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shottel's review
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.
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
thecatconstellation's review against another edition
adventurous
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? It's complicated
4.5
A wild, confusing, horrifying, wonderful ride. You have to go into this knowing you will not know what the fuck is going on half the time, and even when you figure out what’s going on, there’s still so much we don’t know.
I love the tone, especially in the second half. The humor and references sprinkled in kill me. “…none House, with left grief.” made me LOL.
I love the tone, especially in the second half. The humor and references sprinkled in kill me. “…none House, with left grief.” made me LOL.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Child death, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Self harm
Minor: Abandonment, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Alcohol, and Sexual assault
untoworthy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Death, Suicide attempt, and Suicide
Moderate: Death of parent and Cancer
Minor: Child death, Child abuse, and Sexual assault
fiveredhens's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, and Sexual content
Minor: Sexual assault and Suicide attempt
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