Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

529 reviews

ienbdri's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.75

Sloooow beginning, perfect middle part, kinda boring ending/ cliffhanger. I don't know what to do with this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Violence, Gore, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

marynograce827's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was amazing and always had me drawn in for more. The pace is slow at some parts but then suddenly picks up to a fast pace and slows down again(rinse and repeat). The ending is quite sad in my opinion so if you enjoy a bittersweet end then this is for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Sexual content

schoha01's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Body horror, Confinement, War, Violence, Grief, Child death, Death, Abandonment, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Vomit, and Chronic illness

dizzymisslizzy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Terminal illness, Vomit, Body horror, Suicide, Cancer, Blood, Murder, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse and Cannibalism

ellenwm'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

4.0

I was drawn in tight from the first chapter, which felt unique! The prose is fun. Gideon is just an awesome, magnetic character to get to know. The exposition feels natural and not too heavy handed. I enjoyed the mystery component and the characters immensely. This isn’t my typical genre, so grain of salt, but the world and concept felt totally fresh. I loved the audiobook narrator!!! Once you’re in the thick of it though it takes some doing to really keep the main 17 characters sorted in your mind, with who’s with what house and which partners and which skills and which titles. Might have been easier reading it written out, but keeping a character list nearby helped until I had it straight. There were a couple important emotional beats that faltered, unfortunately. Do be warned, there are some sections of body horror that aren’t enjoyable near meals or if you’re squeamish. Excited for the next in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Murder, Suicide, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail

shottel's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.25

The quote by Charles Stross on the front of the book sums up the setting very well: "Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space! Decadent nobles vie to serve the deathless Emperor! Skeletons!" Yet it misses the most notable feature of the book: The witty, gruesome writing. Much of the story is told as if the titular Gideon the Ninth is the narrator herself - sarcastic, crude, dark, judgmental, and witty. It frequently invokes death, decay, and viscera without ever being overbearingly grimdark.

"She was down there last night too and, if I'm correct, never surfaced. Her blood's on the floor down there." Because necromancers lived bad lives, he added: "To clarify. Her intravenous blood. Her intravenous blood."

The writing, plot, and world-building are brilliant. The only reason it is not a 5 star book is because I nearly put it away before I reached the half-way point. In the first half, it turned into a slog. Little happens with Gideon in terms of her advancing the plot, experiencing the plot advancing, or with her own development. To make matters worse, the tone of the book, which is otherwise brilliantly presented, stays completely uniform the entire way through. I had to sit through over a hundred pages of what felt like very little before experiencing an explosion of activity in the second half. This hundred pages of nothing did accentuate the drama of the second half, but that could have been done while allowing for tonal shifts or personal character development that would have made the first half more interesting to read.

Despite this, if you are like me, keep pushing through until about page 250 and the payoff will absolutely be worth it. I recommend this to anyone who would be interested in reading about lesbian space necromancy.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child death and Murder

autumngrace08'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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Suicide

Moderate: Body horror

yepdatjj's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This book left with a lot to unpack, a lot of questions and I didn't know where to start.  And that's all in a good way.  Tamsyn Muir has created this intricate and complex world and describes it so beautifully that you can see it clearly and understand what's going on.  But then you realize, like the characters at times, you have no idea what's going on.

I'm a HUGE thriller fan and this one kept me guessing even through the epilogue.  Highly recommend this if you love fantasy and a good thriller.  Looking forward to continuing the story with book two.  

And not as an afterthought, Moira Quirk brought the characters to life brilliantly.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Body horror, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent, Suicide, and War

beebidon's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

I think about this series at least once a day. I put off reading it bc I fully believed my friends who warned me that it would be consume  me.  They were right and I regret nothing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Death, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Terminal illness, and Grief

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Suicide, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Child death, Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, and Violence

Minor: Religious bigotry, Vomit, Pregnancy, Cannibalism, Colonisation, War, and Confinement

caromon's review against another edition

lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

I fucking hated the writing 🙃
That being said, I wanted to know what happened next (it's a mess, not worth my time either way)
The atmosphere is interesting and cool tho, I haven't seen any books that feature necromancers and space. I liked the aesthetic, but it felt like glitter that doesn't stick.
It gets extra points for The Gay.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide