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purplepenning's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War
Minor: Pregnancy
anxiousnachos's review against another edition
5.0
Why don’t you just stab a dagger through my heart Tamsyn Muir
Reread April 2024.
——————
Where do I even start to review this absolute masterpiece of a second novel? It has taken me an embarrassing amount of time to pick up Harrow and I’ll fully admit it’s because I wasn’t quite as in love with Gideon the Ninth as I expected to be. But I saw this book in the library and thought what the hell, it’s time. And what a fucking idiot I’ve been when I could have made this book my entire personality OVER A YEAR AGO if I’d only read it then.
This book is a master class in point of view, plot structure, horror as comedy, the exceptional use of gothic genre, and divinity. I’d like to discuss each of these in turn.
Point of view
I think second person POV gets a real bad rep in the book community but I am a big fan of it, it’s one of my favourite tools Muir used in this book. I think this showed the same expertise that Jemisin showed in her use of second-person POV in the The Broken Earth trilogy. This tense creates such an element of mystery and omnipotence and horror - it is a POV for horror and it is used expertly in Harrow.
Structure
I know lots of people found Harrow’s structure confusing, but somehow I actually found this one less confusing than Gideon. Maybe because of my love of books with timelines that jump around and you kind of just accept not knowing what’s going on and go along for the ride?? But I loved not knowing what the fuck was happening, loved the timeline structure that gave us past and future Harrrow, I thought it allowed us a much deeper sense of who Harrow was and a much closer connection to her which made the events of the book so much more horrific for the reader and so much more unbearable in their grief.
Horror as comedy
Have I ever read a funnier book? I definitely can’t quite remember ever laughing at one quite so much as this. Page after page, I just could not stop laughing. The soup scene absolutely undid me, and I want it to get the love it deserves as peak humour and utter genius.
Gothic
Where do I even begin? This entire book is a masterclass in the idea of gothic genre as haunting; Harrow as haunted by past, by trauma, by loss, by the genocide of her conception, by grief. It it fantastic, and it is so deeply traumatic to read, I never wanted to stop and yet it also felt like I was being repeatedly punched in the chest, and then I read the author's note and it made sense. Muir gets Harrow because Muir has lived Harrow.
Divinity
The twist to such has intimate relationship with, and worship of, divinity in Harrow was an interesting choice but one which I loved because I am of course always obsessed with the portrayal of religion in SFF. I am deeply looking forward to delving closer into divinity on reread as I feel this will be an area that so much more is noticed on reread. But all I can say is I loved the fatherly vibes, I loved the subtle darkness below the surface, I loved the relationships God had with each of his companions and how that manipulated the relationships they had with each other, I loved loved loved it.
This book is a masterpiece of gothic science fantasy, it will emotionally haunt me as Harrow is haunted by a 10,000 year old corpse.
Content warnings: hallucinations, depictions of severe mental health crisis, grief, mass child death, genocide, graphic blood and gore, war, body horror, vomit, self-harm (for magic), graphic descriptions of corpses, murder, necrophilia, sex, death of parent, death of loved one, suicide, physical abuse, emotional abuse, amputation
----
Finished it with 3 minutes left of sapphic September to spare!! A MASTERPIECE. Full review incoming after I sleep.
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, and Injury/Injury detail
saucy_bookdragon's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Harrow the Ninth is even weirder than its predecessor. Written in second person from Harrow's perspective, the book spends its time having Harrow be absolutely unhinged and difficult to predict (in a good way) and gaslighting you about book one. It continues to mix horror, comedy, space opera, fantasy, and other genres into a unique blend, though this book is a bit less comedic than the first and a little more mysterious.
What makes this series work as well as it does is its use of POV voice. Gideon and Harrow both have such distinct voices that work for their perspective stories. Gideon is much more sarcastic and straight to the point while not straight herself. Gideon will fight you on a moment's notice and make your mom jokes the entire time. Harrow is more calculating, but also unpredictable. She often surprises the reader despite the fact we're in her head, despite the fact that due to the second person narration, we are her. She's dealing with a host of mental health issues such as trauma and psychosis which heavily effects her POV, her mental health isn't great to say the least. Thankfully her mental health issues aren't used in a stigmatized way and aren't used to play into tropes such as the mad woman or whatever the fuck was Joker (2019). Harrow is more so a well rounded character.
I do have some critiques. First off, there are some blind spots in the world building. Two books in and I still don't I quite understand what this world is like, especially just to live in it. We spend so much time with the necromancers and cavaliers and God, I wish we got more time with the normal people who live in this world and how they deal with all this. I also still find the magic system confusing, though it is a bit easier to understand in this book since the POV character is a necromancer. I get the basic principles and powers of it but don't quite understand its limits.
I honestly regret not getting to this book sooner, it's even better than the first one and had me hooked and gasping as I tried to piece together what was happening. The Locked Tomb series is perfect for anyone looking for something a little weird, especially if your branch of weird and branch of humor are the Tumblr variety. There's something very Tumblr-esque about this series. It's difficult to explain but Tamsyn Muir spent many years on the hellsite and it shows.
TWs: psychosis, trauma, mentions of genocide, death of animals, grief, lots of gore especially related around corpses
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death of parent
kat_ml's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Grief
Minor: Alcohol and War
thereadinghammock's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Harrow was a most unreliable narrator, by her own admission most of the time, and the hardest part was not knowing why she didn't trust herself, whether for her own protection AND plot device, or just as a plot device. This was also the first time I've read second person POV outside of a romance novel. It took a bit of getting used to, as it often does for me, and because we kept switching in and out of the second and third person narratives.
As I expect from all the Locked Tomb books, Harrow is heavy with world and lore building, but only occasionally felt bogged down by it. I felt myself zoning out a bit in longer Harrow 2nd POV chapters, mostly because Harrow herself is such a pill most of the time and she was a bit draining for me as a reader. But I am dreadfully interested in the massive left turn that Nona is going to take us!
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Blood, Dementia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Gore, Mental illness, and Self harm
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Colonisation
katsintrees's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Vomit, Grief, and Murder
bfab's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder
whiterabbitslibrary's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Blood, and Death of parent
Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy
queenie_ofthe_void's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
owlqueen10's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Mental illness
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts