Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

194 reviews

elizmoe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

5.0

Tamsyn Muir, meet me in the pit. So I can give you a <i>hug</i>. And then sue you for emotional damages. 

i'm screaming, i'm crying, i'm throwing up even more than harrow in the first 5 chapters of this book. gideon and harrow have forever altered my brain chemistry. i understand that these books are perhaps not for everyone, but they are definitely for <i>me</i>; every reality-bending, viscerally disgusting, brow-furrowing-inducing moment of this stupid lesbian necromancer and her stupider lesbian cavalier were for me, and i am wretchedly grateful. 

too early to say for sure, but this book may have ruined me for other books? we'll see, but i have a bad feeling that anything else i will read that contains any of the following:

necromancy
swordplay
space
nonlinear storytelling
unreliable narrator(s)
enemy lesbians

will just leave me wondering why that book can't be her*. 

*the locked tomb series

also the payoff of this book is CRAZY. if you are like 20% through and not seeing the vision and considering DNF, i urge you to carry on even if the 500 pages feel daunting. you won't believe your eyes when shit starts coming together, because so many pieces do. even pieces that don't, i am confident will be explained in the next two books, as there were many many setups from book 1 that made for some incredible reveals in this book. 

i have so much more to say about this book but most of it is yelling. even the occasional ill-advised meme inserts couldn't mar this book for me! and that's pretty insane!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Blood, Violence, Medical trauma, Genocide, Cursing, Child death, Body horror, Death, War, Torture, Gore, Vomit, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Stalking, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, and Suicide

hedsek's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Really struggled through the first half, but the book does redeem itself. I enjoyed it a bit less than Gideon (probably because seeing the world through Harrow's eyes is a lot less fun), but I'm curious to see what the rest of the series brings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Toxic friendship, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide, Grief, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Murder, Violence, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Colonisation, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Cursing

psitstorrie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Murder, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Body horror, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Self harm, Cursing, and Eating disorder

Minor: Colonisation, Pregnancy, Excrement, and Genocide

ourladyjack's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Mental illness

nishidake's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Xenophobia, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

crashjaycintha's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, Grief, Body horror, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts

rlgreen91's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

A few days later and I'm still not sure what to think of the wild ride that was Harrow the Ninth.  Reviewing this is a bit tricky, because there's so many twists and turns I don't want to give away but I also don't see the point in a review with the majority of the text concealed by a spoiler tag.

One thing I can speak relatively freely about is the worldbuilding in Harrow the Ninth , and how superb it is.  I loved the reasoning behind one of the antagonists, because it naturally followed the rules and conventions set during Gideon the Ninth so well - it just made so much sense that that would happen as a result of the initial action set 10,000 years ago!  I also loved how Muir is gradually expanding the world and universe that all of this takes place in.  We started with a very narrow focus on a few characters at the beginning of Gideon the Ninth and have expanded to other generations and the Nine Houses in general

(plus factions outside of the Nine Houses)

.  And it looks like Nona the Ninth is set to keep expanding our universe even more.  This approach can throw things off a bit since so far we've learned off these expanded events when our main characters did.  At times things might seem random to us because we - the characters and readers - lack the context to understand why something is significant just yet.  But overall Muir has laid this out really, really well and I know I'm gushing over this but it takes a lot of skill and effort to do this type of worldbuilding well in a work that slides between fantasy and science fiction and has more than one mystery at the core of its plot.

Just like in Gideon the Ninth and "The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex", there's plenty of gorgeous language in Harrow the Ninth too.  A lot of great banter and comedic moments, like someone attempting to explain to Harrow where babies come from, but also a very kind and honest depiction of what it's like to suffer from depression, trauma, and the genuine feeling that you might be insane.  Not to mention all of the references, from the ones you only find by lurking Tumblr in the early 2010s to very Biblical/Christian ones that you only come across in advanced Sunday School.

Overall, a fantastic novel - no sophomore slump to be found here.  Looking forward to "As Yet Unsent."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Violence, Body horror, Death, Medical content, and Mental illness

Moderate: Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, War, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Child death and Death of parent

perleerose's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-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

If you thought gideon the ninth was wild, strap yourself in for a wild ride. Just when you think you understand what’s going on in the book, everything will be proven false.

I would say read the bits at the end if you haven’t already as they contain important plot info.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Blood, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical content, Medical trauma, and Sexual content

iridaceae's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Mental illness, Gore, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

_teoeo's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

The confusion is part of the experience 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Blood, Violence, Gun violence, Death, Mental illness, and Gore