Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Nona the Ninth

There’s a LOT of genderfuckery going on here, and for that, I will always love this series. Other than the fact that this book differed from the first two, I feel like there’s not much I can say without delving into spoilers, so without further adieu—

y’all this rating might change after I read the last book, but my initial reading experience was sullied by the experience of being completely confused through 100% of the book. I spent so much time trying to figure out WHO Nona was and when we finally find out, then there’s other stuff going on that’s still confusing. And as lovely as Nona is, I missed the gideoness of the first two books. And I missed harrow’s tiny bomb of aggression. I missed bones and ninth’s badass goth aesthetic

One mostly spoiler free thing I loved about this book was getting a closer look at Camilla and Palamedes. It was interesting to learn their personalities and see the relationship between them. It was heartwarming really, with a healthy dose of angst, which is how I like all relationships. And speaking of, one thing about tamsyn muir is that she likes her relationships MESSY. And once again, I love that.

idk if this counts as a spoiler but i am, unfortunately, as it’s probably not canon, a camilla/coronabeth shipper

Honestly I’ve never been so excited to get into the fanfic as i was upon finishing this book. So overall, great book, liable to a higher rating on a reread when I’m less confused and more familiar with the characters. Catch me on ao3 next 🫡

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adventurous emotional reflective 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

OH MY GOD????? TAMSYN GOD DAMN IT YOU WRITE SO PERFECTLY I am left wanting more without a crazy sense of dissatisfaction,

I just wish there was interaction between Harrow and Gideon or Alecto and Pyrrha and noodle and paul but I get why Tamsyn wants to leave us to anticipate all that for the finale lol

I’m just so in love with this series that I don’t want it to be over, I don’t want there to only be one more book and then it’s over, and if Alecto is half before Nona and half after Nona there’s like NOTHING. Tamsyn pls make Alecto super long okay PLEASE.

This book was very different to the others in so many ways—not a bad thing—in regards to the

initial

tone, the happiness and fluffiness of it all,

but not really the more you read it lol

the found family, the innocence, NOODLE??? It was a complete twist in the series that completely shocked me, and I really loved the way it developed. I loved learning about all the fucking lore of this world,

like the history of necromancy and earth

and I just have come to understand so much about so many things and I’m so grateful this was turned into its own book. It was paced absolutely perfectly with Nona’s story and the dream sequences perfectly tying in together,

which lets talk about the dreams, because at first I thought the dreams about the Resurrection was what Nona dreamt of each night, then I thought they were purely just harrow’s fictional dreams, but then I realised they’re Harrow’s dreams of Alecto’s memories and that what Nona’s recurring dream consists of is the pool scene with Harrow and Gideon from book 1 (this reddit thread was a godsend Jesus 😮‍💨) With the Resurrection dream sequence throughout the book, I was definitely quite relieved and interested to receive the intricate explanation of it that is far more in depth than in book 2. I loved learning about Alecto’s history and who she was, and was really connected with her story prior to Nona. Even though she’s a very powerful resurrection beast and the utter soul of the earth, when the earth was killed she was practically just a child who got taken advantage of by John into forming a Lyctor bond with him, into loving him, into giving him so much power and then being locked away in a tomb created just for her merely because she’s a resurrection beast for 10 000 fucking years. John’s relationship with her is very much icky and weird just as Harrow’s is, and I need to see Alecto realising he’s not good for her and go apeshit on him. Also learning how John became a necromancer, the first necromancer in fact, was so…intriguing? I feel like a lot the necromancy practiced in this series is mostly focused on humans, but the fact that John can grow flowers changes everything about the necromancy being taught in the Houses. There’s potential for life to be grown through necromancy, if it even can be called that anymore? The powers the Earth gave to John were ‘life and death’ powers, and he seemed to only use life powers on humans and death powers on everything else. I believe he could’ve actually fixed the world by growing back the deforested trees all over the world, but his thirst and greed for power didn’t even allow him to take this into account. I would really love if Harrow, after seeing these memories of necromancy, realises she could be capable of growing life like trees and plants and grass after her whole life dealing with only death. I know it’s a lot to hope for, but imagine if the series ends with John dead and Harrow and Gideon on their own planet that Harrow regrew with life and she doesn’t have to manipulate death anymore 🥹 I really need a happy ending like this man.

and is written in a way that was somewhat easier to understand than the other books for the most part, though I still required the wiki and reddit to understand a lot of bits lol.

The astonishing way in which this is written allows you to find out about things at just the right time, to have questions answered after impatient weeks of reading, and to finally have some somewhat satisfaction

that usually just ended up with me crying. Me realising Nona’s dying??? Camilla and Palamedes basically both dying to become a single blended soul as a Lyctor??? 😃 fuck!!!!! No but there’s actual satisfying realisations too, like understanding Nona is Alecto but that Nona and Alecto act differently because Nona has the memories of the earth, but not the memories of Alecto when she got resurrected as a person. She knows all the languages and animals that have existed on earth, finds comfort in eating sand and bathing in saltwater because she is the earth, and connects with Varun because she’s a resurrection beast too.

Also I just need to talk about Gideon for a bit (btw wifegideonnav on tumblr summed up her character in this book perfectly) The past two books Gideon has been the one telling the story. We’re able to see what’s going on in her mind and for the most part, we’re on her side. In this book, Nona hasn’t known Gideon as long as we have, and she doesn’t like her. Gideon acts practically the same as she has previously, but for some weird reason, she appears unlikeable just because Nona doesn’t like her and TAMSYN OH MY GOD you are a genius for manipulating me like that. I got PISSED OFF when Gideon was mean to Nona and called her an infant even though Gideon’s always been mean but reading in her pov has blinded me of her flaws???? God it’s just so crazy. Gideon’s my absolute favourite character, and Tamsyn so easily altered my opinions like a fucking absolute genius. Now I do still love Gideon, and absolutely think that she’s not entirely her in this book not just because of the manipulation and depression and everything that’s happened; her soul’s not fully whole. A lot of her soul is still intact inside Harrow’s body from when Harrow did “the work” and stopped herself from consuming Gideon’s soul any longer, plus John could’ve fucked with it. If the bits of her soul in Harrow’s body manifested through Nona, it explains Nona’s attraction to her body (aka Gideon’s attraction to Harrow) and why she likes Gideon’s humour but not Gideon herself (Gideon’s definitely got some insecurity issues after all that’s happened lol). Regardless, Gideon’s barely a shell of herself. Though she is, after all, “the saddest girl in the whole entire world” 😀 And the thing is, all of this could’ve been explained if Gideon was the main character and the perspective character (or maybe it wouldn’t, she’s quite an unreliable narrator lmao). But because she isn’t, because Nona doesn’t know her, she just seems like your everyday bad guy, and that’s really heartbreaking. Something to note that I have done in my past reviews and have noticed throughout the series, as well as something wifegideonnav commented on, is that Gideon is traumatised and sad and she disguises this through her narration, through her front of having this chill, impenetrable attitude. With Nona’s narration, the sadness and utter meanness of Gideon is able to shine through, as well as it being more blatantly obvious the toll that this series’ events have had on Gideon. Her upbeat spirit doesn’t hit the same as it did in the first book when she was only kinda traumatised. Now?? She’s full on broken, and I don’t blame her. She’s died twice for Harrow and nothing truly good has come from it. She’s had enough, and that’s understandable. She’s a powerful woman who hasn’t had many wins so far and she feels she’s been taken for granted but if there’s one thing it’s that with John, she finally feels necessary, needed, loved. And, because we don’t see her perspective, all of this could really just be Gideon pretending, doing what she needs to to survive. Considering she’s never really liked her dad this makes sense, but regardless, this is the place she’s in and that’s okay.

I am SO excited for Alecto, for whenever the cover and synopsis are revealed and then the book itself AHHH. I’m so excited for her to become a main character

in a different way that she was through Nona. I love Nona and I’ll miss her still; I hope Alecto remembers Pyrrha, Camilla, Palamedes, Noodle and the kids 😫

Her and the freaking squad are going to be one seriously powerful group. I do wonder if Alecto’s gonna be the narrator the whole time and if so, how Griddlehark’s gonna be explained lol.

as much as I love Camilla and Palamedes, I don’t want Gideon and Harrow’s love story to be told like theirs are: from another person’s perspective. Especially since Harrow and Gideon are main characters, I really hope we get their narration again.

Also, after reading this and Harrow again, I feel much more connected to The Body as a character in the previous book.

I always thought she was a mere hallucination of Alecto, but she actually is Alecto, who was able to possess Harrow when she first saw her and kissed her as a kid, then was eventually able to manifest as Nona once no other souls were “awake” I guess, in Harrow’s body. I’m able to see now that in Harrow, Alecto’s actions of comfort towards Harrow weren’t hallucinations, they were actually Alecto’s doings, and now I really adore their relationship, not as much in a romantic way just because I think Harrow’s “love” for Alecto is a bit biased by idolisation, and also Gideon exists. I don’t actually know what I’ll do if Griddlehark isn’t endgame. It would be such a great play by Tamsyn to make the ending of Alecto not happy or even satisfactory in the slightest, but I’ll be so fucking upset if Alecto and Harrow are endgame and Gideon’s alone 😭

ALSO I HATE PASH OH MY GOD seriously the first entirely unlikeable character of this series, not in a way to critique Tamsyn, but to critique PASH because these books are not fiction they are real 😌

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