Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

100 reviews

larbster90's review

adventurous dark funny sad 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

4.5

Took me a bit to get i to it because the world is so complicated, but once I started to understand I loved it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Physical abuse, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness

Minor: Cursing

regalpotato's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

My favourite book. I've reread it (and listened to the audiobook) numerous times. The writing is easy to read but still fantastic prose. The characters are all deeply flawed but you can't help but adore them. There's a lot of queerness, and enemies to reluctant allies, to much deeper than lovers. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Body horror, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: War and Suicide

adrienreads's review

adventurous dark funny 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? It's complicated

4.75

I loved this book! Biggest pro: A butch lesbian protagonist like I've never really seen before. Gideon my beloved my sweet my darling -

Cons that made me read it slowly: 
- The pacing for the first half was really slow, with a lot of info. I had a hard time immersing myself in the world, and was often confused. This seems intentional to a degree, and when that set in, it was easier to stick along for the ride. 
- The climax of the book also had weird pacing.

The final battle felt soooo shounen battle that takes 20 episodes 😔 It was cool but at what cost

 

Pros:
- Very very interesting world - once I got a grip on it I needed to keep reading to learn more. 
- Engaging, unique characters. Often unlikable, but yet also so fun. 
- The writing of the gore/gothic elements is written with so much physicality & love, I'm fully compelled by the way the series handles death 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, and Suicide

Moderate: Child death and Toxic relationship

harrimyers's review against another edition

dark funny 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

5.0

i Love this book. i love it. i love it so so so so so so so much. the ending has devastated me. i am broken. what the fuck what the fuck i anticipated not a single plot point. not one. what the fuck

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Murder, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Body horror, Colonisation, Child death, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Blood, Confinement, Violence, Terminal illness, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Death, and Death of parent

rbuhrke's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-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

4.0

The book is about necromancy in a space empire center on LGBT+ characters but it’s focus is not on romance despite the advertising done by TikTok. However there are romantic elements within the story

one does not bind their soul to another without some kind of love for the other unless you are Ianthe

. It is an intellectual read that covers up the horror story unfolding underneath the language. It was easier to read via audiobook than by book alone.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Child death, Blood, Abandonment, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Violence, Slavery, Medical content, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Eating disorder, Miscarriage, Incest, Mental illness, Chronic illness, and Infertility

If the ending of the book was spoiled for you don’t panic. The series is worth it to keep going.

Gideon does kill herself at end of the book for Harrow but that is not the end of Gideon Nav’s story. She will come back in the other books. Death isn’t simple when necromancy is involved.

carrieclothwright's review

Setup is really grim; none of the characters seem lovable, their main interest is in level of spitefulness; I'm not interested in necromancy; cursing is not out of place given the context but still kinda meh; basically seems really depressing, can't get into it, and don't want to immerse myself in a downer right now. Might try again some other time. 

eta: just went through the list of content warnings and wow, for being less than 10% in that's... a lot.  I think this book just might not be my style. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Child death, Confinement, Murder, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Violence

smbd_the_reader's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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

4.75

Spoiler Warning: Mild suggestions of the direction the book takes; Probably fine to read if you don't mind not going in completely blind?



Can you sue the person who introduced you to this for emotional damages?

This sure was about lesbian necromancers in space.
This actually pulled off a situation where the main character is not the only important person/the only person doing things and driving forward the plot fairly well without resorting to giving most important people a POV*?

Definitely played a lot with what's expected in terms of what the main characters actually have to know (and convey to the reader) to make for an effective story, I think some found that frustrating, but in my opinion you generally get enough hints to figure out what you need to know.

Also has a lot of touches of what I almost want to say is classic (Greek?) tragedy where the characters traits cause their downfall, but I'm not sure if I got my knowledge of tragedies correct. Definitely delicious in a "I appreciate this technique, but stop stabbing me in the heart" way.

If you're using a e-reader and are bad at names I recommend getting yourself quick access to the character list at the front of the book in one way or another because while the author does a great job of fleshing out a ton of characters and juggling them, there's still a lot of characters and some of them occasionally go by titles so a reference is helpful.

Something, something, I'm getting the impression that my reviews continuously lose legibility.


*I have nothing against multiple POVs, but this was definitely a breath of fresh air.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Blood, Religious bigotry, Gore, Abandonment, Cancer, Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

ktkeps'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? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Chronic illness, Death, Toxic relationship, Gore, Grief, Blood, and Bullying

Minor: Genocide, Child abuse, and Child death

kalmia31's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Medical trauma, Vomit, and Body horror

Moderate: Chronic illness, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Child death, Bullying, Classism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Ableism, Child abuse, Mental illness, Terminal illness, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Cannibalism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Self harm, Cancer, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry

sondered's review

adventurous 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Terminal illness and Toxic relationship