Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

112 reviews

elizmoe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.75

regarding the ending: from the bottom of my heart, tamsyn muir — you can get bent (affectionate) (mostly. i’m mad but i get it but also i want them to be in love but also i guess that’s what fan fiction is for. you’re on thin ice tho))
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actual review:
half the time i had no idea what was going on, but i didn’t care because i was having an incredible time. i wish more books were this unapologetically ambitious with genre, plot, and world building. i’m absolutely feral to start harrow the ninth!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Gore, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment and War

bookishchef's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.75

Okay, so. 

The worldbuilding isn't great. I'm sorry, but it's true. New questions kept popping into my mind while reading this book, and almost none of them got a complete answer. 

Who is the Empire fighting a war against? 
No idea. 
Why is the Empire at war? 
No idea. 
How did the Empire come into existence? 
No idea. 
What are the main differences between each planet/each house? 
No idea (except their powers seem to differ a bit and the Ninth has a different religion). 
Why do the characters know so little about the other houses? 
No idea.
How will the Houses function when the heir apparent dies or when a House bloodline comes to an end? 
No idea.
How is this Empire so adept at space travel when they do not have internet, satellites, or even engineers (not in the Ninth anyway)? 
No idea. 

And so on. 

All of this did bother me throughout the story and I had to consciously decide to ignore it. 
Luckily, the characters kind of make up for it. All the characters, even the side characters, have their own distinct personalities. This story has over 16 characters to keep track of and they all feel different and unique. 
I'd argue that the Second House gets the least developed personalities, but I still know exactly what they're about. 

This book is also very funny. Gideon is hilarious and her repertoire with Harrowhark is very entertaining. For me, it never got old.

There's some very entertaining plottwists too. I saw some of them coming, but not all of them and that kept me reading on. I was genuinely invested in the mysteries. Shame we don't get an answer to some of them. 

So yeah, I liked it, but I don't really get the enormous hype surrounding it. The book definitely has flaws even if it can be very entertaining.

I hated the ending. It didn't feel earned to me. 
Also not sure if the space setting added anything. This could have been a normal Empire consisting of several countries or continents and I don't think it would have changed the story at all. If anything, it would have answered some of my worldbuilding questions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Gore, Terminal illness, Medical content, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Vomit, Cannibalism, and War

mooshake's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.75

i love one (1) horny on main sword lesbian

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Genocide and Suicide

hannahsmanyhobbies's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

I’m confused in the best way, and it’s pretty much exactly what I thought it would be. And I don’t do zombies but that’s basically what this is and somehow it’s working for me. Picking up the second book literally tomorrow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

solarel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

The first 16 chapters were very very slow. But once I hit the halfway mark it picked up, and after 2/3 in, I finished in a day. 

The characters are fun and the tone is very fresh. It was great and I am devastated. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

helfire124's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Abandonment, and War

purplepenning'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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Infertility, Medical content, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Religious bigotry

taylorbarks's review against another edition

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

4.5

I devoured this book in a view days. Remarkably unique setting straddling both fantasy and sci-fi. The make-or-break feature for most will be the prose, which one will either love or hate. It vascillates between the verbose and descriptive to the terse and laconic, often creative, often comedic. I enjoyed it greatly. I can see how others might not. Either way, Tamsyn Muir has a unique and striking voice.
One of my favorite reads this year. Thoroughly recommended.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Vomit, Death of parent, and War

lisa_m's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I did not know that this is a kind of sci-fi book? Honestly if I knew that I probably would not have read it and I am so so glad that I did.

It took me some time to understand what was going on but once I got into it I started to really enjoy it. This book is absolutely hilarious at times and I was actually laughing.

The setting is something I did not quite understand and I still have a lot of questions about the whole world building and everything. I do think that most of the information is actually in the book but it was a bit difficult at times to understand everything. Also there are a lot of characters that I continuously got mixed up.

The ending was a unexpected though predictable. I thought this might happen but I also thought the author would dare.. I am really interested to read the rest of the series and I hope it will be easier to read since I already know the world kind of.

I also thought the book would be more explicitly lesbian since that was one of the main selling points for me. But who know maybe in the following books.

I did love the relationship between Gideon and Harrow though. It was a bit frustrating at times but also super fun. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

entityj's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail