Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

98 reviews

knerys's review against another edition

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

ababbabby's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

4.75

the only reason why i feel like i can’t quite give it 5 stars is that the first book set my expectations very high. i really enjoyed this one! it’s a great sequel, loved the different povs and seeing the way all of the nonsensical pieces came together to sort of make more sense in the end. 

i did find myself re-reading bits a few times because i got a bit confused, but overall it was a really good read and i think it works great as a follow-up to gideon the ninth. however it has left me with So Many Questions this is horrible

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Sexual content

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Blood, Genocide, Gun violence, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent and Mental illness

Necrophilia, extremely dark content about necromancers. Main character spends a huge chunk of the book thinking she is insane.

thrabenvaliant's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

4.5

Where do I start? Did you read and like Gideon the Ninth? Well, go read that first, and if it's been a while, go re-read it. 

Harrow is a hot mess in this book, and I absolutely love her for it. Tamsyn Muir continues to spin beautiful complicated webs of literary masterpiece. I can't really give you any more than that without shattering the beauty of the emotional arc you will experience as you read this exquisitely crafted tale.

I also highly recommend the audiobook read my Moira Quirk. So much so, that I'm going to go back and listen to Gideon, just to have Moira read it to me, despite reading it digitally the first time.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence and Body horror

alexiab's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious slow-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

4.0

I tell ya I have absolutely no idea what happened in this book but somehow I still loved it.

Tamsyn Muir has an amazing way with characters and narrative voice, and I absolutely love the distinct difference between Harrow and Gideon’s narrative style. While the mystery of this book was INCREDIBLY confusing, the reveals and pieces coming together are so damn rewarding.

I think that the level of confusion in the first third of the book really put a wrench in my enjoyment of the story and understanding of the new characters. I spent so long trying to figure out what in gods name was going on that I missed a lot of characterization of the emperor and the lyctors. And while I think the pacing of this book matched book 1, the added layer of “what the fuck” made it really hard to push through.

THAT BEING SAID once everything starts clicking, holy shit does this book get good, and looking back everything makes far more sense, I just wish I’d known what was going on so I could follow along more clearly. 

Overall this book is brilliant, funny as hell, epic, disgusting, and emotional. Harrow and Gideon are my whole ass heart. Fuck I might even like Ianthe. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Blood, Murder, and Gun violence

jkpiowa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The first book in this series, Gideon the Ninth, is known for being extremely confusing until everything sort of clears up in the last chapters of the book. Harrow the Ninth is the same, except I was left with even more questions at the end than I was with Gideon. 

This book picks up immediately after Gideon and is not remotely a standalone story. The story is intentionally left obscure and confusing until the ending, where it is revealed this obscurity is a piece of the plot. The ending is a cliffhanger, though I don't know if it's a cliffhanger that will be picked up in Nona the Ninth, or if it's just a cliffhanger ending to Harrow's story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, and War

Minor: Sexual content and Emotional abuse

cal_the_queer's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Self harm, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and War

Minor: Pregnancy, Terminal illness, and Cancer

book_club_cat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

Wtf did I just read!?!? I had no idea what was going on half the time and somehow in the last third of the book everything fell together in an implosion of plot twists.  I think Muir is some kind of genius to write something so bizarre and dark yet funny and lovable all at the same time.  I have never read anything like Gideon the Ninth or Harrow the Ninth and I still am at a loss on how I’m supposed to comprehend all that I just read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Gore, Suicide, Murder, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Gun violence, Grief, Genocide, Child death, Cancer, Blood, Abortion, and Abandonment

Wtf did I just read!?!? I had no idea what was going on half the time and somehow in the last third of the book everything fell together in an implosion of plot twists. I think Muir is some kind of genius to write something so bizarre and dark yet funny and lovable all at the same time. I have never read anything like Gideon the Ninth or Harrow the Ninth and I still am at a loss on how I’m supposed to comprehend all that I just read!

symbio's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

This book has single-handedly changed the way I engage with literature. It has the perfect balance of foreshadowing and plot twists throughout the book. The foreshadowing is done well and a keen observer is able to predict several events that happen later in the book, while still being surprised by the details of those events. 

That being said, this is also one of the most confusing books I’ve ever read. The book is written in a mixture of second and third person, and contradicts events of the first book at many turns. This keeps you on your toes as you have to determine which unreliable narrator to trust. 

I absolutely cannot do this book justice in a review. All I can say is that it’s a fever dream of a book and I mean that in the best way possible. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Death of parent, Miscarriage, and Suicide

This book has very frequent, visceral descriptions of parts of the body such as internal organs. The characters have magic that allows them to manipulate bodies and this is not shied away from. Probably not the best book for someone squeamish.

bookspaperink's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, and Medical content

Moderate: Blood, Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Violence, and War

Minor: Alcohol, Cancer, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Sexual content, and Vomit