Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

89 reviews

moondragon8's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

On to book 2!! Yippee!
This was a tricky one. It was one of those books where the main character was basically having a prolonged breakdown throughout the whole thing. I don't always like those books that much. This one was sort of enjoyable, though!
The first 2/3rds of the book were mostly Harrow having a really terrible time while weird stuff happened everywhere. I found this book a lot darker than the previous one--not as much death, but much more morbidity, body horror, and all a lot more graphically described (probably because Harrow's a necromancer and Gideon's just a sword guy). Plus, last book's necromancy was like 90% bones. There was a lot more....meat necromancy in this one.
The final third of the book was really fun. A lot of stuff got revealed, and not all of it made a ton of sense while I was reading it, but some of it did, and it was very satisfactory when pieces began to click into place.

I loved all the dreambubbly (sorry for the Homestuck, but that's what they are!) parts. I wanted more of Harrow's weird alternate universes! They were so fun!!

On the "it's complicated" up above: None of the major characters in this were exactly lovable, but they were really, really fun to read about.

Harrow's brain ghosts were very lovable, though. Abigail my beloved!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, and Gore

There is a scene of brain surgery. It's not exactly explicit, but it, uh. It happens.

msradiosilence's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, War, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Death, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Infertility, Medical content, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

meecespieces's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

possibilityleft's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Stalking, War, Vomit, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Dementia, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Murder, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

leanne_miron's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Blood

Moderate: Grief, Medical content, Vomit, Body horror, and Cannibalism

Minor: Suicide

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

alexijai98's review against another edition

adventurous 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

5.0

Two months into 2023 and I have definitely found one of my favorite books of this year. I wasn’t super ecstatic about the second person POV, but this book is so well-written and interesting that I didn’t mind it at all - I actually enjoyed it!

This book is filled with twists I truly never expected, hilarious dialogue and narration, and unique and interesting concepts. I read almost a hundred pages every time I sat down to read this, and found myself dreaming of the Nine Houses.

P.S.

Camilla Hect means everything to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Death, War, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Colonisation and Medical content

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

flarion's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

That was an incredibly complex book to read. Almost too complex to enjoy. The narrative was really hard to understand and started only to make sense in the last quarter. Only my curiosity made me finish it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, Death, and Cannibalism

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