Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

88 reviews

thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Genocide, and War

tobibi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.0

This really reinvigorated my reading mood. It took a bit to build up, but the world building is presented very well (little to no infodumps) and the characters are introduced slowly, so you get a general feel for them throughout the book. The horror elements are good, though a bit less striking than I thought they would be, but that's likely due to our POV (Gideon). I enjoyed seeing the back and forth in Griddlehawk's relationship progression, and the ending was heartbreakingly good. I'm looking forward to reading the next book.

favorite lines

 

"... Where I'm going, I promise to piss fidelity all the livelong day. I have lots of fealty in me. I fealt the Emperor with every bone in my body. I fealt *hard*." (p. 43)

 

 

"With the proper motivation, Griddle could wield two swords in each hand and one in her mouth. While we were developing common sense, she studied the blade." (p. 53)

 

 

"Harrow said, "No."
"I want to go," said Gideon.
"This sounds impossibly vapid."
"I want to eat a dessert."" (p. 167)

 

 

Harrow's voice, almost a whisper: "A light, Nav."
"What?"
"You *did* bring a torch."
"This is a service I was unaware I was meant to provide," said Gideon. (p. 204)

 

 

... "Thoughts?"
Gideon said, "Did you know that if you put the first three letters of your last name with the first three letters of your first name, you get 'Sex Pal'?" (p. 274)

 

 

"Ask me how I am and I'll scream," she said.
"How are you," said Camilla, who was a pill.
"I see you calling my bluff and I resent it," said Gideon... (p. 305)

 

 

Once Gideon would have loved to hear Corona talk to her with that low, breathy intensity, maybe saying "Your biceps... they're eleven out of ten," but right now she did not want anyone to talk to her at all. (p. 327)

 

 

"... Look, Nav. You ratted out your childhood nemesis to get her in trouble. You didn't kill her parents, and she shouldn't hate you like you did, and *you* shouldn't hate you like you did."
He was peering at her through his spectacles. "Hey," she objected lamely, "I never said I hated myself."
"Evidence," he said, "outweighs testimony." (p. 336)

 

 

... "I'm an abomination. The whole universe ought to scream whenever my feet touch the ground. My parents committed a necromantic sin that we ought to have been torpedoed into hte centre of Dominicus for. If any of the other Houses knew of what we'd done they would destroy us from orbit without a second's thought. i am a *war crime*." (p. 353)

 

 

"... I made myself watch, when my parents -- I could not do the slightest thing my House expected of me. Not even then. You're not the only one who couldn't die." (p. 355)

 

 

... "You apologize to me now? You say that you're sorry when I have spent my life destroying you? You are my whipping girl! I hurt you because it was a relief! I exist because my parents killed everyone and relegated you to a life of abject misery, and they would have killed you too and not given a second's goddamned thought! I have spent your life trying to make you regret that you weren't dead, all because -- I regretted I wasn't! I ate you alive, and you have the temerity to tell me that *you're sorry*?" (p. 356)

 

 

"Hm," said Camilla neutrally, and Gideon knew immediately that she organized Palamedes's and her socks by color and genre. (p. 365)

 

 

... She didn't need a very long look to tell that Dyas was dead. For one thing, her skeleton and her body had apparently tried to divorce. (p. 372)

 

 

"She took Babs," she said, which seemed fair enough.
But then Corona started crying again, big tears leaking out of her eyes, her voice thick with misery and self-pity. "And who even cares about Babs? Babs! She could have taken *me*." (p. 394)

 

 

Harrow said, with some difficulty. "I cannot conceive of a universe without you in it."
"Yes, you can, it's just less great and less hot," said Gideon." (p. 437)

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jodean's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Kelsey has been trying to get me to read this for a while. Glad I finally listened. 
I will say the audio book specifically is done very well. I switched to it from the paper version and was able to follow much better

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Vomit, and Murder

Minor: Self harm, Slavery, and War

nixieba25f's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Slavery, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

iane_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Genocide, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Dementia, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

whooliio's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Cannibalism, and Murder

coris's review against another edition

Cannot get over Harrow's treatment of Gideon, and her 'indentured servant from birth' background.  I read detailed spoilers, and either it's not challenged at all, or it's so minor the summariser didn't include it.  But that's a freaking big deal to me, esp with the relationship developing between Gideon and Harrow.  

I'm clearly not going to have the amazing reading experience everyone else is having.  Sad, and don't let it put you off the book if you've yet to pick it up ... but if it's not your vibe, don't struggle with it for a year like I did.  Fly free to the next book you'll love!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Slavery

Moderate: Child abuse and Death of parent

komiification's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.0

I literally had no idea what was going on for the first half of this book (I typically don’t read such high sci-fi/fantasy stuff), but once I let myself just read through it SLOWLY, I really enjoyed it, especially after the first 200 pages. Pretty fun stuff, excited to check out the rest of the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Slavery and Fire/Fire injury

lmaloney's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Vomit, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and War

themiscyra_anna's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and War