Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Harrow the Ninth

Completely blew Gideon the Ninth out of the water with atmospheric, experimental storytelling, a powerful point of view, and a breathtaking final confrontation and ending.

Harrow the Ninth reads like a completely different animal from Gideon the Ninth - it's so much more complex, with so much more for the reader to uncover and read between the lines to see, and the depth of Harrow's emotions (grief, fear, pride, shame) painting the whole novel is truly stunning. While I found the mystery aspect of Gideon the Ninth clumsy, the puzzles, revelations, and shifting loyalties of the First House in Harrow the Ninth were very deftly handled and kept me guessing and engaged the whole time. There is a lot of very clever playing with expectations about characters' personalities and values that give a richness to interactions and relationships. The point of view shift gave me whiplash in a really positive and incredible way.

There are some parts I definitely... did not like, and the pacing is not entirely consistent. That being said, this book grew to mean a lot to me personally while I was reading it, and I think many people who have suffered loss or trauma will find catharsis in Harrow's point of view. You will feel for her deeply and cheer for her throughout the whole novel, despite how grisly and violent everything turns.

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danawfaith's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

I felt like I was going crazy for like 2/3rds of the book. then in the last act I finally got it and the payoff was incredible. And then in the last chapter, just kidding you don't understand anything. Which is what I've come to expect from the Locked Tomb, so five stars.

Excellent use of the second person. The worldbuilding feels very indepth and detailed, despite the fact we spend so little time out in the world.

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fiveredhens's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I think the main thing I should have said was, You sawed open your skull rather than be beholden to someone. You turned your brain into soup to escape anything less than 100 percent freedom. You put me in a box and buried me rather than give up your own goddamned agenda. Harrowhark, I gave you my whole life and you didn't even want it.

It was only when saw us in the mirror by the dresser—saw me, in you—still not saying anything—that it hit home what you had done. Your face was a mess. It was such a weird goddamn melange of us: your pointy-ass chin, your stubborn-featured, dark-browed face, less battered than the last time l'd seen it, but—wearier than l'd ever known it to be. Your eyes had little smudgy lines next to them, and they were there at the corners of your mouth, marks of this huge, exhausted sadness. You could always leave everything else behind, but you never got rid of being so absolutely fucking goddamn sad.

It was difficult to know what to do with this type of touch. It made her whole soul flinch, but at the same time opened some primeval infant mechanism within her, as though the embrace were a mirror: having someone hold up an image by which you could see yourself, rather than living with an assumption of your face.

When she had first sat by the tomb in shivering awe, she had fancied that the Body's ice-ridden fingers had shifted for hers, minutely. Gideon had touched her in truth; Gideon had floundered toward her in the saltwater with that set, unsheathed expression she wore before a fight, her mouth colourless from the cold.

You remember how the fuck-off great-aunts always used to say, Suffer and learn? If they were right, Nonagesimus, how much more can we take until you and me achieve omniscience?

I remember that I had you on your back—I put you straight on the fucking ground. I was always so much bigger and so much stronger. I got on top of you and choked you till your eyes bugged out. I told you that my mother had probably loved me a lot more than yours loved you. You clawed my face so bad that my blood ran down your hands; my face was under your fucking fingernails. When I let you go you couldn't even stand, you just crawled away and threw up. Were you ten, Harrow? Was I eleven? Was that the day you decided you wanted to die?

"Not even one of the Emperor's fists and gestures could give Harrowhark Nonagesimus a sexy makeover. Sometimes I think you look like a twig's funeral."

"I merely want to put you in a jail," said his Lyctor, now meditative, "and fill up the jail with acid once for every time you made a frivolous remark, or ate peanuts in a Cohort Admiralty meeting, or said, What would I know, I'm only God. Then at the end of a thousand years, you would say, 'Mercy, I have learned not to do any of these things, because I hated the acid you put on me.' And I would say, "That is why I did it, Lord. I did it for you, and for your empire. I often think about this," she finished.

[...] like she'd [...] never imagined there'd ever be a reckoning. There would be a goddamn reckoning. Nonagesimus, I was going to reck her. "Do you want your ass kicked now, or do you want your ass kicked later, or both?"

"Please, let's address this like gentlewomen,' said lanthe, without much hope.

"Hell, no! I'm going to pull your whole ass off," I said. "You want that? You want Harrow to grow you a new bone ass where I pulled off the old one? Let's dance, Tridentarius."

"But that doesn't— Why would she—?"

"Do not fucking ask me for information. I could not be more lost right now."

[...] you told me that if anyone came looking for me you would get your parents to lock me in a closet and say that I had died of "brain malfunction," which I now know isn't a real disease, so I bet you feel stupid now?

this book has a schtick that i hated at first but grew to love but i could understand if someone just hated it

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laurajones's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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olivialandryxo's review against another edition

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Even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of Gideon the Ninth, I was curious to see where the story would go and what Harrow’s narration would be like. I found Harrow the Ninth to be boring and rather confusing, and ultimately decided not to finish at the 34% mark. Even the shortest chapters felt like they dragged on for ages. I also thought that the usage of second person narration was jarring; I’m not used to reading it, and in this instance, since I was already struggling to get immersed in the book, it certainly didn’t help. I’m kind of sad to ditch this book, but I just don’t have the time or energy for books I’m not liking.

Representation:

lesbian protagonist

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brenticus's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

Gideon the Ninth was a crazy ride, I thought. Tone and worldvuilding were a bit off at times, but largely more than good enough to excite me for this one.

Harrow the Ninth has you wading through the grueling psychosis of Harrowhark as you question how much of what she's seeing, experiencing, feeling, remembering is real. Because very quickly you find that something has changed in the brief period between this book and the previous, and while I don't think it was hard to figure out why there were still a lot of questions to work through.

Mostly I want to call out the best case of second-person narration I've ever seen. The reason why is pretty obvious from the get-go, I think, but still, it works so well and I love it.

Really don't know where the third book is going to take this, but definitely excited to see what disturbing monstrosity Muir cooks up next.

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