Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

65 reviews

irisraerah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

If you're looking for a book that's as awesome as it is confusing, Harrow is a great option, but you absolutely must read Gideon the Ninth first. I fell completely in love with Muir's world in this book. I'd thoughted I'd loved it before but that was a mere crush. A universe of goth and often gory magic that spends this book expanding on all of the above is exactly my cup of tea (though Harrow herself would pick a different comparison, being a fan of neither tea nor words under four syllables), all while I grew to care more and more about each of the characters involved.

Also, as a queer woman, there is something so deeply comfortable and affirming about reading a story like this, full of queer characters, relationships, and tragedy, but without queerness being the source of any tension or tragedy. Queerness is simply a fact of life in a way that feels like home, though I personally have never lived as part of a space faring necromantic society, and my swordplay has been limited to a single college fencing credit. 

A word of caution to the squeamish reader: gore and the aesthetics of gore feature strongly in this series, though this is a case where the book's cover should have warned you about that clearly enough. Despite the goriness, I find Muir's setting to actually be quite beautiful in the grotesque, and scenes that might be something of nightmare felt vivid and terrific.

Having praised the highbrow content, I'd be remiss to not mention the low: spoilers for jokes you'll want to be caught off guard by as you read them in read time.

How the hell did Muir pull off "choke me daddy," "none pizza with left beef," and "Hi, *double spoiler,* I'm Dad" in a serious book? I'm impressed.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Blood, Death, Grief, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Medical content, Suicide, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol, Cancer, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Vomit, War, Pregnancy, and Torture

delvainy's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.75

I reread this book for the first time with the understanding of what was going on, and it blew my mind (and also made me feel a little dumb for all the clues I didn’t pick up the first time). It’s so spectacular that instinctively I do want to give it 5 stars now, but I have to nod to the level of confusion I felt reading it for the first time. I’ve left my original review here— “Okay, I have to be honest: I spent the majority of the time confused. I am aware, though, that that seems to have been intentional, but I’m still going to get wrinkles for how furrowed my brow was the entire time I read. This next thing will only make sense to a fairly niche group, but in the show Fleabag, there’s a moment where the hot priest turns and looks at the camera. Stick with me. There’s a moment in this book that gave me that same sense of shock and feeling exposed and like the rules had suddenly been broken. In the best possible way. I intend to reread it with the understanding I reached at the end of the book, but I think I’ll go ahead and leave my rating at 4 stars until I do so, just for the sheer confusion I felt.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Cannibalism

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

boglord's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Gore, War, Blood, Death, Body horror, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Alcohol, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Cursing, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and Ableism

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

auntiejamie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

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

2.0

I hated the second-person perspective that's used for most of the book. I found it obnoxious. The book was also way too long. The first half of the book was alright, but by the second half I was totally lost and did not enjoy it at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Cannibalism, Torture, and Violence

em_of_swags's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

this is too difficult to rate at the moment, the series has my brain in a chokehold and it's so clever but also i was way too confused and the plot was... a bit wild at parts

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Cannibalism, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, and Grief

Minor: Eating disorder and Alcohol

chellyfishing's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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: Violence, Blood, Gore, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Vomit, Death, Mental illness, and Murder

Moderate: Grief and Cannibalism

mayhem9683's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Murder, Self harm, Death of parent, Eating disorder, and Cannibalism

Minor: Alcohol, War, and Xenophobia

armand's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

a beautifully crafted masterpiece. not an easy read at all, but certainly a very rich one. muir is easily one of my favorite writers of all time and this book cemented it!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Self harm

Moderate: Cannibalism and Genocide