Reviews tagging 'Death'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

343 reviews

fishbones's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

zghutcheson01's review against another edition

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I didn’t love it as much as the prev book and the jokes felt a bit more forced and out of place than in the first book, but it was still absolutely fantastic. I was super confused but never to the point that I was irritated, mainly because it didn’t expect you to know what was going on and if you thought you knew, you were wrong. I didn’t love the second pov but it also wasn’t something I couldn’t get over.

 

For so much of the book, I was FREAKED THE FUCK OUT about where Gideon went like ??? She’s my favorite character and you take away all memory of her??? Then you tell me she’s Jesus???? AHHHHHH

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Medical content and Toxic friendship

Minor: Confinement, Colonisation, and War

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, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

bookthief404's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative inspiring mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

Complicated, riveting, gory, interesting, almost unfathomable at times. 
Overall incredible to read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Grief, and Death of parent

amanda_bristol's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny mysterious reflective tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Violence, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Gore, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, and Murder

augustrogue's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny 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

I am so conflicted about how to rate this, but the fact that it took me about a month to get through the first 25% because I had NO idea what was happening makes it so that I can't in good conscience rate it 5 stars. Because honestly.. I *think* I kind of know what was (and is) going on now, but in other ways I'm still incredibly lost. 

When this book is good, it's REALLY good. The dynamic between some of the characters like Harrow and Ianthe is amazing, and once some of the puzzle pieces start falling into place.. *chef's kiss* I ended up reading the second half of this book over a couple of days. 

The prose still strikes such an intriguing balance between being very serious and wordy, and extremely irreverent and meme-y. But sometimes.. I don't know, it almost seems like the author enjoys being as confusing and complicated as possible? Somewhat to the story's detriment, and I say that as someone who loves unique prose and story structures. Anyway, it may just be me. I'll keep reading this series and hope that some things become clearer as it goes...

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Content Warnings

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

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, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

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

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

tiana_king's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Remember last book? No you don’t. Don’t even try to remember it or you’ll just be MORE confused. Prepare to not know what the fuck is happening until 3/4 of the way into the book. Also have you ever read 2nd person POV? It’s dreadful. It makes no sense until you’re 80% into the book. I wish there would have been at least pieces of things that made sense instead of just having us ride a roller coaster backwards upside down and in the dark until the very end of the book practically.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual content and Colonisation

lpfoley's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I couldn’t tell if I was crazy or if the narrative voice was crazy for the first half of the book, despite being repeatedly told the narrative voice was crazy. While the second book in the series retains the excellent writing and world-building, the humor doesn’t really play it’s card until later in the book. While that made sense in the narrative and in the context of the characters, it was a bit disappointing. The new characters that were introduced also just weren’t as interesting to me as the ones we (mostly) left behind in book one. Still an excellent read and has me curious about book 3! Just not quite as compelling to me as the first in the series. 

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Content Warnings

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

msradiosilence's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail