Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

35 reviews

laurajones's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Vomit

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

plumpaperbacks's review against another edition

Even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of Gideon the Ninth, I was curious to see where the story would go and what Harrow’s narration would be like. I found Harrow the Ninth to be boring and rather confusing, and ultimately decided not to finish at the 34% mark. Even the shortest chapters felt like they dragged on for ages. I also thought that the usage of second person narration was jarring; I’m not used to reading it, and in this instance, since I was already struggling to get immersed in the book, it certainly didn’t help. I’m kind of sad to ditch this book, but I just don’t have the time or energy for books I’m not liking.

Representation:

• lesbian protagonist

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Vomit

The content warnings above are only accurate for the portion of the book that I read.

brenticus's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-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

5.0

Gideon the Ninth was a crazy ride, I thought. Tone and worldvuilding were a bit off at times, but largely more than good enough to excite me for this one.

Harrow the Ninth has you wading through the grueling psychosis of Harrowhark as you question how much of what she's seeing, experiencing, feeling, remembering is real. Because very quickly you find that something has changed in the brief period between this book and the previous, and while I don't think it was hard to figure out why there were still a lot of questions to work through.

Mostly I want to call out the best case of second-person narration I've ever seen. The reason why is pretty obvious from the get-go, I think, but still, it works so well and I love it.

Really don't know where the third book is going to take this, but definitely excited to see what disturbing monstrosity Muir cooks up next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, and Mental illness

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Self harm

Minor: Sexual content

lotus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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, and Mental illness

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Medical trauma, and Vomit

mk_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

One of the most confusing but delightful books I’ve ever read. Suddenly I find myself ready to get multiple tattoos of skulls and skeletons to remind me of this story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Suicidal thoughts