Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Gideon la Nona by Tamsyn Muir

138 reviews

sabrina_marvil's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

Wrong.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, Genocide, Gore, Chronic illness, Pregnancy, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Incest, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Cancer, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, Colonisation, Self harm, Stalking, Trafficking, Torture, Medical content, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Blood, Body shaming, Vomit, War, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Mental illness

Not in space

chrisb913's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

The book overall is incredibly solid. Tamsyn Muir crafts a truly dark, dense, and complex world. The plot starts out a bit murky, trying to piece together the world and the magic system. If you are someone like me who will end up re-reading passages over and over again until you understand what is happening, the initial few chapters can be incredibly frustrating, as Muir tends to show you the basics of the world building over the course of the story instead of telling you about it all upfront. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, in my opinion, just that it can cause a bit of a slog at certain points in the story. 

The main character, Gideon, and her necromancer, Harrow, were very well written. Gideon, a lovable snarky badass woman, always with a retort, paired so perfectly with Harrow, a strict, powerful no-nonsense woman who wants to prove she can do everything solo. The bonding these two share as the story progresses had me clamoring for more scenes with just these two.

While the plot was pretty straightforward, as stated earlier, the writing was anything but. The twists and turns in this sci-fi fantasy turned mystery thriller kept me on the edge of my seat, clamoring for more. Really and truly, the only hinderence I found was the pacing of the world/story building reveals. I found myself floundering at different points, trying to figure out what was going on, especially in the beginning. I would say this book is between a 4-4.5 star. I will definitely be continuing this series with the next book Harrow the Ninth to find out what happens next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, Murder, and Violence

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

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

gussurireads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

5.0

(This review is solely concerned with the audiobook recording, not the actual contents of the book.)

I'm no audiobook expert but this was the first one I ever listened to, having started out earlier this year. Since then, I've tried a handful more and still none compare (well, perhaps Rasha Zamamiri's narration of The Unbroken by C.L. Clark!)

Moira Quirk is an excellent narrator. She voiced each character so wonderfully, giving them all personalities beyond what was written in the text and, in the process, improving tenfold my enjoyment of this masterpiece.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Grief, Cannibalism, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Slavery, Toxic friendship, Suicide, and Death of parent

gussurireads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Cannibalism, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Death of parent, Slavery, Suicide, and Toxic friendship

awanke's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Suicide, Death of parent, and Classism

sigrids's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

This book really had me happy for killing lesbians, bc I couldn't stand what I assume was to be the main couple. Also from the start it took very long for me to actually enjoy this one. But by the end I was hooked and now I have to start the second part. 

Also I love how useless the main character is in face of any women she sees. Very relatable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Violence, Death, Toxic friendship, Blood, Toxic relationship, Bullying, and Murder

Moderate: Slavery, Suicide, Child abuse, Death of parent, Child death, and Grief

Minor: Genocide, Infertility, and Emotional abuse

kodi_rae's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.0

I’ve often heard this book summed up as “lesbian space necromancers” and I love how it gets to the point but leaves so much to the imagination. This was a really fun and unique read. The world building is deep and the reader gets dropped right into the action, leaving a lot to be leaned and figured out as you go. Because of that, it took me a bit of time to feel like I really understood what was going on. I read a physical copy of the book which had a list of the houses and all the cast of characters that I referenced constantly and was very helpful. The back had a glossary and also descriptions for how to pronounce some of the names. I *almost* wish I had read it first but I might have still felt a little lost so maybe it wouldn’t have helped much anyway.

I think my one critique is that it moved so fast that the way the relationship between the two main characters fluctuates over time did not feel totally believable to me. But I will still read the other books in the series because it was so interesting and fun. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Chronic illness, Gore, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Child death, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Cursing

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? Yes

3.5

Quick review: this book was so much fun but it takes the completely wrong lessons form action animes. To the point many things were contradictory, cliche or predictable when you know Muir is capable of much more if she pushed herself or even reread and noticed she got ahead of herself and didn’t always keep track of characters or why a location change in a fight makes sense. 

Muir’s character dynamics and character multidimensional and the way she writes women so central though is incredible. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Toxic friendship, Infertility, Body horror, Cursing, Gore, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Bullying, Suicide, War, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Child death, Death, Blood, Cancer, and Body shaming