Reviews with content warning for Death - Harrow the Ninth

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

319 reviews

loungeroomlizard's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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 found this a harder read than Gideon the Ninth. We'd just reached a point where we kinda felt like we had a handle on what's going on, and then Harrow the Ninth begins and throws us back into utter confusion - both inwardly and outwardly.

I did feel like the Gideon reveal took a little too long. It was pretty obvious early on, but I didn't mind waiting to find out what had happened to conceal Griddle from Harrow's memories, and (more importantly) why. But after almost 500 pages I started to lose my patience with it - thankfully, that was about when the reveal came out.

On the positive side, I about lost my mind at "None House with left grief," and the memes only accelerated after that. I'm sure I missed a bunch of them, but I loved every one I spotted. It helped to ground the series in a particular time

(admittedly, approximately 10,000 years from nowish)

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maloriegracereads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

Honestly, this is one of the best books I have ever read. Tamsyn Muir has perfectly crafted and curated each chapter in this incredible story. I loved the pace, even if it was a bit slow, and found myself truly savoring each moment. I adore these characters, and it is heartbreaking to watch what they go through. But Muir handles this in such a unique and humorous way, without losing any depth and honesty. I wish I could reread this for the first time again, even though I finished it moments ago. I cannot wait to see what else this author has cooked up in the remained of this series!! Thank you for changing my life, Tamsyn Muir. Now I’m going to go make the best damn soup.

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trash_candra's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

HtN makes the bold choice to not be anything like the previous book and instead use the intricate world building and magic system to spin a truly bizarre mystery with so many open ended questions, as well as multiple whodunnits where the concepts of death and identity are ambiguous at best because of the bizarre engine the world runs on.

This book is a mystery book and figuring that out is the first mystery. I have never been so utterly confused by a book I've read for fun, yet somehow I managed to stick through the grueling first 30% of the book. Harrow the Ninth managed to give me a sense of rabid fan-theory crafted that is so rare to come across but absolutely thrilling to experience. Whenever I wasn't reading the book I was always thinking about it in the back of my mind.

I think HtN is a must-read for a very specific crowd of people who love mysteries and are okay going extended periods of time not knowing what's happening and struggling to make sense of everything. Think ARG fans and cryptic games enthusiasts (like Yume Nikki or Pathologic). I think it's absolutely worth the struggle and time investment but it's definitely not for everyone.

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shottel's review against another edition

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challenging 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? Yes

4.75

Like Gideon the Ninth, the book-cover reviews and summaries don’t do it justice. Harrow the Ninth is a fantastic, funny, unique, genre-blurring novel whose worldbuilding and mystery-oriented storytelling makes it worthy of reading on their own. To an even greater degree, it is a poignant picture of psychosis and grief. I was not expecting to see in such detail a broken mind, agonized by self-doubt and the mistrust of others, and the crushing weight of immense loss.

Outside of the deep themes of regret, loss, absence, grief, and psychosis, there is much to say positively. Harrow manages to pull off pop culture references and memes humorously, without making me want to throw the book across the room. (Minimally spoiling example: A subtle joke invoking none pizza left beef.) This, combined with a tamer but still present version of the sense of humor that made Gideon distinctive makes for an enjoyable time. It doesn’t lag so hard in the first half like Gideon does (although I do feel it could’ve likely been shortened a good 50-100 pages). The ending was exciting, the payoff for working through over 400 pages of confusion (albeit a well-written 400 pages) deeply worth it. My only gripe is that, without spoiling anything, the last 5 or so pages are a bit confusing and sad in a way I don’t think fits, but this doesn’t harm it enough for me to say the ending was anything but excellent.

Overall, I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who has read Gideon the Ninth and would be interested in a good mystery or an evocative portrait of disturbed mental faculties.

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msawyer77's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

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ellenwm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.5

Stock up on red string and push pins because this book is wild!!! You will say “what the hell is happening?!” many times. You’ll re-read (or replay the audio book) for many sections. You’ll check character lists. You will be frustrated that the puzzle pieces aren’t coming together and don’t seem to even be from the same puzzle.

But Woaw is it worth it!!! This is not an easy or quick read, though. Two things kept me going: reviews that (correctly) said the final quarter brings it all together in a satisfying way and my absolute adoration for Gideon the Ninth. The majority of the novel alternates between two plot lines, with one written in second person to distinguish it. That choice irked me at first, but the function and the reason were eventually borne out. There’s a glaring difference from Gideon the Ninth for most of the book that will also disappoint many readers (but that you can’t really say without spoiling GtN), but it’ll make sense eventually.

This curious, dark exploration of grief, trauma, ethics, love and mortality asks as many questions as it answers. It is rare that a novel is so carefully plotted, complicated and connected, featuring a world and characters full of surprises.

Same as with GtN though, CONTENT WARNINGS for violence, gore and body horror. I’m still kind of shocked at how well I’m tolerating that content, but somehow the intense plot and beautiful writing make the gross bones and body stuff worth it to me?

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skudiklier's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense

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

4.75

Oh my god this book. I have no idea what to say about it. I don't know how else to say this but reading it made me feel like I was going crazy. I'm so glad I was reading this well after it came out and I could look up just enough people talking about it online so that I could know I was actually having the intended experience and not wildly misunderstanding something. For a book that made me feel like I had no idea what was happening, I loved it. I definitely want to read the next one. It made me scream at the people who recommended it to me. It has such a good payoff after all the confusion and disorientation. I wish all books were this devastating and this satisfying and this funny.

mild spoilers

NONE HOUSES LEFT GRIEF???? what the fuck.

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ee_comins's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

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grace_b_3's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.0

I loved Gideon the Ninth and thus was so excited for the sequel. Harrow ended up being more of a slog than I expected, but it really stuck the landing. About midway through Harrow, I wasn’t sure if I was going to finish it, much less read the third book, but the last act pulled right back into this world and these characters.

One of the things I liked the least in this book is that most of the chapters are told in 2nd person.

While this choice is eventually explained when Gideon comes back and starts some 1st person chapters, it was still rather grating to read through. I also heard that the 2nd person narration choice was made to emphasize that Harrow is an unreliable narrator, but there is so much else going on to communicate that so it felt so unnecessary until the last act with the Gideon reveal and then that choice clicked into place for me. Didn’t quite make up for the rest of the book though.

Also,

I didn’t love the Gideon potentially being in love with Harrow thing. I have never read their relationship as being romantic and felt like that romantic angle to their relationship was never really developed? I much preferred the Ianthe/Harrow pairing in this book—in a romantic sense. I love the friendship between Harrow and Gideon and how that builds over the first book.

I’d reccomend this series if you like dense, twisty fiction with a gothic vibe. Just don’t go into Harrow expecting it to be similar to Gideon.

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supernova_reader's review against another edition

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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.

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