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msawyer77's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Cancer, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Body horror
sigrids's review
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.5
Also I love how useless the main character is in face of any women she sees. Very relatable.
Graphic: Chronic illness, Violence, Death, Toxic friendship, Blood, Toxic relationship, Bullying, and Murder
Moderate: Slavery, Suicide, Child abuse, Death of parent, Child death, and Grief
Minor: Genocide, Infertility, and Emotional abuse
c_dmckinney's review
- 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
5.0
Moderate: Violence, Gaslighting, Terminal illness, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gore, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Colonisation, Genocide, Slavery, Child death, Chronic illness, Classism, Cursing, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
bohboh's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Cursing, Death, Infertility, Gore, Grief, Child death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, and Vomit
Minor: War
beefthedwarf's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
vyralvyris's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.75
Graphic: Cursing and Death
Moderate: Slavery, Violence, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Classism, Confinement, and Grief
smugblueenby69's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Suicide, Child death, Body horror, Cancer, Cannibalism, Grief, Terminal illness, and Child abuse
Moderate: Vomit, Death, and Toxic friendship
bebidocrimes's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Cancer, Suicide, Violence, Child death, Cursing, Terminal illness, Vomit, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
athenian_frog's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.25
The experience was DEFINITELY made better by putting on the YouTube audiobook as I read (at around 1.75-2x speed). Moira Quirk gave everyone pretty distinct voices, and writing is casual enough to lend itself better to someone reading it/enunciating conversations.
If you have the means I recommend annotating and/or maintaining post-it’s with your predictions. I found it pretty fun, since the lore and the plot itself were ensconced in mystery ★彡
POSITIVES:
+ Main characters have distinct personalities and voices. Supports and side characters feel interesting in their own respects
+ character exchanges are pretty fun to read. Gideon and her necromancer did a good job of this overall, especially.
—-> it’s made extra impactful because you get a taste of their intense relationship dynamic in a strong way by ch 3.
+ Gideon herself comes off very strongly off the page. Doesn’t feel like she’s just being shuffled by the plot without a say which can be an issue sometimes
+ the entire cast, in some way contributed to the plot and they felt very much present through the story.
+ really cool applications of necromancy, necromantic magic, spirit manipulation etc.
+ thoughtful construction of a necromantic religion, varied forms of cavalry-necromancer relationship
+ you need more interesting women characters in your life? Here take several
+ lesbians being cool! I mean there’s no mystery to Gideon being wlw but don’t expect people to start pairing up in this book at least.
+ it seems like this necromantic society is queernormative, even the house the other necromantic houses deem “most religious” which is always nice to see
+ mysterious elements of the plot done pretty well. Highlights the world/relationships between necromancer houses. You have a lot of fun theorizing.
NEGATIVES:
- the lore is interesting but you have to do some mental floundering at the beginning. I felt like I was tossed into the metaphorical ocean for the first chapter or two.
- (minor) Yes, Gideon and her cavalier have really solid relationship development but it did feel a tad bit rushed towards the end. I think it’s still pretty good overall though.
-some repetitive writing towards the beginning. If you’re familiar with the sentence subject repetition you find often in fanfiction:
“One day, (statement A). One day, (statement B). One day, (statement C)”
“Act accordingly meant (A). Act accordingly meant (B). Act accordingly meant (C)”
Once, this kind of repetition happened like twice on the same page. Personally, this got pretty annoying. Thankfully it only happens around 4 times within the first 60pgs, and very, very sparingly throughout the rest of the book (around 7 times total for the whole book).
- some characters die, and while they have distinctive personalities and issues going on I felt like they died too quick to really get that punch in the gut. A bit of missed potential there.
—-> some of this is improved by book 2 but I think book 1 still could’ve done better here, for the standalone reading experience.
- some really corny humor that might work or might not. It usually landed for me but sometimes it didn’t.
-the epilogue felt a little weak, especially when the climax was actually pretty good
Overall a fun read. It made me continue the rest of the series which I am enjoying so far!
———————————————————
“When [Harrowhark] spoke again, she made her voice quite calm and normal: ‘Why?’
‘Probably because you asked.’
The heavy eyelids shuttered open, revealing baleful black irises. ‘That’s all it takes, Griddle? That’s all you demand? This is the complex mystery that lies in the pit of your psyche?’
Gideon slid her glasses back onto her face, obscuring feelings with tint. She found herself saying, ‘That’s all I ever demanded,’ and to maintain face suffixed it with, ‘asswipe.’(224)”
Moderate: Murder, Chronic illness, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Grief, Terminal illness, Death, Violence, and Suicide
(Straightforward statement, little to Jo description) Several children die by poisoning en masse before the story takes place. Detailed descriptions of wounds, flesh and bone crafting (in part due to necromancy focus) (Descriptive) More than one child character is killed. (Semi-Described) A character kills themself by throwing themself upon an iron spike. It is pretty brief. Two parents and another character kill themselves by hanging, and pre-arrange for their child to do the same. The child does not. (Described) A reoccurring character suffers from a terminal illness that is associated with their necromantic house. They often cough up blood or appear very sickly.wogslandwriter's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Confinement, Bullying, Chronic illness, Blood, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Murder, Self harm, Cancer, Cannibalism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Sexual content