Reviews tagging 'War'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

96 reviews

winged's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Body shaming, Mental illness, Sexual content, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Colonisation

Minor: Bullying, Self harm, Suicide, Vomit, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

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. 

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Cannibalism, War, and Classism

Minor: Cancer

emalderwood's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

After the last book's ending I thought I'd need a while before reading this but the characters wouldn't get out of my head, so finally gave in. Even with my heartbreak from the previous book this sequel did NOT disappoint. It was somehow like reading a puzzle with constantly changing rules and pieces and with the same weirdness and humour I loved from the first book (albeit not *quite* as pronounced due to the circumstances). Tamsyn Muir's use of POV and other clues to build to the climax was the kind of creative boundary pushing I want more of in my reading, and absolutely brilliant. You may think you can predict what's coming, but then there will still be twists you never expected and still more twists you hadn't dared hope for but were executed like a surprise gift just for the reader. I have no idea where this trainwreck is going next but I'll be on the next train because after this second installment I trust Muir to bring it to a spectacular and amazing conclusion. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide and Torture

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Colonisation

larbster90's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny 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

4.5

I never know what’s going on in these books but I enjoy them anyway

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Child death, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Abandonment, and Alcohol

lunarlibra's review against another edition

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Eating disorder, Genocide, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Gaslighting

boywonder's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I liked this better than the last book, which surprised me because I'm not a fan of second-person writing most of the time. I think the effect here is confusing on purpose; the reader is confused because Harrow is confused. 

This book helped me understand Harrow a lot better (though I don't like her all that much, but liking a character has nothing to do with whether they are well-written or a good character). I think the pacing is kind of slow at the start, which is in keeping with the last book.

I don't really like or appreciate the tumblr meme additions like "none x with left y" and things like that. Because I know a bunch of spoilers that come after this, I sort of understand why they might fit, but it doesn't work for me. I also think after the reveal of who the second-person narrator is, the tone changes to be more what you expect from that character and it was almost jarring.

For me, seeing that this author CAN write less snappy on purpose than the last book, I was almost disappointed. The first book really stood out to me as internet writing and this one didn't (for the most part) until the last quarter. Still, overall I like this book better, though I like Gideon as a character more than Harrow.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Vomit and War

supernova_reader's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

I stuck with it through the beginning due to curiosity from the ending of the previous book, and I'm glad I did, since everything clicks together in the end in a cool way. This book was also full of small moments that I really appreciated, like

when Ortis the cavalier finally gets his moment to shine

, and the small meme references that pepper the more serious points of the book. Through the middle and the end the suspense kept me coming back. I was happy to see space and space travel playing more of a part in this book versus the first one, although overall it still plays a smaller role than I would like. Looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: War

cortneyhehe's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious sad slow-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: War

Minor: Genocide