Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Gideon la Nona by Tamsyn Muir

263 reviews

scifi_rat's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, and Gaslighting

risaleel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Gore, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Cursing, Abandonment, and War

whatdoiknowjr's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

madzie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

 Epic. Muir flawlessly weaves intertwines genres of fantasy, science fiction, and horror to create something truly unique. She hits every genre on the head. The plot is well-structured and offers some unique twists and turns. The mystery that runs throughout the book becomes enthralling and pulls you in for every minute. In the end, everything perfectly fits to create a truly epic story perfect for any fantasy lover (or emo). Overall, the worldbuilding is interesting and inventive. Some questions were left unanswered, but they did not distract from the overall enjoyment of the world. 

The characters are fun and quirky, allowing them to jump off the page. All the main characters feel like real people and operate around each other with interesting dynamics that permit the exploration of themes. Particularly, Harrow and Gideon feel like old friends to the reader, and watching them interact is pure gold. I feel like I could follow them anywhere. However, side characters often get lost in the shuffle, even becoming confusingly mixed up due to a lack of development and leading me to care little for their ultimate endings.

However, Muir’s tale is mostly weighed down by some writing choices. Her style is very dense, and while this works alright throughout most of the novel when it comes to action scenes, it is a haul to get through as the sentence structure makes everything else drag behind. 

Muir’s true talent shines through with her use of themes, which are expertly explored. Interestingly, Muir uses queer themes without making queerphobia a part of her novel, offering a perspective I have never seen before but certainly enjoy. Muir allows her characters to be unapologetically (and more importantly without explanation) queer yet flawlessly incorporates themes of queerness throughout the novel, allowing us to use fantasy for its true purpose to explore our world in a removed setting. Further, Muir asks us to question human drive and how our actions result from it. Through Muir’s light-handed writing, readers ponder our interactions with others, religion, control, and emotions, working together to demonstrate how horrifyingly we can treat each other when our insecurities are left unchecked.

In the end, the popularity of this novel is highly understandable. The characters, plot, and themes work together wonderfully with only a few setbacks leaving it shy of five stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Minor: Suicide, Death of parent, and Abandonment

larbster90's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny sad medium-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

Took me a bit to get i to it because the world is so complicated, but once I started to understand I loved it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness, Physical abuse, and Terminal illness

Minor: Cursing

fishbones's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit

hayleyvem's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: War

Minor: Infertility

angelsfw's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Child death and Cannibalism

Minor: Suicide

venuxians's review against another edition

adventurous medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

i feel insane. i actually thought i lost my ability to read for pleasure after being stuck in a rut for a looong time and then i opened gideon and couldn't put it down. and then immediately got harrow and nona. i feel crazy. 100/10 new hyperfixation goes whrrrrr. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cannibalism and Abandonment

abiofpellinor's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

Fucking perfection

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail