, Harrow the Ninth is confusing in a trippy, clueless sort of way where you as the reader are completely in the dark alongside its titular character, feeling your way to some semblance of explanation. It's a slow burn for certain, and not for everyone, but I was personally a fan of the way POV is used in this book.

Despite the confusing nature, I managed to figure out that

Harrow had willfully replaced/removed Gideon from her memory in her grief (though I hadn't known fully why or how, of course)

. The last act of the book is action-packed and so fun. It really sheds light on everything vague that had occurred thus far, so you get some clarity seeing it through to the end. All in all, solid second book and definitely one that strikes a desire to re-read it and see it in a whole new light.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gaslighting, Vomit, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Body horror, Self harm, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Death

xosirenox's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Vomit, Violence, Death, and Murder

madd_1234's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Audiobook 10/10!
Was confused most of the book, but in a good way  

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

azureandroid's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Really good but it is from a second person perspective on the beginning which can be HARD to get a grip on

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Body horror, Mental illness, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

Moderate: Child death, Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, Gore, and Murder

Minor: Cursing, Vomit, Blood, Sexual content, and Dysphoria

Harrow is traumatised, she is really her own warning at this point

lizziaha's review against another edition

funny sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book had me wheezing with laughter at some points. It also had me scrambling, trying desperately to fill in the blanks in the story (most of my theories ended up being wrong).  The inclusion of the immortals in this story was delightful (even if the immortals themselves were not) and I thought that Mercymorn’s commitment to the bit about the infants was hilarious. It took me a minute to get used to the second-person voice that at least half of the book is written in, but ultimately I think it worked well for the story. There are these big intangible subjects that Muir never really talks about, but that permeate the entire story nonetheless. Love is one of those things, and the second person pov grabs a handful of that intangible quality and twists it and makes art of it, then hands it back to us as the readers. It’s not my typical beloved writing style that would focus more inwards, but it’s captured my heart anyway. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series. Original Rating: 4.75

Second Read: This book was IMMENSELY more enjoyable (and heart wrenching) the second go around. I’m frankly astounded at how much went right over my head on the first read. I should also say that it was remiss for me to spend so much of my first review talking about how funny it is. It IS funny, but it’s also so deeply sad that it’s hard to wrap your head around. There is so much grief at the forefront—the plot is necessary, but it”s driving force, at every point, is grief. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Murder, Body horror, Cursing, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Vomit, and War

Minor: Cannibalism, Alcohol, and Self harm

biobeetle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Moderate: Self harm, Death, and Body horror

iane_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Violence, Self harm, Stalking, Torture, Body horror, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Gore, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Cursing, and Death

Moderate: Eating disorder, Genocide, Ableism, Sexual content, Child abuse, Suicide, Cannibalism, Child death, and Confinement

Minor: Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Miscarriage, Cancer, Terminal illness, Animal death, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Acephobia/Arophobia, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and War

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

3 ⭐ CW: violence, self-harm, blood and gore, gruesome deaths, necrophilia? 

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir is book two in the Locked Tomb series. This book was seriously a let down. The only reason this even got as many stars as it did, is because the action picked up near the end. I think Harrow suffers from second book slump syndrome. 

We follow Harrow after what happened last book, except everything is different and nothing makes sense. I figured there was a reason for the memory differences and jumps back and forth in time, but it was a sluggish story. It just took forever for anything to happen, and when things did happen, they didn't really make sense. Harrow isn't nearly as likable as Gideon. I spent most of the book feeling bad for Harrow. You really need Gideon's brand of humor for this dark and gruesome of a story. 

I don't want to spoil anything, so I won't go into detail, but things finally start coming together in Act 5 (this is entirely too late in the book for stuff to start making sense), but it threw me through a loop again and it turns out I didn't actually know what was going on. Look, I can appreciate an author playing the long game with the plot,  but so much of what happened was unnecessary or repetitive. It was just too dang long for what actually happened. 

The other problem is that I didn't find any of the other characters interesting or likable. We spend too much time with Harrow brooding and confused, and not enough time with the other Lyctors. The first book had a haunted space mansion and a murder mystery. This book had a 10,000 year long con that didn't make any sense to me, and a murderous dead planet that is trying to kill everyone. 

Still deciding if I want to continue this series. I have been told that Nona the Ninth is much better than this one, but we shall see. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Blood, Gore, Death, and Self harm