Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

105 reviews

loungeroomlizard's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I found this a harder read than Gideon the Ninth. We'd just reached a point where we kinda felt like we had a handle on what's going on, and then Harrow the Ninth begins and throws us back into utter confusion - both inwardly and outwardly.

I did feel like the Gideon reveal took a little too long. It was pretty obvious early on, but I didn't mind waiting to find out what had happened to conceal Griddle from Harrow's memories, and (more importantly) why. But after almost 500 pages I started to lose my patience with it - thankfully, that was about when the reveal came out.

On the positive side, I about lost my mind at "None House with left grief," and the memes only accelerated after that. I'm sure I missed a bunch of them, but I loved every one I spotted. It helped to ground the series in a particular time

(admittedly, approximately 10,000 years from nowish)

.p

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

shottel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Like Gideon the Ninth, the book-cover reviews and summaries don’t do it justice. Harrow the Ninth is a fantastic, funny, unique, genre-blurring novel whose worldbuilding and mystery-oriented storytelling makes it worthy of reading on their own. To an even greater degree, it is a poignant picture of psychosis and grief. I was not expecting to see in such detail a broken mind, agonized by self-doubt and the mistrust of others, and the crushing weight of immense loss.

Outside of the deep themes of regret, loss, absence, grief, and psychosis, there is much to say positively. Harrow manages to pull off pop culture references and memes humorously, without making me want to throw the book across the room. (Minimally spoiling example: A subtle joke invoking none pizza left beef.) This, combined with a tamer but still present version of the sense of humor that made Gideon distinctive makes for an enjoyable time. It doesn’t lag so hard in the first half like Gideon does (although I do feel it could’ve likely been shortened a good 50-100 pages). The ending was exciting, the payoff for working through over 400 pages of confusion (albeit a well-written 400 pages) deeply worth it. My only gripe is that, without spoiling anything, the last 5 or so pages are a bit confusing and sad in a way I don’t think fits, but this doesn’t harm it enough for me to say the ending was anything but excellent.

Overall, I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who has read Gideon the Ninth and would be interested in a good mystery or an evocative portrait of disturbed mental faculties.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Toxic friendship, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Vomit, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Self harm

Minor: Pregnancy, Dementia, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

emmawicks'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

4.5

This book slowly unwrapped it's secerts at the perfect pace. In each chapter you get another tiny piece of the puzzle that only comes together at the end and still leaves you guessing right up until the last page. 
I also LOVE the use of second person pov. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Panic attacks/disorders

madd_1234's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Audiobook 10/10!
Was confused most of the book, but in a good way  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

species10026's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Death

Moderate: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood

Minor: Dysphoria, Toxic friendship, and Sexual content

kierank's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

Rewired my brain chemistry

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, Gore, Body horror, Gaslighting, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Moderate: Cursing and Alcohol

Minor: Colonisation

azureandroid's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.5

Really good but it is from a second person perspective on the beginning which can be HARD to get a grip on

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Body horror, Mental illness, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

Moderate: Child death, Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, Gore, and Murder

Minor: Cursing, Vomit, Blood, Sexual content, and Dysphoria

Harrow is traumatised, she is really her own warning at this point

biobeetle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional slow-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: Violence, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Moderate: Self harm, Death, and Body horror

iane_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Violence, Self harm, Stalking, Torture, Body horror, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Gore, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Cursing, and Death

Moderate: Eating disorder, Genocide, Ableism, Sexual content, Child abuse, Suicide, Cannibalism, Child death, and Confinement

Minor: Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Miscarriage, Cancer, Terminal illness, Animal death, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Acephobia/Arophobia, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and War

alisonvh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny slow-paced

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

4.0

I found this book a little harder to follow than the first. It might be because I listened to it on audio rather than reading it. Or it could be because Harrow decided to fuck with the timeline of the first book. I still enjoyed it, especially towards the end, and will definitely be reading the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcohol, Murder, Child death, and Suicide