Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

81 reviews

huntress's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Vomit, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Slavery, Grief, Genocide, Torture, Suicide attempt, Bullying, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Cannibalism

horriblehorrid's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

Easily in my top five favorites this whole series is amazing. Expect to have no clue what's going on ever, but to be able to go back after every new reveal and see how the new info plays into the stuff you didn't get the first time thru. very well done plot. A+ characters too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Abandonment, Body horror, Death, Bullying, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide

nevdite284's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Chronic illness, Grief, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Violence, and Gore

_teoeo's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad 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

4.0

~3,75 ⭐

It took me so freaking long to finish this!! Also, it was the wrong decision to read the book in English instead of my native language because ngl there was a lot that I didn't understand (even though 90% of the books I read are in English). The final fight was too long for my liking, but all in all it was a good book. I enjoyed it (at least the parts I understood :')) and already bought the second book. Also, I really liked gideon

and I'm really shocked that she died!!

(may or may not she's now one of my fictional crushes)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Suicide, Violence, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Bullying

Moderate: Child death and Abandonment

feelingfrazzled's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Death, Bullying, Murder, Body horror, and Gore

i swear those content warnings are INTENSE but also,,, super not,,,, but also….!

harrow_nova's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Bullying and Child abuse

Minor: Confinement

tigerproofrock's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

This book is not what I expected. By leaps and bounds it’s main strength is the narrator’s hilarious, irreverent tone. The plot itself couldn’t be less interesting to me. I kept expecting I was going to stop reading it, but finished it solely to keep hearing the protagonist talk shit about everyone (including, and especially, herself). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Blood, Toxic friendship, Violence, Bullying, Death, Gore, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Abandonment

bookishchef's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-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

3.75

Okay, so. 

The worldbuilding isn't great. I'm sorry, but it's true. New questions kept popping into my mind while reading this book, and almost none of them got a complete answer. 

Who is the Empire fighting a war against? 
No idea. 
Why is the Empire at war? 
No idea. 
How did the Empire come into existence? 
No idea. 
What are the main differences between each planet/each house? 
No idea (except their powers seem to differ a bit and the Ninth has a different religion). 
Why do the characters know so little about the other houses? 
No idea.
How will the Houses function when the heir apparent dies or when a House bloodline comes to an end? 
No idea.
How is this Empire so adept at space travel when they do not have internet, satellites, or even engineers (not in the Ninth anyway)? 
No idea. 

And so on. 

All of this did bother me throughout the story and I had to consciously decide to ignore it. 
Luckily, the characters kind of make up for it. All the characters, even the side characters, have their own distinct personalities. This story has over 16 characters to keep track of and they all feel different and unique. 
I'd argue that the Second House gets the least developed personalities, but I still know exactly what they're about. 

This book is also very funny. Gideon is hilarious and her repertoire with Harrowhark is very entertaining. For me, it never got old.

There's some very entertaining plottwists too. I saw some of them coming, but not all of them and that kept me reading on. I was genuinely invested in the mysteries. Shame we don't get an answer to some of them. 

So yeah, I liked it, but I don't really get the enormous hype surrounding it. The book definitely has flaws even if it can be very entertaining.

I hated the ending. It didn't feel earned to me. 
Also not sure if the space setting added anything. This could have been a normal Empire consisting of several countries or continents and I don't think it would have changed the story at all. If anything, it would have answered some of my worldbuilding questions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Murder, Violence, and Bullying

Moderate: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Gore

Minor: Confinement, Vomit, Cannibalism, and War

ritte_e's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Creative worldbuilding and solid plot once it gets rolling (which took a while, but it was worth hanging on!). The action scenes were exciting.  Gideon is likeable enough, but I really, really enjoyed the character that turned out to be the antagonist the most.

Critique:
Personally, I wasn't too fond of the narrator voice, too snarky for my taste and keeping track of all the characters and titles might have been easier if their given names were used more frequently to describe them.

As for the mystery, the stakes weren't too clear (how final is death in a necromancy setting? What was everyone's goals exactly?) so as a reader you were left guessing about a lot more than just the whodunit. I'm guessing navigating the pages will be easier in the sequel, now that the groundwork of the setting has been established.

I'm not sure yet what to make of the other main character, Harrow, but I'm sure I'll find out in the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Cannibalism, Child death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, and Slavery

hannahsmanyhobbies's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I’m confused in the best way, and it’s pretty much exactly what I thought it would be. And I don’t do zombies but that’s basically what this is and somehow it’s working for me. Picking up the second book literally tomorrow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Blood, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Bullying, Death, Grief, Murder, Torture, Violence, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail