Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

72 reviews

traa's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Body horror, Gun violence, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Murder, Self harm, War, and Medical content

Moderate: Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Cursing, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Terminal illness, and Vomit

Minor: Cannibalism

micheala's review against another edition

dark

3.5

This is the second time I've attempted to read this. I read Gideon and Harrow back in February 2022 and thought I remembered most of what happened, however I was so lost picking up Nona in September 2022. Because this one the world is very different from what we've seen so far, I don't think it matters that I don't really remember most of Harrow.

Like, we now have cars thrown in like a totally normal thing that we should have assumed were always there. The first two books are very fantasy with spaceships being the only type of vehicles. Now Nona is making it feel like we are on a post-apocalyptic Earth. To be honest, the first 90% of this book felt totally disconnected from the prior two books. 

Even though I haven't loved the reading experience of any of the books yet, I still just have the gut feeling that once the series is complete, each book will be way more enjoyable (aka I'll be able to follow what's happening) with the context of the ending. To be fair, if that is not the case, and even on reread knowing where it's all going/coming from I still find myself confused, I'll be dropping my ratings of each book accordingly. 

I will say I liked this one the most so far (my ranking is currently Nona, Gideon, Harrow) Partly because I found the characters more likeable, and partly because while I still can't really follow what's happening, Nona as a main character also doesn't understand what's going on - so it felt less like the characters are keeping secrets from the reader and more like we are finding things out alongside the character.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Vomit, War, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Self harm, and Xenophobia

sealbrecht's review against another edition

adventurous 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, Cursing, Gun violence, Genocide, and Murder

tnm94's review

dark emotional funny 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Gun violence, Body horror, Gore, Blood, Death, War, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Sexual content, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Incest, and Fire/Fire injury

devirtualized's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, and Eating disorder

Minor: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

elizmoe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

i read this book in less than two days even though, i cannot emphasize enough, i had a <i> lot </i> of other things to do. 

tamsyn muir, waht is WRONG WITH you. what is. what is WRONG. IS wrong??? with you??????????

in typical muir fashion, she transitions seamlessly to a new POV character, leaves the reader mostly in the dark, and continually throws crazy world-building stuff that you didn't even know you wanted to know. but you did. <i> really </i> want to know. 

essentially, this book answered many of the questions raised by Harrow the Ninth, but somehow ends up raising about a million more. 

was harrow's soul in alecto's body or did it get transferred to the river, and is it now on earth having a chat with john, or john's abandoned once-human soul?? what's gonna happen to harrow's body? was nona the personification of the earth's spirit or was she alecto or was she alecto AND alecto is the personification of  the earth? also, why is kiriona!gideon such a dick, and why is she friends with ianthe, sorta? who has her two-hander sword?? will tamsyn ever give us a griddlehark reunion that makes a lick of sense? will the next book have even more body/soul/etc swapping, and how is that even possible given the amount of bodily musical chairs was happening in this book? also, pAUL???????????????????????????

all i know for sure is that i am pre-ordering alecto right now and blocking off my calendar for the entire week of the release date.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Kidnapping, Body horror, Cursing, Eating disorder, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, Alcohol, Colonisation, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug abuse, Terminal illness, Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Child death

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

unsuccessfulbookclub's review

challenging 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? Yes

4.25

This book made me sad and confused. 😭 But I enjoyed it and I am so ready for the next one!

Nona is very childlike, which made her a challenging POV, especially because yet again the reader is in a new place with new(ish) people. Additionally, she is friends with a bunch of kids, which for me, was emotionally challenging to read. My mom side was very activated the entire time I was reading, and that made the story sweet but also very hard to digest at times. The setting is very post-apocalyptic/refugee camp/war zone this time, so that was another layer of realism that made Nona an uncomfortable read.

Also we have more body swapping which like… 😅 I’m in desperate need of a diagram to track who is in which container. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Murder, Blood, Body horror, and Death

leanne_miron's review

adventurous dark lighthearted 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Murder, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Genocide, Eating disorder, Body horror, Cannibalism, and Chronic illness

erebus53's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

2.5

This audiobook is completely the wrong way to get the most out of this story. Not only does it fall into the fantasy trap of having cool names that look good on paper but that your average narrator can't pronounce well, and the same issue as the previous book in that there are occasional phrases in Māori  that are familiar to a New Zealand audience, but that this narrator struggles with... it also has a sprawling cast and appendices that list these, and that you can't just flip back to in an audio context.

In an improvement(?) from the second book, this third installment does not have more medical terms than your average first year anatomy text book. It is still a little wordsy, but I didn't encounter the word nacreous even once! (despite it being  applicable at one point). As per usual you are, metaphorically, chucked in the deep end and held there until you get used to it. Maybe this time around I was just too tired to take it all in, because I spent quite a bit of time just feeling lost and wondering what was happening.

Most of this book takes part in a semi-domestic dystopia. Surrounded by refugees, and with limited resources, some familiar characters look after Nona, while trying to find out how altered she has become by her own semi-Lyctoral transformation. Nona becomes a teacher aide working at a school for a ragtag gang of kids. There are factions vying for power, and people being executed, and militia on the street as enforcers.. but through the eyes of Nona we aren't privy to the machinations of the State.

I'm sticking with my original feel that this series is quite a bit like the Evangelion anime. Through a series of Nona's dreams (that really seem more real than what is going on for her in her life) we get some more back-story about John, the first necromancer and it all gets pretty trippy. The relationships developed between the characters all begin to feel irrelevant, like everything is falling into a huge pit of nihilism, as everything loses cohesion. There is a travel sequence for which Nona's part or skills seem to have had no lead-up or explanation, and as a result it did not hold tension or deliver a feeling of success at its climax. (yes that could be an analogy.. get out of the gutter :P )

Honestly I don't know if the story put me to sleep or if I am just finally having to succumb after an ongoing pattern of weather related insomnia. I have clearly not invested enough energy or legwork into understanding everything going on. I was excited about one revelation in this entire book, there was a whole lot more "huh?" and "uh, ok" than "oooh riiight!" in this leg of the trilogy, and its conclusion was seriously unsatisfying. Not quite a 3 star for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Genocide, Murder, Blood, Death, Eating disorder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship