Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

121 reviews

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

andreeagrc's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

schmetterlingsbluetenartige's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Cannibalism

hayleyvem's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Cannibalism, Gun violence, Murder, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Bullying

Moderate: Pregnancy, Chronic illness, Genocide, Infertility, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Cancer, and Suicide

Minor: Child death and Death of parent

provo's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious 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

5.0

I knew before reading this that the plot would not make sense until 2/3 trough, so I was prepared for the confusion.
The finale was something else and bumped my rating from 4 to 5 stars, incredibly satisfying to unwind all the what-the-fuck-is-going-on.
But: check trigger warnings before reading, like there’s a lot of really graphic stuff.
Also maybe not a book anyone should read during an active psychotic episode (this is not a joke).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Alcohol, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Vomit, War, Death of parent, Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Murder, Abandonment, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, and Suicide attempt

itsapaxycab's review against another edition

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
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I feel really really bad not giving this a full score because this book has broken me down in ways i could not imagine. The writing is incredible, the voice is incredible, the plot is so insanely well done and i have to re read it as soon as i can get my hands on a physical copy to mark up and annotate the shit out of. My only gripe is that it was really confusing, and even near the end extremely hard to follow. Maybe it was just me, maybe it’s meant to be that way, but it felt a little bit off near the end. No spoilers tho. Anyways yes absolutely you should read this book, it’s INSANE 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Genocide, Ableism, and Child death

Minor: Death of parent

vampire_burrito's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.5

I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that I was going to get gaslit by a lesbian for 400 pages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cannibalism, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Grief

maddiereadswords's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious 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

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, the scrunkly little meow meow you are <3

This book is, indeed, a HUGE shift from the storytelling style of Gideon, and while it did take some getting used to, I ended up loving this book just as much as the first one!! There was so much more worldbuilding and info about the magic that Gideon as a character just isn't interested in, so now I understand parts of the first book better, but now I'm confused about new things, and it's all just making me sick in the head (which I guess is fitting, since that's pretty much how Harrow feels for most of the book.) Lesbian necromancers in space is a hell of a tagline for this series, but it doesn't begin to prepare you for this Whole Thing. Anyway, this book made me want to put my head through a wall, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Five stars.

2/26/24: Back here after a reread and tentatively feeling like I understand more this time; the 5 stars still stand. Also Mercymorn is vile, but she should also be allowed to do whatever she wants forever <3

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Content Warnings

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

irisraerah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

If you're looking for a book that's as awesome as it is confusing, Harrow is a great option, but you absolutely must read Gideon the Ninth first. I fell completely in love with Muir's world in this book. I'd thoughted I'd loved it before but that was a mere crush. A universe of goth and often gory magic that spends this book expanding on all of the above is exactly my cup of tea (though Harrow herself would pick a different comparison, being a fan of neither tea nor words under four syllables), all while I grew to care more and more about each of the characters involved.

Also, as a queer woman, there is something so deeply comfortable and affirming about reading a story like this, full of queer characters, relationships, and tragedy, but without queerness being the source of any tension or tragedy. Queerness is simply a fact of life in a way that feels like home, though I personally have never lived as part of a space faring necromantic society, and my swordplay has been limited to a single college fencing credit. 

A word of caution to the squeamish reader: gore and the aesthetics of gore feature strongly in this series, though this is a case where the book's cover should have warned you about that clearly enough. Despite the goriness, I find Muir's setting to actually be quite beautiful in the grotesque, and scenes that might be something of nightmare felt vivid and terrific.

Having praised the highbrow content, I'd be remiss to not mention the low: spoilers for jokes you'll want to be caught off guard by as you read them in read time.

How the hell did Muir pull off "choke me daddy," "none pizza with left beef," and "Hi, *double spoiler,* I'm Dad" in a serious book? I'm impressed.

 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Gun violence, Medical content, Suicide, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol, Cancer, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Vomit, War, Pregnancy, and Torture

moondragon8's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad 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

On to book 2!! Yippee!
This was a tricky one. It was one of those books where the main character was basically having a prolonged breakdown throughout the whole thing. I don't always like those books that much. This one was sort of enjoyable, though!
The first 2/3rds of the book were mostly Harrow having a really terrible time while weird stuff happened everywhere. I found this book a lot darker than the previous one--not as much death, but much more morbidity, body horror, and all a lot more graphically described (probably because Harrow's a necromancer and Gideon's just a sword guy). Plus, last book's necromancy was like 90% bones. There was a lot more....meat necromancy in this one.
The final third of the book was really fun. A lot of stuff got revealed, and not all of it made a ton of sense while I was reading it, but some of it did, and it was very satisfactory when pieces began to click into place.

I loved all the dreambubbly (sorry for the Homestuck, but that's what they are!) parts. I wanted more of Harrow's weird alternate universes! They were so fun!!

On the "it's complicated" up above: None of the major characters in this were exactly lovable, but they were really, really fun to read about.

Harrow's brain ghosts were very lovable, though. Abigail my beloved!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, and Gore

There is a scene of brain surgery. It's not exactly explicit, but it, uh. It happens.