Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

89 reviews

shadereads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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: Death, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Body horror, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gore

Moderate: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, and Vomit

Minor: War, Medical content, Genocide, Colonisation, and Medical trauma

ivan_tw's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

4.0

While "Gideon" was a fun and funny genre experiment, a sci-fi haunted house murder mystery, "Harrow" takes that basic setting and tweaks pretty much everything about it. It operates, at least at first, as a fun-house mirror version of "Gideon", where everything seems similar but just different enough to make you wonder what's going on. It plays with memory a lot, both for the characters and for you as a reader. And in those experiments, it shows just how strong of a writer Muir really is. I'm looking forward to Book 3.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death, and Self harm

Moderate: Bullying, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Murder

bereftidiot's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Mental illness

Moderate: Genocide, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Grief, Medical content, Bullying, and Gore

hayleyvem's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Cannibalism, Gun violence, Murder, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Bullying

Moderate: Pregnancy, Chronic illness, Genocide, Infertility, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Cancer, and Suicide

Minor: Child death and Death of parent

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, Vomit, Violence, Death, Medical content, Gore, Murder, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Death of parent, and Suicide

mossylibra's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad 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: Violence, Mental illness, Gore, and Medical content

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

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Medical content and Toxic friendship

Minor: Confinement, Colonisation, and War

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

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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.

 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Blood, Death, Grief, Murder, and Violence

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

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

mothie_girlie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.5

Had to stare at a wall for an hour after this-

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content