Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

49 reviews

lunarlibra's review against another edition

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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? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

To everyone who has been talking about how much they love this book for years: I get it now
For some reason it took me a long time to really get into this book (like over 100 pages) but once I did, I could not put it down! (I think it's a me-problem, and for someone else the early chapters would have been immediately captivating.) 
The character development, the mystery, and the increasingly heightened stakes of the book make this a truly compelling read. Also some parts are truly so funny I laughed out loud! That said, it is deeply tragic. I don't usually love tragedy, but something about how the characters handled it felt very real to me in a way that didn't leave me feeling hopeless. 
I think Tamsyn Muir did something truly special with this book, her writing style is very visceral (no pun intended) in that I found myself deeply understanding the characters' emotions from her descriptions of things like time passing. I can't wait to get my hands on the next book!!

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sabrina_marvil's review against another edition

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

3.0

Wrong.

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kwthor's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-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


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pacifickat's review against another edition

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Wasn't into the main character, didn't like the prose, thought I would love this series but felt let down (overhyped)

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h0neywings's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? No

5.0


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anjasshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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


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evierysik's review against another edition

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It was so slow and boring and a little confusing. 

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tobibi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

This really reinvigorated my reading mood. It took a bit to build up, but the world building is presented very well (little to no infodumps) and the characters are introduced slowly, so you get a general feel for them throughout the book. The horror elements are good, though a bit less striking than I thought they would be, but that's likely due to our POV (Gideon). I enjoyed seeing the back and forth in Griddlehawk's relationship progression, and the ending was heartbreakingly good. I'm looking forward to reading the next book.

favorite lines

 
"... Where I'm going, I promise to piss fidelity all the livelong day. I have lots of fealty in me. I fealt the Emperor with every bone in my body. I fealt *hard*." (p. 43)
 

 
"With the proper motivation, Griddle could wield two swords in each hand and one in her mouth. While we were developing common sense, she studied the blade." (p. 53)
 

 
"Harrow said, "No."
"I want to go," said Gideon.
"This sounds impossibly vapid."
"I want to eat a dessert."" (p. 167)
 

 
Harrow's voice, almost a whisper: "A light, Nav."
"What?"
"You *did* bring a torch."
"This is a service I was unaware I was meant to provide," said Gideon. (p. 204)
 

 
... "Thoughts?"
Gideon said, "Did you know that if you put the first three letters of your last name with the first three letters of your first name, you get 'Sex Pal'?" (p. 274)
 

 
"Ask me how I am and I'll scream," she said.
"How are you," said Camilla, who was a pill.
"I see you calling my bluff and I resent it," said Gideon... (p. 305)
 

 
Once Gideon would have loved to hear Corona talk to her with that low, breathy intensity, maybe saying "Your biceps... they're eleven out of ten," but right now she did not want anyone to talk to her at all. (p. 327)
 

 
"... Look, Nav. You ratted out your childhood nemesis to get her in trouble. You didn't kill her parents, and she shouldn't hate you like you did, and *you* shouldn't hate you like you did."
He was peering at her through his spectacles. "Hey," she objected lamely, "I never said I hated myself."
"Evidence," he said, "outweighs testimony." (p. 336)
 

 
... "I'm an abomination. The whole universe ought to scream whenever my feet touch the ground. My parents committed a necromantic sin that we ought to have been torpedoed into hte centre of Dominicus for. If any of the other Houses knew of what we'd done they would destroy us from orbit without a second's thought. i am a *war crime*." (p. 353)
 

 
"... I made myself watch, when my parents -- I could not do the slightest thing my House expected of me. Not even then. You're not the only one who couldn't die." (p. 355)
 

 
... "You apologize to me now? You say that you're sorry when I have spent my life destroying you? You are my whipping girl! I hurt you because it was a relief! I exist because my parents killed everyone and relegated you to a life of abject misery, and they would have killed you too and not given a second's goddamned thought! I have spent your life trying to make you regret that you weren't dead, all because -- I regretted I wasn't! I ate you alive, and you have the temerity to tell me that *you're sorry*?" (p. 356)
 

 
"Hm," said Camilla neutrally, and Gideon knew immediately that she organized Palamedes's and her socks by color and genre. (p. 365)
 

 
... She didn't need a very long look to tell that Dyas was dead. For one thing, her skeleton and her body had apparently tried to divorce. (p. 372)
 

 
"She took Babs," she said, which seemed fair enough.
But then Corona started crying again, big tears leaking out of her eyes, her voice thick with misery and self-pity. "And who even cares about Babs? Babs! She could have taken *me*." (p. 394)
 

 
Harrow said, with some difficulty. "I cannot conceive of a universe without you in it."
"Yes, you can, it's just less great and less hot," said Gideon." (p. 437)
 

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iane_reads's review against another edition

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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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lmaloney's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5


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