Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

18 reviews

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

punkrobots's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

this book is amazing!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Mental illness, Gore, Body horror, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, Self harm, and Vomit

Minor: Torture and Drug abuse

redkeys's review

dark emotional funny 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

4.5

With the focus of the book being on Harrow, this one was harder for me to get through; the first two thirds are emotionally dense. Still, a very good read, and Moira Quirk's voice acting in the narration is phenomenal. I'm definitely going to need to go back and listen to these again!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Stalking, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Genocide, and Terminal illness

but like it's really good

peach_pie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, Vomit, and War

jmcordero's review

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Torture, Terminal illness, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol, Vomit, War, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Medical trauma, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Pregnancy, Infidelity, and Genocide

lkj2018's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Vomit

ktrecs's review

adventurous challenging mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

Days later and I still have no forking idea what to say about this book. It was the most frustrating reading experience of my life and I loved every minute of it. 

It was such a choice Muir made here; explaining nothing, writing in second person, flipping between timelines, suspending reality - and it paid off. Do I I illumination had come a bit earlier? Sure; 75% of 500 pages seems like a whole lot of time to spend confused. Are all my questions sufficiently answered? Hell no; I have more questions now than when I started. But I could not put this book down. 

It lacked some of the wit and fun of Gideon, but that honestly worked in its favour for me; some of the references and jokes in Gideon rankled at me because they lacked context. How, for example, in a galaxy far far away&c, does a Mean Girls joke land without context? I should have known to have faith, but I simply could not predict that

God himself was the original meme lord.

Who could have? Muir constantly defies expectations and expands the boundary of her world, following no rules except the ones she chooses, and since among other things that means I get to laugh at the line, "None house with left grief", catch me fully on board with whatever mind games Muir wants to play.

Once in a while, if you're lucky, you come across a book or a series that is just so incredibly <i>your shit</i> that it feels like a blessing. This expansive, adventurous, mind-forking, genre-bending, meme-dropping gothic sci-fi series featuring a buff swordswoman and her goth gf, with two (2) confirmed threesomes with God himself, could not be more me if it tried.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Murder, and Torture

Minor: Cannibalism

alldesiring's review

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Vomit