Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

69 reviews

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is a book you really need to read at least twice to appreciate. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Genocide, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, War, Child death, Toxic friendship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Toxic relationship, and Self harm

Minor: Eating disorder, Infertility, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Cancer, Incest, and Abandonment

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

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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

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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

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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

ladythana's review against another edition

mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Gaslighting, Dementia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Gun violence, Self harm, Abandonment, Bullying, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, and Medical trauma

Minor: Body shaming and Colonisation

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.

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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

enyltiak's review

challenging dark mysterious 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

4.5

Gideon the Ninth was my first five star read of 2023, so I figured it was about time to continue the series. Where the beginning of the first book is a bit confusing in that classic new sci-fi/fantasy world adjustment sort of way, Harrow the Ninth is confusing in a trippy, clueless sort of way where you as the reader are completely in the dark alongside its titular character, feeling your way to some semblance of explanation. It's a slow burn for certain, and not for everyone, but I was personally a fan of the way POV is used in this book.

Despite the confusing nature, I managed to figure out that

Harrow had willfully replaced/removed Gideon from her memory in her grief (though I hadn't known fully why or how, of course)

. The last act of the book is action-packed and so fun. It really sheds light on everything vague that had occurred thus far, so you get some clarity seeing it through to the end. All in all, solid second book and definitely one that strikes a desire to re-read it and see it in a whole new light.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gaslighting, Vomit, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Body horror, Self harm, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Death

bebidocrimes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

While it's a little heavy handed on the dialogue explanations of the magic system and world building, I did have an easier time keeping track of the secondary characters. I agree that just accepting that you are going to be confused helps navigate the disjointed timelines. (Some fandom osmosis also helped me keep up, too tbh) I am fascinated by a depiction of god as a flawed and selfish individual who probably shouldn't actually be worshiped. I'm going to need to sit with this one for a while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gun violence, Body horror, Gore, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Mental illness, Murder, Blood, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Drug use, Cursing, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Colonisation, and Abandonment

monadocookie's review

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Vomit

kierank's review

challenging dark emotional funny 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

5.0

Rewired my brain chemistry

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, Gore, Body horror, Gaslighting, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Moderate: Cursing and Alcohol

Minor: Colonisation