Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

186 reviews

rbuhrke's review against another edition

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.

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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.

ktkeps's review

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

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Genocide, Child abuse, and Child death

amethystandherbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Violence, and Cursing

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Cancer, Abandonment, and Grief

kalmia31's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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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

zannayo'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

4.25

Almost lost me at the 40% mark but at about 45% it got really wild.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Child death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Grief, Gore, and Death of parent

Moderate: Terminal illness, Self harm, Cancer, Suicide, Cannibalism, and War

(Mentions specific character deaths)

Both kids (13-14yo) die in this. I usually can't handle books that include kids being hurt or dying (and I still struggled with this one) but the way it was written and the fact that the very intense part was only about 2 pages long made it manageable for me.

ekcd_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

One of the first queer lit books I read that wasn’t even remotely queer (in a good way). Being gay was at once core to and irrelevant to the characters and instead of contributing to or juxtaposting the plot it just was. 

One of the few books I’ve read where I had to physically shout HOLY FUCK during it.

Right now I have it a 4.75 and I’m not entirely sure where the deduction comes from. Maybe the gore? Maybe I’ll change the stars later 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Medical trauma, Suicide, War, Chronic illness, Gore, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Vomit, Terminal illness, Torture, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Violence

devirtualized's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Medical content, Emotional abuse, and Child death

Minor: Vomit

thebookishfarmer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Body horror, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Grief, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Child death, and Death of parent

scarlettskyes's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious 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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Content Warnings

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

ailsaod's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad fast-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

 This book was not what I was expecting! It is well known as 'that space lesbian book' and while this is correct there is a lot of other things also going on - such as this actually being a whodunnit.

I think the one thing that really stuck out to me was the setting of this book. For some time I was been wanting to find a book where a spooky, deserted sci-fi structure is explored and while that is the premise of a fair number of sci-fi books this is the first I have read to do it justice. The Canaan House has a strong atmosphere and I really enjoyed Muir's flowery way of describing it.

The worldbuilding and plot are rather opaque and although it is interesting to try and figure out it makes the beginning of the book difficult to get into. Muir is not an author who believes in exposition for better and for worse! I also initially found the characters difficult to connect with - Gideon refuses to cooperate with the plot for portions of the book and the other characters are quite strange but by the time things really kicked off I had gotten pretty attached. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

Moderate: Terminal illness, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Religious bigotry, and Suicide