Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

10 reviews

shottel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted sad 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

4.5

Muir loves switching up her genres. While Gideon was moderately mystery-focused and Harrow was definitely a mystery novel, the mystery of Nona takes a back seat to how goddamn precious Nona is. Unfortunately, that fact makes an already sad series even sadder. It’s fortunate that Muir’s writing style is hilarious, because otherwise the entire plot of Nona the Ninth would’ve been pretty depressing.

Still, I would say it’s better than Gideon and a mark worse than Harrow - which is to say, it’s very good. I had a harder time following the plot than before, and while Muir makes great strides with diversity in this book, it sometimes comes off a tad awkward (like in the repeated misgendering of a character with they/them pronouns, just for them to correct themselves). But those are pretty small problems compared to the rest of this deeply dark and funny novel. If you liked Gideon and Harrow, I highly recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Addiction, Body horror, Mental illness, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death, Toxic friendship, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Bullying, Alcohol, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Body shaming, Medical content, and Transphobia

Minor: Drug use, Vomit, Trafficking, and Sexual violence

balina_elah's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Grief, Death, Body horror, Violence, and Cursing

Moderate: Police brutality, Kidnapping, Eating disorder, and War

Minor: Bullying, Addiction, and Colonisation

hayleyvem's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Blood, Gore, Grief, Toxic friendship, War, Xenophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Colonisation

Minor: Drug use and Bullying

griffinthief's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, War, Police brutality, Body horror, Cursing, Mental illness, Death, Blood, Gun violence, Murder, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness

Minor: Death of parent, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Bullying

vogelobre's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

I really liked this book!! I read it back to back with Harrow the Ninth, and while I really enjoyed how tense and twisty and confusing that one was, it was nice to read something a bit more lighthearted and joyful. I fell completely in love with Nona and her little family, and it was very interesting to read about the backstory of the Nine Houses. Despite the lighter tone, this book has a lot of dark themes and emotional moments. It works very well as a continuation and exploration of the series' themes, and I can't wait to reread all three books before the fourth one comes out!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Gun violence

Moderate: War, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Terminal illness, Medical content, Gore, and Colonisation

Minor: Alcohol, Addiction, Cursing, and Bullying

theirgracegrace's review against another edition

funny reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir's third book of four in the Locked Tomb series, is a sudden but welcome shift from the previous two books. Nona is just a nineteen year old relearning how to interact with society with the help of her three parental figures. But it is later discovered that

the three parents are necromancers from the Nine Houses and that Nona herself is piloting the body of someone named Harrowhark Nonagesimus, and the Nine Houses want them back

. An astounding dual point-of-view familiar to readers of Harrow the Ninth and a cast of loveable characters familiar of the same. The explosive ending leaves me wanting more!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Abandonment, Child abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Murder, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Excrement, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Sexual content, Drug use, Drug abuse, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Misogyny, and Terminal illness

The Blood of Eden's attack on necromancers comes with a lot of slur-like terms and bigotry that is reminiscent of (but not a direct copy of) religious bigotry in real life.

nicnevin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny tense 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

5.0

I loved this book and Nona loves me.

I pulled the book apart and devoured it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Body horror, Confinement, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Cancer, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Medical content, Murder, Police brutality, Sexual content, Torture, Vomit, Drug use, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, War, Deadnaming, Dementia, Gore, Grief, Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Suicide, Violence, Addiction, Blood, Cannibalism, Car accident, Chronic illness, and Suicide attempt

jjjreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Murder, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Car accident, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Police brutality, Self harm, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Deadnaming, Excrement, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, and Vomit

Minor: Abortion, Car accident, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Xenophobia

iviarelle's review

adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

As much as Harrow the Ninth (the book) sometimes felt like an impenetrable puzzle box on the first read, Nona's life was never particularly opaque to me. Sure, there are questions adjacent to her, in fact all of the questions are adjacent to her, but I never felt frustrated by the way the information was withheld, even though the structure is very similar to Harrow's book went.

On a related note, I think it's an incredible achievement that Muir split this book off from Alecto the Ninth, where it was supposed to have just been the first third-to-half of the book, without making it FEEL like an incomplete story. Maybe part of that is down to how different Harrow felt from Gideon, setting us up for each book to be a slightly disjointed story about different but related characters within this world. Either way, nothing about this book is a disappointment, and the split point isn't as jarring as they often are when books are torn in half like this.

It's hard to say much more than that without spoilers. I'm so pleased with how this one played out, even with the questions I don't feel have satisfactory answers yet, and I'm looking intensely forward to Alecto.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Vomit, Colonisation, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Medical content, War, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Bullying, Drug use, Deadnaming, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Gaslighting

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Car accident, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and War

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Child death, Cursing, Police brutality, Terminal illness, Gore, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Genocide, Mental illness, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Chronic illness, and Death of parent

Minor: Trafficking, Vomit, Abandonment, Body horror, Child abuse, Alcohol, Bullying, Drug use, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Transphobia