Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

45 reviews

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

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective 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

4.25

Necromages are fighting to save the universe from world-eating monsters, and that's not the weird bit. This is a labyrinthine ride through visceral fight scenes (with ... lots of viscera, and bones and connective tissues.. elaborate in the details thereof), half remembered memories or dubious reliability, weird hallucinations that often make almost sense, tea and gingernuts, backstory overheard in snippets lacking context, ribald humour, assassins, and spooky weird ghosty stuff.

There are times where I wish I was capable of reading proper, honest to goodness, paperback books, but seeing as I'm bound to Audiobooks due to my infirmities, all I can say is OUCH.
Tamsyn Muir writes with a sensual love of words, that does not make the content of her prose accessible to most people. To say it plainly - she uses big words, and weird words. a lot. I am well at home in anatomical and psychological textbooks, and literary critique; one  of my friends suggested that in conversation with me it would be easiest to carry a notebook to write down all the odd words I use  to look up later...  and even _I_ needed to read this with a dictionary nearby. It seems quite clear that the author was mauled or possibly traumatically wounded by a feral thesaurus as a child.

I'm sorry, Moira Quirk. Your work on this audio narration was ok,  but you fail to catch the Kiwi parlance. It sounds SO weird to hear kiwi idioms in your accent (we don't pronounce a$$ like that) and your attempt at te reo Māori words was wince-inducing. Thankfully that was only one line.

I'm doubling down on my comparison from the first book. This is definitely like an anime. Great chunks of this book feel a bit like watching Neon Genesis: Evangelion. A good proportion of the narrative is in second person perspective, which definitely leans hard into the claustrophobic and unhinged aesthetic. You spend the first half of the book trying to figure out why things in this book don't tally with the happenings in the previous book. That was kind of cool and didn't leave me feeling anywhere near as confused as I thought I would. There were enough breadcrumbs to keep me from feeling too lost in the woods.

Upside of the audiobook was the similarity I was amused by in the fast travel; I was reminded of Douglas Adams's, Hitchhiker's Guide, specifically his description of hyperspace, and the Infinite Improbability drive. "The River" having weird brain melting effects on a backdrop of a woman's voice calling out time-stamps felt so much like HHGTG with Trillian  in the Heart of Gold.

Many twists and turns, the reappearance (in various forms) of characters who were bumped off in the last book, the list at the front of the book of the dramatis personae (alive and dead) being actually useful, and a sense that you still don't know quite wtf is going on.. all leads me to think that the third book could go either way in my estimation. I'll have to see what it's like. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Child death, Violence, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Vomit, Blood, Dementia, Dysphoria, Genocide, Grief, Pregnancy, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Toxic friendship

Minor: Miscarriage

solarel's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.75

While I liked this one a fraction less than Gideon, the last third of the book hooked me yet again. The author is seriously phenomenal when it comes to unraveling a mystery one inch at a time. 

and those terrible jokes! I loved it there towards the end. “Hi I’m not fucking dead, I’m dad. Shut up John Hahahha.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Grief, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Body horror, Murder, Violence, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Gaslighting, Medical content, Physical abuse, and Terminal illness

Minor: Cannibalism and Death of parent

queenie_ofthe_void's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

Borderline impossible to understand the first time through. The second time through was a lot easier... things made more sense. Eye color is important so pay attention. One of the hardest books I've ever read. It was so cool... Harrow is so horribly sad, I love her she's great.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Eating disorder, Gore, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Violence, Gun violence, Vomit, Bullying, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Toxic friendship

entityj's review

challenging dark mysterious sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Body horror, Gore, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Blood

Minor: Alcohol and Sexual content

knerys's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Violence, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Confinement

pbarrett5275's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.5

At first I wasn't sure if I'd like where the plot was headed after I finished the Gideon of Ninth. I soon released it didn't matter what I thought because I had no idea what was going on. The beginning of Harrow the Ninth can be tough, but ultimately this sequel lives up to it's predecessor and possible even more. Despite being quite perplexed, I found myself enjoying the new storyline as much as I was confused by it. This book is a bit darker, but still had plenty of good laughs, mystery, and soup. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters added to the mythology as well as those with newly expanded roles from the returning cast. Unlike Gideon, Harrow the Ninth actually takes place in space, and is filled with plenty of new adventure, expanded world building, and easily the best fight scene in the series to date.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Mental illness, and Blood

Minor: Cancer, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, War, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol

avsmka's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Blood, Body horror, War, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Gaslighting, Eating disorder, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Child death

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Alcohol

hanarama's review

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

5.0

The Good:
• Expands worldbuilding
• Genre busting
• Complicated characters
• Wild reveal

The Bad:
 • Can be hard to remember who all the side characters are.

You Might Like this if You Like:
• Necromancers 
• Goth aesthetic
• Non-linear storytelling 

After the end of Gideon the Ninth, I wasn't sure what to expect, but Tamsyn Muir truly delivers. Harrow the Ninth builds off of what the first book set up. With Harrow as the main POV this time around, the cruel and distant necromancer is revealed to be vulnerable, perfectionist, and very relatable. 

Beyond the exploration of Harrow's character, Muir expands the setting a lot, showing the reader so much of the history of the empire, despite the somewhat minimal setting that the story takes place in. 

The storytelling is really unique. Totally unexpected from what happened at the end of Gideon the Ninth. The non-linear storytelling and inconsistencies with the previous book clue the reader in right away that something is wrong. However the slow reveal of what happened really deepens Harrow as a character. 

It can be difficult at times to keep all of the side characters sorted, because there are loads and loads of them. The main characters stand out though, and the issue is mostly a minor one. It's just that with so many characters, it's difficult for them all to be developed or to make a mark. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, and Violence

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