Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

193 reviews

metrometric's review against another edition

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Violence, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Murder, and Panic attacks/disorders

therealratking's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

"Unexpectedly, this did not kill her; and what did not kill her made her curious."
Whats the book about?
After the disaster that was Canaan House, the newly born Lyctor Harrowhark the Ninth is struggling to survive on the Emperor's ship. Not only is her brain fucked up but someone is trying to kill her. To add to all this misery, the resection beasts are closing in and Harrows necromancy has decided to stop working as it should.
Whats my opinion?
This book made me ball my eyes out, a rare feat that only the Locked Tomb series had managed to do. The second person POV, while confusing at first ends up making so much sense that my jaw dropped. I loved following Harrow's messed up daily life and the dark humor introduced in Gideon the Ninth follows through. Overall i loved this book and if you loved the first book, you'll love this one even more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Cannibalism

willow_the_wisp's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-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: Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gore, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Blood, Child abuse, Violence, Vomit, Death, and Suicidal thoughts

ailsaod's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

 This book has got to have one of the most interesting approaches to storytelling I've seen in a while - though also the most confusing. I won't go into detail as I think it is best to go in blind but I will say that the devil is in the details!

In book one I didn't like Harrow at all and given what happened to Gideon at the end, this book wasn't a high priority. However I needed something to take on a trip and the ebook was free at the library so here we are. Despite going in not liking Harrow this book made me care for her a lot more and the new characters introduced are a fun mix of entertaining and concerning. I kind of wish I'd listened to the audiobook as I heard a clip of one of the scenes and it was the funniest thing!

I honestly don't know what else to say about this book without ruining the surprises but don't expect to understand half of what's going on - I have really enjoyed the ride so far but the reason this isn't five stars is that I am very very confused about practically everything. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Grief, Blood, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Violence, and Gore

Minor: Child death, Death of parent, and Cannibalism

erinoco's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Murder, Mental illness, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror and Abandonment

Minor: Death of parent

avava's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Death of parent

ivan_tw's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

4.0

While "Gideon" was a fun and funny genre experiment, a sci-fi haunted house murder mystery, "Harrow" takes that basic setting and tweaks pretty much everything about it. It operates, at least at first, as a fun-house mirror version of "Gideon", where everything seems similar but just different enough to make you wonder what's going on. It plays with memory a lot, both for the characters and for you as a reader. And in those experiments, it shows just how strong of a writer Muir really is. I'm looking forward to Book 3.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death, and Self harm

Moderate: Bullying, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Murder

lbelow's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

A dear friend of mine takes issue with the transparency of the ending of this book, but I disagree. To me, the plot against the emperor is a subplot rather than the main thrust of the novel. The focus of this book is Harrowhark, her relationship with Gideon, and the insanity brought upon her through grief. And it is a MASTERPIECE. Parts of this book I initially believed to be there only to prop up her delusions turn out to have deeper meaning. I've read this book three times now and I'm still picking out nuances of foreshadowing not only for this book, but also for Nona. As fantastic as the first book is, it is this book that is the peak of Muir's mastery. I can think of no other author who can mix first, second, and third POV AND throw in what is essentially fanfiction of her own book and pull it off with such panache! Honestly, this book is a trip, and one you'll love to read multiple times for all the little details. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Murder, Gore, Violence, Mental illness, and Grief

Minor: Chronic illness

bereftidiot's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Mental illness

Moderate: Genocide, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Grief, Medical content, Bullying, and Gore

whatdoiknowjr's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Body horror, Blood, Colonisation, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Torture