Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

90 reviews

book_buddy_rob's review against another edition

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

4.75

I have a new favorite series!

The first 100 pages or so of this book was hard to push through and I was prepared to DNF, but once things started clicking and the underlying mystery in the plot began, is when I got hooked and needed to know what was going to happen.

The bond that develops between Gideon and Harrow is one of the best executions of an enemies to friends trope I have ever read. At the start, these two main characters hate each other but by the end, Muir did a really great job of developing that bond that by the end when they formed a real sisterhood with each other, it felt believable.

The real star of the book though was the unique magic system. All the magic centers around necromancy, or what I like to call dead people magic. But it’s not just poof, raise the dead. In order to access their magic the characters use different theorems and puzzles that require solving and I thought that made it super compelling.

I also thought the mystery woven into the story was well paced. People were dropping dead and Muir did a great job of keeping the reader invested and wanting to know what was causing all these deaths.

I do wish the world building had been stronger. You’re sort of dumped into this world with not a lot of info on the planets, and the characters, but by the end I appreciating figuring everything out on my own because once things clicked is when things really got going.

I do also with the queer themes were explored more within the story. Gideon is a lesbian, but outside of a few one liners from her, it’s not really talked about much within the story.

Overall this is a great start to what I believe will be a new all time favorite series and I can’t wait to dive into the next book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Genocide

azureandroid's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

You need to go in blind and expecting understand nothing cause you will understand everything by the last 50 pages 🤣

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Body horror, Death, Gore, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Medical content

Minor: Child death, Child abuse, Blood, Suicide, Vomit, Genocide, Infertility, and Miscarriage

It seems like I've listed a lot I will say this is a book about necromancers and knights, and the two main characters have a very complicated relationship

beefthedwarf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

• 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

5.0

Edit: after a few years, I've bumped this up to 5 stars. I'm obsessed with the series and the gripes I had were resolved after re-reading (high re-read value!) and understanding the characters better.

The writing was incredible and unique, and I found myself loving Gideon more than I ever thought I could love a main character. Due to the later plot twists and complex story, it also has a very satisfying re-read value. 

My biggest gripe is that Harrowhark did very little to redeem herself, and it was consistently difficult and heartbreaking to see Gideon be treated like absolute garbage, yet still cow to Harrow in a heartbeat. In my honest opinion, it takes more than a tearful apology and a confession of suicidal guilt to make up for the years of slavery, beatings, and abuse Harrow and her family put Gideon -- and all their slaves -- through. 

I think the book also suffers a bit from being the prequel/world building intro to the rest of the series. 

Regardless, the book left me enamored and intrigued enough to add Harrow the Ninth to my reading list.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Incest, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Cannibalism, Body horror, Colonisation, Child death, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Child abuse, Classism, Emotional abuse, and Death

The author depicts characters of color, particularly men of color, in a poor light. There is rampant colorism. An indigenous man is a perpetrator if colonial violence.

thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, and Murder

Moderate: Genocide, War, and Body horror

kaiyakaiyo's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

3.5 rounded up! Extremely super duper slow start, and Gideon’s humor is unbearable until the bodies start dropping and she gets too distracted to make jokes, but over all fun! don’t think I’ll read more 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Genocide, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Chronic illness, Death, Terminal illness, Blood, Child death, and Child abuse

divine529's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

This book is billed as lesbian necromancers in space, but that's the bare minimum of what this book is about. 

This book follows Gideon the Ninth, an orphan who has been indentured to serve the House of the Ninth, a cultist group of necromancers who are sworn to protect a tomb which holds the Emperor's worst enemy, and ultimately Harrow the Ninth, the leader/queen/head of Ninth House. Harrow and Gideon despise each other, but get thrust together to become a team to serve Ninth House in their quest to become Lyctor and all kinds of political intrigue and chaos ensues. 

I wasn't sure what to expect from this coming in and wasn't even sure this was something I would like, but friends convinced me and I'm so glad they did because I thoroughly enjoyed this. If I were to describe this as anything it's basically "And Then There Were None" meets "The Hunger Games". And I understand the comparison to RotE. 

I live and breathe for certain relationship dynamics in this book - Harrow and Gideon at the end is everything and I adore Cam and Pal more than anything (they're my faves). I found all of the characters interesting, even if I didn't like them, the plot took all kinds of interesting twists and turns, a lot I figured out, but some came out of nowhere. The writing was pretty good overall, but at times had some awkward phrasing that pulled me out of the story a bit and some pacing issues. Also PLEASE heed the CW/TW, it's possible I missed some, so look at the general community ones to make sure you're covered before you read because it's full of them at every turn. 

All in all, a solid start to this series and I'm very interested to see what's going to happen next in Harrow! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Toxic friendship, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

Moderate: Terminal illness, Cancer, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Genocide, War, and Vomit

iane_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Medical content, Murder, Slavery, Torture, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Death, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, and Child death

Moderate: Classism, Death of parent, Mental illness, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Hate crime, Miscarriage, Dementia, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Genocide, Pandemic/Epidemic, and War

lisztaffe's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Death of parent, Cancer, Gore, and Suicide

Minor: Infertility, Child death, and Genocide

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny 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

Made me cry!!!!
Gideon is crude and funny and brave and kind and a delight. Teenage jock lesbian forced to goth, wears sunglasses about it. 
The plot is So Much (positive) and the Central relationship has pulverised my heart (positive but. OUCH.).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Cursing, Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Chronic illness, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Terminal illness, Body shaming, and Genocide

Minor: Suicide attempt and War

jillian8's review against another edition

adventurous 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

Love love love. Gets even better after you read the second one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Gore, Toxic friendship, Violence, Body horror, Child death, and Suicide

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Death of parent, and Physical abuse

Minor: Genocide, Cannibalism, and Child abuse