Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

540 reviews

coopclown's review against another edition

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? Yes

5.0

A fascinatingly morbid world that you get in bite-sized chunks with strong and flawed characters you will grow to love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, and Gore

Moderate: Cannibalism, Child death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Cancer

Minor: Murder

tyrianjubilee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Chronic illness, Blood, Cursing, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Death of parent, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

lyr1cal's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

“Gideon the Ninth" is the first book in the Locked Tomb series, and it's an absolute delight. Gideon is a hilarious narrator whose humor perfectly matches my own. The plot is incredibly immersive, with a vivid setting and beautifully described magic. Watching the relationship between Gideon and Harrow develop was thrilling and the ending was devastating. Gideon has earned a spot in my top 10 favorite characters. I also really enjoyed the mystery of the book, uncovering keys and the secrets of the house aswell trying to figure out who killed the contestants made the book impossible to put down. Overall, I give it a 10/10 and already want to reread it to catch all the hints I missed the first time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Vomit, Terminal illness, Death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Gore, Murder, and Violence

lunarlibra'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? 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide, Abandonment, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Torture, Vomit, Cannibalism, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Confinement, Colonisation, and Slavery

sabrina_marvil's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, Genocide, Gore, Chronic illness, Pregnancy, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Incest, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Cancer, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, Colonisation, Self harm, Stalking, Trafficking, Torture, Medical content, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Blood, Body shaming, Vomit, War, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Mental illness

Not in space

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, and Violence

Moderate: Cancer, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Self harm, Suicide, Death of parent, Gore, Death, and Cannibalism

darkdyce's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

4.0

This was a fun and engaging read once it got into the swing of things. Slowly understanding motivations and unraveling the lore of the universe that Muir built was a joy. She crafted an entire solar system and it's beliefs, and let it be uncovered slowly as to not let the reader be overwhelmed by its all, and I found that I was enjoying learning new bits of lore as they came up. It felt like a prequel to the upcoming series that you didn't even realize until it was all done. I found the action exciting with Gideon rattling off one liners that gave her the feel of an action hero, back up by her actual prowess and confidence. The back and forth between the two main characters got a bit tiresome, but once the third act started, it all payed off in a big way, even if it was altogether sudden. I think Gideons relationship with Harrow is more complex than anyone, even the writer, gives credit to. But looking deeper into it and the history between the two means that I am going to think about this book for a while and I am interested to see where it goes from here. 
The ending could be very divisive and I am not sure how I like how it all wrapped up. It makes sense

and is beatiful in ways as it shows an ultimate act of love and sacrifice

but is also kind of annoying all at once with

Gideon now being gone, the future books may suffer from her absence.

I also thought the writing was overly wordy and pedantic at times, not really fitting the context and tone of the book. I am all for descriptive words, but I don't think they should have been used so firviously in this book, being what it was. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book as it was a great mix of action, mystery, and tension that was told through the lens of a total badass.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

dizzymisslizzy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Terminal illness, Vomit, Body horror, Suicide, Cancer, Blood, Murder, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse and Cannibalism

meg_thebrave's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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? Yes

5.0

Wow. It was a slow read for me, as Muir built this world, but this is an incredible read and I’m so glad I stuck it out to the end. I just read a modern sci-fi masterpiece. And I’m excited to see what happens next. Huge fan of the incredible narrator, Moira Quirk, as well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Gore, and Murder

chrisb913's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

The book overall is incredibly solid. Tamsyn Muir crafts a truly dark, dense, and complex world. The plot starts out a bit murky, trying to piece together the world and the magic system. If you are someone like me who will end up re-reading passages over and over again until you understand what is happening, the initial few chapters can be incredibly frustrating, as Muir tends to show you the basics of the world building over the course of the story instead of telling you about it all upfront. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, in my opinion, just that it can cause a bit of a slog at certain points in the story. 

The main character, Gideon, and her necromancer, Harrow, were very well written. Gideon, a lovable snarky badass woman, always with a retort, paired so perfectly with Harrow, a strict, powerful no-nonsense woman who wants to prove she can do everything solo. The bonding these two share as the story progresses had me clamoring for more scenes with just these two.

While the plot was pretty straightforward, as stated earlier, the writing was anything but. The twists and turns in this sci-fi fantasy turned mystery thriller kept me on the edge of my seat, clamoring for more. Really and truly, the only hinderence I found was the pacing of the world/story building reveals. I found myself floundering at different points, trying to figure out what was going on, especially in the beginning. I would say this book is between a 4-4.5 star. I will definitely be continuing this series with the next book Harrow the Ninth to find out what happens next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, Murder, and Violence