Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Gideon la Nona by Tamsyn Muir

517 reviews

lifeinsherds's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

The ONLY reason this doesn't have a full 5 stars for me is because there are a LOT of characters in this book. But Muir has a list at the beginning which character belongs to which house. I absolutely sprinted through the last like 80 pages.

Tamsyn Muir has SUCH a strong voice as Gideon. She is loyal and flawed and weak and strong. UGH. this may be a book I wish I could read for the first time again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Death, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide, Death of parent, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Chronic illness

fairyollie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I wish I liked this book more than I did. there is a lot I could say, both good and bad, but I'll try and keep it short and spoiler-free as possible. it was very ambitious, to say the least, as a gothic, sci-fi, fantastical, dystopian, magical, necromantic story.

• Pacing: the pacing was weird and difficult. the plot does not start until about 45-50% through the story, and I found it very difficult to keep reading until then. 
• Humor: there were a LOT of references to memes and very-2016 humor. I was not a fan of this, because abrupt jokes, comments, and references to memes were so out of place for the setting. it also makes it difficult for a book to age well when using humor and jokes from a specific, short-lived time period.
• Characters: I did not particularly care for or find myself rooting, relating to, and enjoying almost any of the characters! their motives, their rationale, their background, were lost or not fully fleshed-out, and certain choices seemed random. just didn't mesh for me.
• Setting: as said above, the first half of the book was slow, and it was not used for world-building or introducing the characters or lore at all. I think more world-building, to better understand who everyone is, what's going on, purpose, lore, how the mecromatic magic system works, anything  - just more of why/what/how, would have really elevated the book more.
• also, this is entirely my bad, as it's literally a book about necromancers, but I don't handle gore very well lol. not a book flaw but a personal skill issue!

I wanted to like this book, and was planning to read this for a very long time, but it just fell short for me. I would recommend this to others, as I know there are many people who would (and do!) enjoy this, but for myself, it was just a difficult, bit juvenile, time. I am happy I finally had the chance to read it, and wish I had enjoyed it more!

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Grief, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Child death, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Death of parent

valerian_honeybee'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
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Blood, Gore, and Suicide

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Genocide, Death of parent, and Terminal illness

Minor: Miscarriage, Infertility, and Cannibalism

knightreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Gore, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Cancer, Vomit, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Confinement, War, and Cannibalism

balletbookworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

A long-overdue re-read for Elizabeth @ Plant Based Bride's book club.

Now, I did have to kick the audiobook up to 1.75x speed because the narrator was So Slow (look, why is she reading that slow? actual humans do not speak that slowly) and Gideon's dialog snaps off the page. If Guy Ritchie movies existed in the Locked Tomb universe, Gideon would absolutely imagine herself in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Necromancers. (I have jokes! Lol)

I'd forgotten so much about this book, most importantly that Gideon and Harrow are so TEENAGERY towards each other, like a Mean Girls/Stepsiblings mashup. (If this series were starting in 2024, someone somewhere would try to make this a YA simply because Gideon and Harrow are actual teenagers and it's NOT A YA AT ALL. Whew.) And that really does make their eventual recognition that maybe they are friends and do need each other to survive that much better.

I've already got my library hold lined up for <i>Harrow</i> and then <i> Nona</i> bc I'd held off on Nona until I got a series re-read done, so this is the time!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt

caelinsullivan's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Terminal illness, Grief, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Suicide, Slavery, and Medical content

insideunder's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Cancer, Death of parent, Body horror, Terminal illness, Child death, Cursing, Gore, Chronic illness, Death, Suicide, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Bullying, Medical content, Cannibalism, Classism, Slavery, Religious bigotry, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Infertility and War

murderousscottishgremlin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I think I just feel very underwhelmed by this book. I can certainly see why a lot of people I know enjoy it. There were some scenes I really liked and it was an enjoyable read, but Gideon’s dialogue was just very corny and irked me at times and Muir didn’t create the emotional impact she seemed to be trying to in some key scenes. I think I’ll probably read the sequel, though, as the use of second person narration intrigues me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Cancer, Murder, and Suicide

estigatetes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Body horror, Violence, Suicide, and Blood

Minor: Vomit, Cancer, and War

adbooks20's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Murder, Torture, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Gore, Death, Grief, and Body horror

Moderate: Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Cancer, Genocide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide attempt, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Chronic illness, Confinement, and Terminal illness