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isabellew6's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Vomit
Moderate: Child death, Suicide, and Death of parent
boutofbibliophilia's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
4.25
You will not know what is going on for most of the book and then you see the pieces come together in such a satisfying way. Stick to it!
The audiobook is superbly narrated by Moira Quirk.
The audiobook is superbly narrated by Moira Quirk.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Blood
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Pregnancy
jakobvongunten's review against another edition
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Ableism and Body horror
Minor: Child death and Suicide
radio_4's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Minor: Suicide
monochromesong's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
slow-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Suicide
Moderate: Self harm, Violence, Vomit, and Medical content
vaxis's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- 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? It's complicated
5.0
I'd heard a lot of talk about how book two is jarring, confusing, and that it takes too long to make sense. Honestly, it's not that bad. Make sure you remember who characters are, and it's fine. It's a mystery, so nothing is supposed to make sense at every step, or even for a while.
The narrative switches between third person limited, usually during a flashback, and second person. Normally I really dislike second person; this is handled as though someone is narrating Harrow's actions and responses to her. It's not a narrative trying to get you to imagine yourself as the character, but someone explaining what is going on to someone who is having some memory difficulties.
The other thing I heard is that this is a book that gaslights you, and that is largely due to a lot of contradictory information that differs from Gideon and is clarified later. Spoiler explainer:Harrow altered her own memories to forget what actually happened in book one, and regains true memories before the end of the book.
The narrative switches between third person limited, usually during a flashback, and second person. Normally I really dislike second person; this is handled as though someone is narrating Harrow's actions and responses to her. It's not a narrative trying to get you to imagine yourself as the character, but someone explaining what is going on to someone who is having some memory difficulties.
The other thing I heard is that this is a book that gaslights you, and that is largely due to a lot of contradictory information that differs from Gideon and is clarified later. Spoiler explainer:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Religious bigotry and Pregnancy
Minor: Miscarriage
m0rt's review against another edition
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt
anxiousnachos's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
5.0
“Harrowhark, I gave you my whole life and you didn’t even want it”
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.
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.
Content Warnings
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
queenie_ofthe_void's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-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
4.0
Borderline impossible to understand the first time through. The second time through was a lot easier... things made more sense. Eye color is important so pay attention. One of the hardest books I've ever read. It was so cool... Harrow is so horribly sad, I love her she's great.
Content Warnings
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
judetime's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
Part of it is written in second person and there are perspective switches, which isn’t everybody’s jam. I didn’t mind the second person so much.
Also: it hurt so bad. Tamsyn Muir is ruining my life. This is my favorite book series.
Also: it hurt so bad. Tamsyn Muir is ruining my life. This is my favorite book series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Blood
Moderate: Genocide, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, and War