Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

62 reviews

ebp's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Self harm, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Body horror, Mental illness, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Bullying, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: War, Classism, Cannibalism, and Cursing

Minor: Cancer

steph_weigle's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual content, Body horror, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Gore, Eating disorder, Infertility, Medical content, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Self harm, Confinement, Bullying, Cancer, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Cursing, Violence, Vomit, and War

Minor: Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Suicide attempt, Infertility, Animal death, Genocide, and Suicide

lunarlibra's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Love love love. I read through the night so I'm not very coherent rn but as much as I loved GtN, I LOVED HtN!! I plan to reread both before moving on to NtN and will update my review with more coherent thoughts, but one thing: I deeply appreciated the depiction of hallucination and different perceived realities, especially after reading the acknowledgements. Anyway. God what a great book

i love killing(???) God in fiction, even if it doesn't keep

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Gun violence, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, War, Genocide, Grief, Murder, Eating disorder, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Body shaming, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Murder, Racism, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Gun violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Cancer, Gaslighting, and Child death

trash_candra's review

dark mysterious tense slow-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

HtN makes the bold choice to not be anything like the previous book and instead use the intricate world building and magic system to spin a truly bizarre mystery with so many open ended questions, as well as multiple whodunnits where the concepts of death and identity are ambiguous at best because of the bizarre engine the world runs on. 

This book is a mystery book and figuring that out is the first mystery. I have never been so utterly confused by a book I've read for fun, yet somehow I managed to stick through the grueling first 30% of the book. Harrow the Ninth managed to give me a sense of rabid fan-theory crafted that is so rare to come across but absolutely thrilling to experience. Whenever I wasn't reading the book I was always thinking about it in the back of my mind.

I think HtN is a must-read for a very specific crowd of people who love mysteries and are okay going extended periods of time not knowing what's happening and struggling to make sense of everything. Think ARG fans and cryptic games enthusiasts (like Yume Nikki or Pathologic). I think it's absolutely worth the struggle and time investment but it's definitely not for everyone.

---

Content Warnings

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

Minor: Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Cursing, and Genocide

skudiklier's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense

• 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

4.75

Oh my god this book. I have no idea what to say about it. I don't know how else to say this but reading it made me feel like I was going crazy. I'm so glad I was reading this well after it came out and I could look up just enough people talking about it online so that I could know I was actually having the intended experience and not wildly misunderstanding something. For a book that made me feel like I had no idea what was happening, I loved it. I definitely want to read the next one. It made me scream at the people who recommended it to me. It has such a good payoff after all the confusion and disorientation. I wish all books were this devastating and this satisfying and this funny.

mild spoilers

NONE HOUSES LEFT GRIEF???? what the fuck.

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Mental illness, Cursing, Alcohol, Cannibalism, and Death of parent

Minor: Child death and Sexual content

woundworship's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

tamsyn muir fight me 

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Cannibalism

raybudbury's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

This was crazy. Like tamsyn Muir didn’t have to go so hard but she did. How did she write first/second/third person all in one book and I was eating it up. Amazing.

I read this on audio and made lil notes for myself while I was at work so I’ll put those under this first spoiler tag

 
- severely gay in a weird way
- soup making turned deadly
- “jaded tones of a fagged-out socialite” harrow describing ianthe talking 😭
- necro ménage 👁️
- coffee shop au but also a lobotomy
- the girls are fighting
- “she wants the D and the D stands for the Dead”
- reading a threatening letter but the other person reading it sees a middle school ‘S’. Had me dead

JSSKSK. Really loving this series actually but I loved this one better because it kind of flips expectations and I also love a good soap opera situation

gideon’s parental situation JAJSKSOSSKDNDNSNDND LMAOOOO

 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence

Moderate: Cannibalism

lizziaha's review

funny sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book had me wheezing with laughter at some points. It also had me scrambling, trying desperately to fill in the blanks in the story (most of my theories ended up being wrong).  The inclusion of the immortals in this story was delightful (even if the immortals themselves were not) and I thought that Mercymorn’s commitment to the bit about the infants was hilarious. It took me a minute to get used to the second-person voice that at least half of the book is written in, but ultimately I think it worked well for the story. There are these big intangible subjects that Muir never really talks about, but that permeate the entire story nonetheless. Love is one of those things, and the second person pov grabs a handful of that intangible quality and twists it and makes art of it, then hands it back to us as the readers. It’s not my typical beloved writing style that would focus more inwards, but it’s captured my heart anyway. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series. Original Rating: 4.75

Second Read: This book was IMMENSELY more enjoyable (and heart wrenching) the second go around. I’m frankly astounded at how much went right over my head on the first read. I should also say that it was remiss for me to spend so much of my first review talking about how funny it is. It IS funny, but it’s also so deeply sad that it’s hard to wrap your head around. There is so much grief at the forefront—the plot is necessary, but it”s driving force, at every point, is grief. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Murder, Body horror, Cursing, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Vomit, and War

Minor: Cannibalism, Alcohol, and Self harm

rustagh's review

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Cannibalism

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

---

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