Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Gideon la Nona by Tamsyn Muir

326 reviews

lunarlibra'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? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

To everyone who has been talking about how much they love this book for years: I get it now
For some reason it took me a long time to really get into this book (like over 100 pages) but once I did, I could not put it down! (I think it's a me-problem, and for someone else the early chapters would have been immediately captivating.) 
The character development, the mystery, and the increasingly heightened stakes of the book make this a truly compelling read. Also some parts are truly so funny I laughed out loud! That said, it is deeply tragic. I don't usually love tragedy, but something about how the characters handled it felt very real to me in a way that didn't leave me feeling hopeless. 
I think Tamsyn Muir did something truly special with this book, her writing style is very visceral (no pun intended) in that I found myself deeply understanding the characters' emotions from her descriptions of things like time passing. I can't wait to get my hands on the next book!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide, Abandonment, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Torture, Vomit, Cannibalism, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Confinement, Colonisation, and Slavery

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

emmabunny's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

this is the best book/series to ever exist ever

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Terminal illness

molliford's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Terminal 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

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

emalderwood's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-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

5.0

This book was spectacular, a blast, and absolutely destroyed me at the end with a last jab of a plot twist I never saw coming. I wanted to throw the book SO BAD. But Muir knocked it out of the park in so many ways. Gideon is a unique and matchless main character full of spite and sarcasm and I adored getting to experience her as the main POV. The world was weird and grisly and confusing but in a delightful, creative and cool way and not in a thrown-together way. The plot twists were genius - you never knew what was going to happen next  but once they did you could see the trail the author had made leading there. Thoroughly recommend this if you're okay with weird, not knowing exactly what's happening all the time, and lots of blood and bones and gore. And if you're emotionally ready for an ending that will make you mad. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Child death

Moderate: Murder, Terminal illness, Body horror, and Suicide

Minor: Medical content, Toxic friendship, Vomit, and War

kingtonner's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

“We do bones, motherfucker.”

With its perfect blend of humor, ominous undertones, and heart-pounding excitement, “Gideon The Ninth” captivated my imagination from the very first page. The novel’s unique combination of hilarity and darkness created an atmosphere that kept me eagerly turning pages, unsure of what unexpected twist or witty remark awaited me next. I cannot wait to read through the rest of the series! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide, and Blood

Moderate: Cannibalism, Terminal illness, War, and Child death

Minor: Death of parent and Grief

skudiklier's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.75

It's been a week since I read this and I still have no idea how to review it. I really liked it. I had no idea what was going on for the first third of it. I found the main character really enjoyable. I thought so much of it was fucked up and graphic and dark. (vague spoilers ahead)

I was surprised and devastated by the ending. I was really hoping/expecting it to turn into enemies to lovers and I still can't tell if that might happen in a future

 

I'm definitely going to read the next one, and I convinced my sister to read this one so I could have someone to talk about it with. But like. Wow. What a book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Slavery, Blood, Violence, Death, Child death, and Body horror

Moderate: Terminal illness